As governments fumbled their coronavirus response, these four got it right. Here's how.
Updated 1133 GMT (1933 HKT) April 16, 2020
Like a line of dominoes, country after country has been shut down by the novel coronavirus. Despite signs the threat was making its way across the globe, there was a clear pattern of response in many parts of the world -- denial, fumbling and, eventually, lockdown.
In our globalized world, it's puzzling that so few lessons were learned in the early weeks of each country's outbreak, when the chances of containing and stopping the virus were highest. Now the focus is on flattening the curve, or slowing the virus' spread, to keep death tolls from climbing further.
As much of the world mulls gradually lifting lockdowns, there are still lessons to be learned from these four places that got it right. Here are 12 of those lessons.
What does the WHO do, and why has Trump stopped supporting it?
Trump has suspended funding to the World Health Organization over its coronavirus response
What is the World Health Organization’s remit?
The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded as the UN global health body in 1948 in the aftermath of the second world war with a mandate to promote global health, protect against infectious disease and to serve the vulnerable. It was inspired by the international sanitary conferences of the 19th century set up to combat communicable diseases such as cholera, yellow fever and plague.
Its current programme envisages expanding universal healthcare to a billion more people, protecting another billion from health emergencies and providing a further billion people with better health and well being.
Why children are still getting married in America
Some US states have ‘weaker marriage laws than Afghanistan, Honduras and Malawi’
Donna Pollard first met her future husband when she was 14 years old. She was a patient at a Kentucky mental health facility, dealing with the death of her father. He was her 29-year-old health worker.
Donna had a difficult childhood and her mother – a child bride herself – suffered with mental health issues. “Instead of receiving the help that I desperately needed as a young girl, I was preyed upon by a person that worked at the facility,” Donna says. The mental health technician would meet Donna in increasingly secluded areas, telling her she was intelligent, making her “feel beautiful” – grooming her.
When she was released from the facility, her mother allowed the relationship to continue, driving her across the state line to Indiana to visit him. After two years they got married just as Donna turned 16. “He went from being what I thought was my knight in shining armour to my abuser very quickly.” She claims her husband was violent and manipulative, staging suicide attempts if she went out to dinner with colleagues.
North Korea: Is the country really coronavirus free?
More than 2 million coronavirus cases have been reported across the world, affecting 185 countries. But North Korea says it is completely free of the virus, a claim that has been met with scepticism in some quarters. France 24 spoke to Daniel Wertz, program manager at the US-based National Committee on North Korea to find out more.
Pak Myong Su, the director of North Korea’s anti-epidemic headquarters, told AFP earlier this month that "not one single person has been infected with the novel coronavirus in our country so far”.
The claim was disputed by General Robert Abrams, commander of United States Forces Korea, who said it was “impossible” that the secretive authoritarian state did not have a single case of the virus.
Opinion: EU, Turkey need each other and a new refugee deal
The refugee crisis on Turkey's borders can only be resolved with a new EU deal. It should build on the current plan but avoid its flaws, writes Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
It must first be noted that Turkey, Greece, and the EU have failed on humanitarian grounds with the way they've approached the problem over the last few months.
Turkey tried to funnel migrants from different countries to Greece in order extract concessions from the EU. Greece pushed back the migrants using methods that are totally unacceptable from a human rights perspective. The EU practically endorsed Greece's breach of human rights and European values by extending unconditional support to it despite the actions of the Greek security forces at the border and in the Aegean Sea.
How an anti-malarial drug has become a tool of India's diplomacy
India, one of the largest producers of HCQ now used in coronavirus treatment, is exporting the drug to many countries.
by Akash Bisht
Days after India banned the export of pharmaceuticals amid the coronavirus pandemic, it reversed its decision after US President Donald Trump last week demanded New Delhi ship anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the United States.
Foreign policy experts in India expressed shock at Trump's threat of retaliation against India - a close trade and security ally of the US. But New Delhi's decision to export HCQ seems to have changed the US president's tune immediately.
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