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* Only Sustainable Measures Are Helping COVID-19 Control4
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
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Home ﹥ News > News > * Only Sustainable Measures Are Helping COVID-19 Control

(July 10, 2020)

Only Sustainable Measures Are Helping COVID-19 Control



The whole world has surely noticed that China, Australia and the United States are having COVID-19 community spread again. While several places are locked down again, it is time that every government honestly informs people that we are inevitably going to live with the coronavirus for a while. Only sustainable measures, which is absolutely not another lockdown, can really help everybody get through it together.



After some restrictions were lifted in May or June, many people might think the coronavirus has gone and it’s not necessary any more to strictly practice social distancing, to wear a face covering in public and to wash hands that often. It is highly likely to be the reason why a number of places are having the second wave. Every government should learn the lesson and offer people proper information about the current status of the pandemic to at least have the majority of people keep practicing the precaution measures to maintain a flat, or downward, infection curve.



Taiwan, with more than 23 million citizens, has not reported any domestic COVID-19 cases since April 13. Even though, its nationwide health education system kept reminding people in the whole month of May to maintain social distancing, to wear a mask in public and to practice good personal hygiene. Taiwanese government is therefore confident to announce on June 17 that they will ease quarantine regulations exclusively for visitors from 11 low-risk countries and areas, including New Zealand, Australia, Macau, Palau, Fiji, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mongolia and Bhutan.



Although there have been more than 350 import cases challenging Taiwan’s public health system since the country encountered the first one from China on January 21, Taiwanese government has never enforced any lockdown or stay-home orders. With no lockdown, as of July 9, only 55 domestic cases have been reported and 7 patients sadly died in Taiwan. Apparently, Taiwan has been showing the world a relevant example of the sustainable way that people can fearlessly live with the coronavirus in the long run.



A number of solid research findings have also offered evidence to prove there are effective protection measures helping people live with the coronavirus before vaccines are available. For example, a meta-analysis report published on June 1 in The Lancet showed 1-meter social distance significantly reduced the chance of human-to-human transmission to 2.6% from 12.8% with no social distancing intervention. Face masks also helped lower the chance from 17.4% to 3.1%. Eye protection decreased the chance to 5.5% from 16%. (Ref. 1)



An analysis published on June 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science analyzed data from three epicenters - Wuhan (China), Italy and New York City - and proved that mandated face covering “alone” significantly reduced the number of COVID -19 infections. The researchers concluded that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent human-to-human transmission, and this inexpensive practice, in conjunction with simultaneous social distancing, quarantine, and contact tracing, represents the most likely fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ref.2)



There are, of course, studies showing lockdowns help as well. The journal Nature published two scientific articles on June 8, which support the effect of large-scale lockdowns. One of the researches examined data from 11 European countries and showed that lockdowns effectively slowed the pandemic and saved 3.1 million lives. (Ref. 3) (Ref. 4)



However, many people were probably willing to sacrifice their freedom and convenience for saving lives in March and April and hoping everything would be fine after the pandemic ended. In May, especially late May, "lockdown fatigue" has emerged. It seems less people are comfortable in June with the all-or-nothing nature of strict lockdowns because many people have started noticing the huge uncertainty for the future after three-month lockdowns.



In fact, at least two "excess deaths" analyses based on statistics of EuroMOMO, the European morality monitoring activity, have shown that the strictness of a country’s lockdown measures had little associations with its fatality of COVID-19. These analyses concluded that it’s better to respond quickly, with proper testing and tracing protocols, rather than replying on strict lockdowns. (Ref.5) (Ref.6)



The biggest myth about lockdown is to believe it is the only solution when the epidemic gets worse. In fact, lockdown is a measure to lock the seriously-affected area in order to protect people in other areas. When SARS hit Taiwan 17 years ago, the health authority there locked a hospital where a serious nosocomial infection occurred to protect the community outsides. When Wuhan became a miserable epicenter of China in January, Chinese government issued a lockdown order in Wuhan to avoid the coronavirus from further spreading to other cities and provinces.  



To live with the coronavirus, in addition to people’s good personal hygiene and social distancing practice, since COVID-19 is highly contagious and an increased testing capacity will definitely find more infections, government officials have to learn that the number of positive cases is not an optimal indicator to monitor pandemic control and hospitalization is. Singapore is the best example regarding this. As of July 9, this city state, with 6 million residents, has reported 45,423 positive cases through its aggressive testing protocol. But Singaporeans did not panic. They watched hospitalization rate carefully. Their well-prepared medical system has controlled the death toll as low as 26.



In addition, the public health system needs to offer extra care to the elderly, especially those who live in nursing homes, to avoid the mistakes many countries have made in the past several months, which caused a lot of deaths among the seniors. The system also needs to remind the other high-risk group - people with underlying medical conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes and lung disease - to try their best to get their chronic illness under control before the coronavirus hits our community again.




Ref. 1 The Lancet:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext

Ref. 2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science:

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/10/2009637117

Ref. 3 Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2404-8

Ref. 4 Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2405-7

Ref. 5 The Economist:

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries

Ref. 6 Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-opinion-coronavirus-europe-lockdown-excess-deaths-recession/

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