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* A Global Force to Handle COVID-19 with Flu Control Protocols is Required4
http://www.hsvg.org/ Guahan Global Foundation
Guahan Global Foundation P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA
(November 15, 2024)Urge worldwide action to save the Pacific Lots of evidence recently suggested that islanders’ voices on climate action have finally been heard and brought to the global stage. We look forward to seeing leaders, experts, and activists from the Pacific community move further at the 29th United Nations Climate Conference, commonly referred to as COP29 and now happening in Azerbaijan, to facilitate more significant worldwide climate action to protect those on the frontlines.   Many people must have noticed that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a rare appearance at the opening of 2024 Pacific Islands Forum in August. According to UN’s press release, he declared in the opening remarks that “plastic pollution is chocking sealife. Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising seas. But Pacific islanders are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean.”   Mr. Guterres stressed that the region urgently needs more financial support, capacities and technology to speed up the transition to clean energy and so countries can invest in adaption and resilience.   He also added, while the Pacific region is doing what it can, the Group of 20 (G20) most industrialized nations – the biggest emitters of carbon – must step up and lead by phasing the production and consumption of fossil fuels and stopping their expansion immediately.   “If we save the Pacific, we save the world,” the UN chief said.   The UN also released two reports on the sidelines of the forum. A regional report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showed sea-surface temperatures in the south-west Pacific have risen three times faster than the global average since 1980. It also found that marine heatwaves in the region had roughly doubled in frequency since 1980 and become more intense and longer-lasting.   In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2021 that the global mean sea level was rising at rates unprecedented in at least the last 3,000 years as a result of human-induced global warming. And, the new UN report titled “Surging Seas in a Warming World” indicated “emerging research on climate ‘tipping points’ and ice sheet dynamics is raising alarm among scientists that future sea-level rise could be much larger and occur sooner than previously thought.”   The Pacific Islands Forum leaders eventually issued an official communique that emphasized “climate change continues to be a matter of priority to the Pacific region” and recognized “sea level rise is a sever manifestation of climate change that threatens Pacific communities.” Accordingly, leaders agreed to elevate the issue of sea level rise “politically,” including at the UN General Assembly.   2024 UN General Assembly in September literally arranged a high level plenary meeting on sea level rise. Leaders and experts recognized in the meeting that the existential threats, for example, livelihoods are destroyed, families gradually move, community cohesion is tested, and heritage is lost, are the hard realities many people in small island states and low-lying countries experience today, not the projections of a coming future. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres therefore called for a strong financial outcome at COP29 to cope with threats caused by sea level rise.   Regarding financial outcome at COP29, it is worth noticing that this year’s conference is actually being called the “finance COP.” Following the historic agreement of creating a loss and damage fund at COP27 to compensate climate-vulnerable countries, COP28 has officially launched the fund. The finer details will be figured out at COP29 before the money actually starts flowing to nations in need next year.   Countries will also need to agree with a new global climate finance goal, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal. In addition to its total figure, COP29 will see discussion on several important terms of the NCQG, including who the donor base and recipients will be, how much will come from public and private sources, and whether it will be in the form of grants or loans.   As a member of the Pacific community, our foundation certainly looks forward to a global financial mechanism helping all Pacific islands’ climate mitigation and adaptation. However, we, together with many climate experts, also want to remind the world that the Nationally Determined Contributions, which outlines how a country will curb emissions, must be renewed every five years under Paris Agreement and the next round due is February 2025. So, COP29 is a crucial moment for countries to raise the bar and hold each other to account.   Nonprofit organization Climate Group also declared at its Climate Week NYC, taking place during the UN General Assembly in September, that the urgent and concrete action is needed to address the emission gap between what scientists say is needed to avoid disastrous climate change and what governments and business are delivered. They therefore called for governments, businesses, and the global climate community to focus on bolder annual to-do lists of climate action.   Their first Global To-Do List that governments and businesses can start taking action to drive results in the next twelve months consists of seven items including support workers to power down coal, unleash renewables, ban relining of coal-based steel furnaces, get serious on methane, stop ignoring energy efficiency, buy clean, and tax fossil fuels to fund the transition.   The UN chief Antonio Guterres actually also warned at the Pacific Islands Forum that the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – built around the 17 goals or SDGs – “is faltering.” Climate Group also reminded the world that we have Net Zero carbon emissions milestone to be accomplished by 2050 as well. The representatives of Pacific islands must make sure that COP29 focuses on what the whole world needs to do right now to get on track.   http://www.hsvg.org/hot_503561.html * Urge worldwide action to save the Pacific 2025-03-05 2026-03-05
Guahan Global Foundation P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA http://www.hsvg.org/hot_503561.html
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Home ﹥ News > News > * A Global Force to Handle COVID-19 with Flu Control Protocols is Required

(March 16, 2020)


A Global Force to Handle COVID-19 with Flu Control Protocols is Required


As COVID-19 is becoming a global issue, most people seem too nervous to notice that the virus is actually showing its flu-like epidemic pattern while more countries reported more cases around the world. Based on the pattern observed, the epidemic could be ended if an international organization steps forward to coordinate a global force to thoroughly implement flu control protocols in most of countries as soon as possible.



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In the end of January, Germany’s first two cases contracted the virus from a colleague who flew in from Shanghai to join the company’s workshop, and then another two colleagues who did not contact the Chinese visitor were tested positive as well soon. This cluster has preliminarily showed the human-to-human transmission of the virus could be very easy, and very similar to what the flu virus does. At the same time, those German patients’ very mild flu-like illness was noticed.



Singapore and Japan offered significant evidence of a larger scale in February. As of February 29, Singapore reported 93 cases, including five clusters and quite a number of patients whose source of infection is not known. It was showing that the spread of the virus could easily happen in the community, exactly like what the flu virus can do. And, just like those German cases, patients in Singapore were fighting with flu-like symptoms only, no severe cases reported.



Excluding the cruise line’s cases, Japan had found more than 250 cases in different cities and prefectures in February. Most of infected people had flu-like symptoms only and six elderly patients died from pneumonia. So, in Japan, the virus was also showing a flu-like epidemic, which usually brings senior people a higher risk of severity and fatality.



In addition, A BMJ, originally called British Medical Journal, article published on February 18 offers evidence from comparison of case fatality rate (CFR), which is the ratio of deaths from a certain disease to the total number of people diagnosed with this disease for a certain period of time representing a measure of disease severity. SARS had a CFR of around 10%. MERS killed 34%. COVID-19’s overall CFR was around 2%. A collaboration of Hong Kong University and Harvard University also estimated the CFR of COVID-19 is around 1.4%.



Therefore, the COVID-19 virus turns out to be mostly causing flu-like illness only. It does not seem to be a SARS-like or MERS-like super killing bug of the new decade. The scaring death toll number in China could be the result of a medical system collapse caused by too many patients rushing into hospitals, which is the scenario we usually saw during a flu pandemic. So, countries with increasing death tolls, such as Italy and Iran, need international aids.



Although The CFR number of COVID-19 mentioned above is lower than SARS’s and MERS’s, most experts agree the CFR of a seasonal flu is around 0.1% only. Therefore, we still have to take the virus seriously, most importantly, with a right strategy.



Based on its flu-like epidemic pattern, the goal of a global response to COVID-19 should change from containment to mitigation, for example, helping the elderly and people with underlying health conditions to avoid death tragedies. Don't waste resources on finding asymptomatic infections. Make sure that medical institutions are ready for a huge amount of patients. Remind Healthy people to wash hands more often and sick people to stay home. Besides these, Taiwan’s recent experience shows that wearing a mask is an effective extra precaution.



Excluding three small clusters with the index case contracting the virus in January, Taiwan did not report any new domestic case after January 31 until a local woman was tested positive on February 28. Besides washing hands, it is worth to notice that the majority of Taiwanese have been promptly wearing a mask since the epidemic started scaring people in the beginning of January, even though many experts claimed that wearing a mask is not necessary at that time. Although the shortage of surgical masks had caused chaos, the chaotic situation is believed to become a reminder of having most Taiwanese practice good personal hygiene all the time, which is the main preventive measure before we have vaccines and new drugs.



The researches on the virus take time and epidemic control can’t wait. It is necessary to find clues through the epidemiological analysis on the reported cases to help form the proper response strategy. The best solution for now is to follow flu control measures strictly, including public education of good personal hygiene, home or institutional quarantine on sick people, and a flu surveillance network that asks clinics and hospitals to report patients with flu-like symptoms for further virus testing and early advanced treatment, plus a few extra precautions, such as wearing a mask and maintaining healthy immune defense, to carry everybody through. The world's leading countries should drive a force to push flu control protocols and call for all countries to move forward in the same direction for a sooner ending of the epidemic.

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