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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
(December 12, 2025) 2025 ends with uncertainty on climate action More people are now aware that more natural disasters caused by global warming are seriously affecting human society’s well-being and sustainability. But, the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Brazil last month did not turn past promises into concrete results on the ground as expected.   The conference is commonly known as COP30, which stands for the 30th Conference of the Parties, serving as the formal meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties and a vital platform for advancing solutions to the climate crisis and reinforcing the collective commitment to a sustainable future. It was billed by many as the “implementation COP,” but eventually COP30 did not significantly move us closer to a safer future.   For example, all countries were expected to submit an updated climate plan, which is known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), showing how they would help keep global warming limited to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5 degrees, the goal outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Although several major economies, including Brazil, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the European Union submitted stronger climate plans, some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters have not finalized their plans or have announced targets that fall far short of what science says is needed.   The annual Global Carbon Budget Report was published on November 13 as countries met for COP30 climate talks. An international team of scientists found that the emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels would be 1.1 percent higher in 2025 than a year ago. The overall figure is due to reach a record of 38.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, hitting a new high in history. It warns that curbing global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius would be essentially “impossible,” according to the report.   However, even though more than 80 countries had been pushing for the COP30 final agreement to include explicit reference to fossil fuels, including a roadmap to transition away from energy sources such as coal, oil, and gas, objections from some other countries won out with the final agreement avoiding mention of a shift away from fossil fuels.   Similarly, while more than 90 countries supported the inclusion of a binding roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation, the final text of the COP30 agreement included only the recognition of a need to halt and reverse forest loss, without any mandatory commitments.   The COP30’s Brazil presidency committed to create a science-based roadmap on the transition away from fossil fuels and halting deforestation over the next year, but these would be voluntary and sit outside of the UN system.   In fact, it is international scientific consensus that, in order to prevent the worst climate damages, global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero, which means emissions and removals are in balance, by 2050. A Shift away from fossil fuels is considered as one of the most important measures to significantly reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. Deforestation is hurting the planet’s ability to naturally remove carbon dioxide. The planet will keep heating for as long as global emissions remain more than zero. Climate damages, caused by global heating, will continue escalating for as long as emissions continue.   Our Pacific island community has reaffirmed for many times at the Pacific Islands Forum that the “2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent” is the region’s collective commitment to a resilient Pacific, and climate change continues to be a matter of priority. Ahead of COP30, many representatives from Pacific countries were optimistic about the progress that the conference would make since the international Court of Justice (ICJ) just issued its advisory opinion on climate obligations this July.   The advisory opinion said countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change and nations harmed by the effects could be entitled to reparations. The case was actually initiated by a group of students from the University of South Pacific in Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries. After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for an advisory opinion in 2023. In July, 2025, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the historic advisory opinion and said “Young Pacific islanders initiated this call for humanity to the world. And the world must respond.”   Unfortunately, the COP30 results remind us that we can not solely rely on the ICJ document to hold certain countries to account and promote global climate action. As what is still happening in Ukraine, Russia has not stopped its aggression and invasion to Ukraine at all since February 2022, even though the Pre-Trial Chamber of the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March 2023.   Mr. Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s minister for climate change, has actually described the broader context as “a period of geopolitical upheaval” where militarization is rising, aid spending is falling, and international law is often disregarded, when he talked to the media before COP30.   Since conflicts have been reported in many different parts of the world, Pope Leo XIV has warned in his first overseas trip last month that World War Three is already fought and the future of humanity is at stake. He emphasized that “ambitions and choices that trample on justice and peace” were throwing the world into chaos. He wanted to urge peace for the world and encourage people of different backgrounds to live together in harmony, So, all Pacific islanders must work together to strongly call for de-escalating all tensions emerging in any parts of the world. We have to promote dialogues to resolve problems and avoid conflicts. Any attempts trying to unilaterally change the stable and peaceful status quo around the world should not be acceptable by our Pacific island community.   The only good news from COP30 seems to be a pledge to triple finance for adaptation to climate change, increasing from around $40 billion to $120 billion per year by 2035. It’s part of a larger goal to reach $1.3 trillion in total climate finance yearly by then, alongside operationalizing the Loss & Damage Fund for those most affected and establishing a Just Transition Mechanism, which would support the protection of workers and communities as countries shift to clean energy and a climate-resilient future. Our Pacific island community certainly welcomes the global financial mechanism helping vulnerable countries’ climate mitigation and adaptation. We need to keep following up the progress of the mechanism and ensure the fund will be rapidly raised and the financial aids will be well allocated and used to strengthen climate resilience across the Pacific as soon as possible. http://www.hsvg.org/hot_527443.html * 2025 ends with uncertainty on climate action 2025-12-12 2026-12-12
Guahan Global Foundation P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA http://www.hsvg.org/hot_527443.html
Guahan Global Foundation P.O. Box 206, Hagatna, GU 96932, USA http://www.hsvg.org/hot_527443.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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