World Coronavirus Dispatch: Toxic effects to weaken global pension systems

Pandemic delays cancer R&D, Australia hopes pilot scheme will restart its education sector, Tourist-starved Caribbean woos homebound workers and other-pandemic related news across the globe

Pandemic delays cancer advances

Major advances in cancer research face being delayed by nearly a year and a half due to the pandemic, a study has found. Lockdown, the closure of laboratories and a shift in research funding from cancer to Covid-19 have hampered efforts in the fight against the disease. A survey of 239 researchers by the Institute of Cancer Research in London found that the organisation’s own progress would be pushed back by an average of six months. Read more

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 62,739,306

Change over Yesterday: 473,391

Global deaths: 1,459,317

Nations with most cases: US (13,383,320), India (9,431,691), Brazil (6,314,740), France (2,270,573), Russia(2,249,890)

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Toxic side effects of coronavirus weaken global pension systems

Toxic side effects from the coronavirus pandemic will cause further damage to the world’s pension systems, which are already struggling to cope with ultra-low interest rates and escalating financial pressures, according to a new study. Pension funds fear that many economies will manage only disappointing, stuttering recoveries after the crisis and that inflation will surge as a result of the massive emergency monetary measures introduced by central banks to stabilise financial markets, the research found. Read more here

Australia hopes a pilot programme for international students can restart its education sector

A cohort of 63 international students arrived in Australia under a pilot program that allows them to resume their studies, even as the country’s borders remain closed because of the pandemic. The students, the first group of international students allowed in since March, arrived at Darwin International Airport in the Northern Territory from Singapore. They are from mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. The education sector, crucial to the Australian economy, is set to lose billions of dollars if the country’s borders do not reopen before the end of 2021. Read more

Tourist-starved Caribbean woos homebound workers

With traditional tourism hammered by the pandemic and many in Europe and North America working from home amid shorter days and dropping temperatures, islands across the Caribbean are trying to attract longer-term visitors. It’s the sun-kissed version of the road-tripping and temporary-rental trend seen over the summer. Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Aruba, Puerto Rico, and St. Kitts and Nevis are among those wooing home-bound toilers from abroad. This is distinct from pandemic promotions by some islands to sell second passports at a discount. Read more

Covid drugs from Lilly, Regeneron raise access, timing concerns

Powerful drugs recently authorized by the US that may prevent those at the earliest stages of Covid-19 from suffering severe disease present new challenges, including who will get them and where they’ll be administered. Antibody treatments, like one from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that was used to treat President Donald Trump, are often administered to patients at their peak contagiousness. Regeneron’s drug, along with a therapy from Lilly were authorised by the US drug regulator for use within 10 days following patients’ first symptoms, and doctors will be racing against time to give them. Read more

Specials

Remote work: how are you feeling?

Remote workers are complaining of pandemic fatigue, struggles with heavy workloads, unable to switch off at home, ongoing uncertainty about their working lives and potential job losses. The mass homeworking experiment has illuminated divisions among those employers who have good management and wellbeing policies in place — and those that do not. For some companies, it has been a wake-up call. While some workers in cramped home conditions or dealing with heavy workloads and remote micromanagers might feel the strain, others are liberated. They are able to concentrate better away from open plan offices and politicking. Read more

Should isolation periods be shorter for people with Covid?

People with Covid-19, are most infectious about two days before symptoms begin and for five days afterward, according to a new analysis of previous research. A few patients who are extremely ill or have impaired immune systems may expel — or “shed” — the virus for as long as 20 days, other studies have suggested. Even in mild cases, some patients may shed live virus for about a week, the new analysis found. The accumulating data presents a dilemma: Should public health officials shorten the recommended isolation time if it means more infected people will cooperate? Or should officials opt for longer periods in order to prevent transmission in virtually all cases, even if doing so takes a harsher toll on the economy? Read more

The lost days that made this Italian province a Covid tragedy

Bergamo, a province in Italy became one of the deadliest killing fields for the virus in the Western world, a place marked by inconceivable suffering and a dreadful soundtrack of ambulance sirens as emergency medical workers peeled parents away from children, husbands from wives, grandparents from their families. Hospitals became makeshift morgues and produced parades of coffins and scenes of devastation that became a warning to officials in other Western countries of how the virus could rapidly overwhelm health systems and turn infirmaries into incubators. The story is an investigation into how faulty guidance and bureaucratic delays rendered the toll far worse than it had to be. Read more here