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* Sweden and Taiwan Are Showing the World a Sustainable Way to Fearlessly Live with the Coronavirus4
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 2024-11-17 2025-11-17
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 > * Sweden and Taiwan Are Showing the World a Sustainable Way to Fearlessly Live with the Coronavirus

(May 22, 2020)

Sweden and Taiwan Are Showing the World a Sustainable Way to Fearlessly Live with the Coronavirus


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An article on the website of science journal Nature mentioned that 22 scientists wrote to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter in April criticizing Sweden's no-lockdown response to COVID-19. Our evidence-based analysis actually shows that lockdown is not a one-size-fits-all measure and Sweden is truly showing the world a sustainable way for everybody to fearlessly live with the virus, which is an inevitable situation we all need to face and accept for a while.



The biggest myth about lockdowns is that they are the only solution when an epidemic worsens. In fact, a lockdown is a measure to cordon off a seriously-affected area so that people in other areas are protected. When SARS hit Taiwan 17 years ago, the health authority locked down a hospital, where a serious nosocomial infection occurred, to protect the community. When Wuhan became a miserable epicenter of China in January, Chinese government issued a lockdown order to prevent the coronavirus from further spreading to other cities and provinces.



Italian officials misunderstood the lockdown measure. Italy was the first country in Europe to enforce a lockdown order, starting from the north and then spreading nationwide. However, unfortunately, Italy also became the first country in the world to have death toll that surpassed China's on March 19.



The lockdown measure was also misunderstood in New York State of the United States. While California and Washington States, on the West Coast, were piling confirmed cases in February, New Yorkers seemed to think they had nothing to do with the virus at all. The Wall Street Journal reported that hospitals in New York did not well plan coordination until the death toll topped 1200. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a “stay home” order on March 20 and enforced strict measures, but, unfortunately, New York became the US state that reported the greatest number of deaths from COVID-19.



Belgium seemed to rush into a lockdown as well, but forgot to take care of the high-risk elderly. The BBC reported on May 2 that, out of Belgium's 7,703 deaths, 53% have been in care homes. Belgian Officials told BBC that poor preparation left care home staff lacking personal protective equipment (PPE) and that allowed the virus to spread quickly.



An analysis done by Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, an Israeli top scientist, has shown that the novel coronavirus would run its full course of epidemic no matter if there is a lockdown or any similar restrictions in place. One price of chaotic restrictions – which the whole world must pay for - is the collapse of supply-chains. This has sadly led to many frontline medical personnel having to fight the coronavirus without personal protective equipment (PPE).



We think that a “flu-like epidemic control” better describes Sweden's COVID-19 response strategy. Although COVID-19 is not flu, the coronavirus appears to be highly contagious and has a transmission pattern similar to a flu pandemic, with so many countries worldwide reporting confirmed cases. The most relevant and sustainable measures for most countries are therefore flu control protocols.



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. Soon after, two other colleagues, who had not had contact with the Chinese visitor, tested positive for the coronavirus. This cluster has preliminarily showed the virus could be easily transmitted from human to human - very similar to an influenza virus. At the same time, those German patients’ very mild flu-like symptoms were noticed.



Singapore and Japan offered significant evidence of a larger scale in February. As of February 29, Singapore had reported 93 cases, including five clusters and quite a number of patients whose source of infection could not be traced. It was showing that the coronavirus could easily spread within a community, just like what an influenza virus can do.



By February, Japan had confirmed more than 250 cases - excluding the cruise line’s cases. Most of those infected had flu-like symptoms only, while six older patients died of pneumonia. So, in Japan, the virus was also showing a flu-like epidemic, which usually brings senior people a higher risk for developing severe illness and causing fatality.



Therefore, the frighteningly high death toll number in China and Italy could be the result of a medical system collapse caused by too many patients rushing to hospitals, which is the scenario usually observed during a flu pandemic.



Unfortunately, most people seem too nervous to notice the virus' “flu-like epidemic pattern”, so they rushed into lockdowns and emotionally criticized that countries without strict restrictions are risking people's lives. If the world's leading countries, or international organizations, stepped forward in March to coordinate a global force to battle the pandemic with measures derived from flu control protocols, the whole story would be different now.



Taiwan's success story offers an example of effective control protocols that combines an existing flu-like disease surveillance system, previous SARS control experience, and no strict lockdowns. The surveillance system asks clinics and hospitals to cooperate by reporting patients with flu-like symptoms for virus testing and early treatments. Taiwan also asks infected people and their contacts must undergo a home or facility quarantine, as well as reminds healthy people to practice good hygiene all the time to flatten the epidemic curve, but has never seriously disrupted people's daily routines. For example, many people in Taipei still commute by train every day.



As of May 12, Taiwan, with a population of 23 million citizens, had reported 6 deaths from COVID-19 and less than 500 confirmed cases, while New York State, having its 19 million residents under strict lockdowns, has reported more than 27,000 deaths.



In addition, Taiwanese have been promptly wearing a mask since the middle of January even though experts could not agree on whether it helped at that time. Taiwanese government also coordinated mask manufacturers to increase production capacity to meet people’s demands of purchasing masks. In contrast, most of western countries did not add wearing a mask to their COVID-19 control guidelines until April.



The only thing that Sweden needs to worry about is the high number of deaths form COVID-19 at nursing homes. If nearby hospitals have spare capacity, it would be better to move nursing home residents to hospitals, and thoroughly clean and sanitize affected nursing homes.



Sweden also needs to learn that Taiwan's experience has proved wearing a mask can be an effective extra precaution, especially for countries trying to avoid stricter restrictions. People do not need a surgical mask. Cloth masks work well, too. The more Swedes wear a mask, the more effective Sweden's COVID-19 control measures will appear to the world.



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