Lives Versus Livelihoods: Japan Times

COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, and China imposed strict lockdown measures for 70 days. The city has reopened with officials screening temperatures and citizen movements. Other nations, especially the United States, hope to reopen economies after 30 days of lockdown isolation with less stringent measures. “Everybody knows that you can’t shut the economy down indefinitely, but nobody wants to risk a second wave of infections by moving too soon,” writes Gwynne Dyer for the Japan Times. Early economic closures in nations like Germany and New Zealand, contributed to lower infection rates. Taiwan and South Korea did not shutter economies, yet with widespread testing and contact tracing, kept infections low. “Any countries that have their infection rate down and have their testing and tracing teams ready can start reopening their economies, although there will be a continuing low but steady toll of deaths until a vaccine is found,” Dyer concludes. A major consideration is health care and hospital bed capacity. He suggests that France Canada and Australia – countries that had early starts – can reopen sooner than the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil and India. Governments may try reopening economies quickly, but cautious consumers may continue isolation on their own. Delayed, sloppy responses combined with poor health care systems will influence election outcomes in the months ahead. – YaleGlobal

Lives Versus Livelihoods: Japan Times

With COVID-19, societies debate health and job considerations for reopening economies, yet danger rests in new waves of infection and more economic damage
Gwynne Dyer
Friday, April 17, 2020

Read the article from the Japan Times about the debate between protecting health verus jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Gwynne Dyer has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years; his articles are published in 45 countries. His book, "Climate Wars," deals with the geopolitical implications of climate change and has been translated into Japanese, French, Russian, Chinese and a number of other languages.

Confirmed cases 	Per capita-health care costs  US	$10,400 	650,000 Spain	$3,323 	183,000 Italy	$3,428 	169,000 France	$4,965 	142,000 Germany	$5,986 	136,000 UK	$4,100 	105,000 China	$688 	84,000 Turkey	$1,227 	75,000 Canada	$4,974 	30,500 Brazil	$1,282 	30,400 Russia	$1,514 	28,000 India	$63 	13,000 S Korea	$2,013 	10,700 S Africa	$1,072 	2,600 Taiwan 	$3,047 	395
Uneven spending and outcomes: Health care spending does not guarantee good outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic; researchers must determine what worked and did not work as countries are in various stages of confronting the disease (Sources: OECD, WHO and Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering

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