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61. Toynbee Coronavirus Series: Erez Manela on the WHO, smallpox eradication, and the need for renewed internationalism

Author:
Erez Manela
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Toynbee Prize Foundation
Abstract:
Living through historically unprecedented times has strengthened the Toynbee Prize Foundation's commitment to thinking globally about history and to representing that perspective in the public sphere. In this multimedia series on the covid-19 pandemic, we will be bringing global history to bear in thinking through the raging coronavirus and the range of social, intellectual, economic, political, and scientific crises triggered and aggravated by it. Erez Manela researches international society and the modern international order. Recently he has written about smallpox and the globalization of development, illuminating the power structures and international infrastructure that underwrote the World Health Organization’s (WHO) smallpox eradication program from 1965 to 1980. Professor of History at Harvard University, Prof. Manela teaches the history of the United States in the world and modern international history, and is the Director of Graduate Programs at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard and co-chair of the Harvard International and Global History seminar. He co-edits the Cambridge University book series ‘Global and International History.’
Topic:
Health, World Health Organization, Geopolitics, Public Health, Coronavirus, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

62. Covid-19: Urgent Responses

Author:
Petra Rethmann
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In the space of just a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has radically transformed the lives of people around the globe. Apart from devastating health consequences for people directly affected by the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic has had major implications for the way people live and work, socialize and love, and make personal, political, and economic decisions. The elbow bump has replaced the handshake. Privately owned communications technologies such as Zoom and Skype have become media of necessity, not of choice. Unemployment is at record levels, the low-wage sector is growing, and short-term work and precariousness is on the rise. The downward mobility trend (Nachtwey 2016) that has been underway in, among others, Western capitalist states for a while, continues to cement itself. Fears of social and personal decline are growing. All of this, and more, harbors the danger of increasing polarizations, (re)producing old and new figures of enmity, hate, and blame. The pandemic has inflicted a level of pain that is deep. War metaphors have been and are being bandied around, enlisting us in a fight in which supposedly we are all together. But as the papers included in this collection show, this “we” is not harmonious, uniform, or even. It cracks across fault lines of poverty, gender, and race. Data from a variety of reliable sources show that African Americans, who suffer disproportionally from poverty, inadequate housing, limited access to good health care, and chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, are dying from COVID-19 at horrific rates. In the banlieues and cités (public housing complexes) of France food-price spikes have triggered hunger riots. While many of us have had (and have) the privilege to work from home, others, including warehouse packers and front-line workers, have been exposed to deadly hazards at work. Domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence has increased, and stay-at-home measures have exposed women and children who live with violent men to great danger. Restrictions that translate into national-security policies have ramped up anti-migrant sentiments. And across Canada, as well as in other places, people in local nursing homes, seniors’ residences, and single-parent households are disproportionally affected and suffer. Indeed, it appears as if the very fabrics of the social, whatever they were before, are at stake.
Topic:
Digital Economy, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

63. Covid-19: Urgent Responses

Author:
Petra Rethmann
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In May 2020 the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition published a Working Paper entitled COVID-19: Urgent Responses. The paper produced by James Gibbs, Luseadra McKerracher, and Jessica Fields is part of this series. Together, then, the COVID-19: Urgent Responses includes ten exciting paper that also stand as a testimony to the challenges faced by many of us in these times.
Topic:
Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

64. Global Health Security and Pandemics: Why didn't we know this was coming?

Author:
Sophie Harman
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
This video is the first in a series on global health security and pandemics, presented by Professor Sophie Harman (QMUL). In this episode, she will explore whether we should have seen the current global health crisis coming.
Topic:
Infectious Diseases, Global Security, Public Health, and Pandemic
Political Geography:
Global Focus

65. Global Health Security and Pandemics: Community Involvement

Author:
Sophie Harman
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
The second episode in the series on global health security and pandemics will focus on community involvement and responses to coronavirus. The episode is introduced by Professor Tim Bale and presented by Professor Sophie Harman.
Topic:
Infectious Diseases, Global Security, Public Health, and Pandemic
Political Geography:
Global Focus

66. Resilience in the Face of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Author:
David Steven and Alex Evans
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
World Politics Review
Abstract:
Just months after reports emerged of a novel coronavirus spreading in central China, our world, and all of our individual worlds, have been transformed by what has become a terrifying pandemic. Governments around the globe are taking unprecedented steps to restrict movement and limit social contact among their populations to contain the virus’s spread. Growing numbers of the world’s inhabitants are now living in either voluntary or imposed isolation, or preparing to. The articles collected here look at what governments, other global actors and individuals must do to survive the crisis and navigate the new world beyond it.
Topic:
Health, Public Health, Coronavirus, Pandemic, and Resilience
Political Geography:
Global Focus

67. Lockdown Preventive Measure against COVID-19 Pandemic: Livelihoods Implications in Cameroon

Author:
Dr. Tata E. Sunjo, Adeline Kaptue Wuyt, and Dr. Yauba Saidu
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The entire world today is, in one way or another, affected by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared to be a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020. This outbreak which has spread to all continents (Figure 1) has been characterized by exponential increase in infected cases, attributed deaths and socio-economic hardship. There are already more than 3.8 million confirmed cases globally with over 265 862 deaths (WHO Situation Report, 9 May 2020). The quality of the health system in a given country appears to not be an influential factor in preventing the installation or propagation of the pandemic as the nations with relatively robust health systems like in Europe and the USA have also been hit hard.
Topic:
Health, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, Socioeconomics, and Global Health
Political Geography:
Cameroon and Global Focus

68. Responding to COVID-19: Guidance for humanitarian agencies

Author:
Ben Ramalingam, Neha S. Singh, Audrey Mahieu, and Karl Blanchet
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
ALNAP: Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance
Abstract:
How should humanitarian organisations prepare and respond to COVID-19 in humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries? This Rapid Learning Review outlines 14 actions, insights and ideas for humanitarian actors to consider in their COVID-19 responses. It summarises and synthesises the best available knowledge and guidance for developing a health response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income settings as at April 2020 The paper, supported by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, will be updated throughout 2020 to reflect emerging knowledge and evidence on the most effective approaches to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Topic:
Crisis Management, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Humanitarian Response
Political Geography:
Global Focus

69. COVID-19: Lessons from the Black Death

Author:
Peter L. Larson
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
In order to map our future, we may look to the past on how health threats changed societies … or did they?
Topic:
Health, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

70. Climate Change and COVID-19: There Is More Than One Curve to Flatten

Author:
Dania El Akkwai
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
What COVID-19 response can tell us about our readiness to deal with climate change
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus