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* Chronic Care Key for COVID Mitigation4
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
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 > * Chronic Care Key for COVID Mitigation

（October 7, 2021)

Chronic Care Key for COVID Mitigation

If the most important goal of COVID response is to save lives, it seems the key for COVID mitigation should be extra care for people with underlying medical conditions in addition to vaccine rollouts.

 

Many people in our island community have noticed the surge of COVID infections since August. It is actually much more important to look into the COVID death number in September. While vaccines have been rolled out and, as of August 31, 80.43% of Guam residents 12 years and older is fully vaccinated, our island reported a total of 47 COVID deaths in September this year, which was surprisingly higher than the number of 39 reported last September when no vaccine was available at all at that time.

 

COVID deaths, Sep. 2020 vs Sep. 2021

Sep. 2020

 

vs

Sep. 2021

39 deaths

47 deaths

32 Unvaccinated

68%

9 vaccinated

19%

6 Unknown

13%

No Vaccine

available

Vaccines available and

as of Aug. 31, 80.43% of the eligible (12 & over) is fully vaccinated.

 

Not only the case-control clinical trials but also the piling data and experience from the real world have proven the COVID vaccines are promisingly effective in reducing the risk for severe illness and, most importantly, deaths once people get infected. After Guam’s vaccination rate was over 80%, it is reasonable to expect that, at least, we should have seen less fatal tragedies. Many people may wonder if it was the Delta variant of the coronavirus causing the worse situation this September than last September. However, most of scientific evidence show that the Delta variant is definitely more contagious but not more deadly than the original strain, which was dominant last year.

 

In fact, Guam’s September scenario this year provides a preliminary evidence rejecting the so-called “herd immunity” hypothesis, which many experts have been emphasizing after the vaccines became available, suggesting a high, 70 to 80 percent, vaccine coverage would protect the whole population including unvaccinated people. There were as many as 32 unvaccinated individuals died from COVID in September after Guam’s vaccine coverage was beyond 80%. The number told us the COVID vaccine may be not like the one against smallpox, with which the importance of herd immunity was first recognized. It seems more like a flu shot, which is functioning as an individual protection instead of being designed to pursue herd immunity. The unvaccinated people, therefore, are not going to be protected even after more than 80% of the eligible in the community was vaccinated.

 

Given the COVID vaccine seems more like a protection shot for every individual only, getting vaccinated or not could be a matter of personal choice. However, before deciding to stick with your “no COVID vaccine” decision, it is worth to notice that Guam’s 192nd COVID-related fatality was only 53 years old and he did not have any other medical conditions. He was not vaccinated and pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital on September 26.

 

The 185th fatality was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital too. He wasn’t vaccinated either. He was only 56 years old and also did not have underlying medical concerns.

 

As for 9 vaccinated COVID deaths in September, it is sad that they still lost their lives in spite of all efforts they made. It is very important to learn lessons from these cases to find solutions to avoid this kind of sadness.

 

Excluding one case with unknown records of comorbidity, the remaining eight vaccinated COVID-related fatalities were distributed to different age groups, meaning not only the seniors have the risk. But, all of them had underlying medical conditions. So, in addition to offering vaccines, it is very likely that an extra amount of time and effort to take good care of chronic disease patients is necessary.


Vaccinated COVID deaths in Sep. 2021

Age

Comorbidity

Under 40

1

Yes

8

40-49

1

No

0

50-59

1

Unknown

1

60-69

3

 

Over 70

3



Almost everybody in Guam is no stranger to chronic diseases. Many of our friends and family members are suffering from diabetes and kidney disease. Stroke and heart attack took the lives of our loved ones very often. Most of chronic patients regularly visit their physicians. If clinics could have designated personnel contact their regular chronic patients and remind them the risk for COVID complications, it could be very helpful.

 

While the high prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illness could be the main factors affecting Guam’s COVID mitigation, perhaps it is time that we should have an islandwide health campaign to not only minimize COVID impact but also solve the island’s long-time health issue. For example, a raffle offering people who lost weight, improved blood sugar, or lowered blood pressure a chance to win a car or cash would be nice. A healthier island could be the most precious treasure that Guam eventually gets from the painful pandemic.




 

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