Tag: pandemic

China relaxing COVID norms raises concerns about ‘deaths in millions’ and new virus mutations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China imposed a strict zero-COVID policy, to mitigate the risk of infection spread, but it backfired. After nationwide protests over the policy, China then was forced to start relaxing its norms but even this did not have the desired results. Reports have now emerged mentioning widespread infections, overwhelmed hospitals, and overburdened cemeteries in China after authorities put an abrupt end to its zero-COVID policy.

According to Reuters, several cities across China have scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths. Beijing reported five COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, following two on Monday, which was the first fatalities reported in weeks. Overall, China has reported 5,242 COVID deaths since the pandemic emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 – a very low toll by global standards.

ALSO READ | This Credit Suisse analyst thinks China is a bright spot despite COVID surge — here’s why

Now, relaxing stringent “zero-COVID” norms has raised concerns about the COVID-19 explosion in China, keeping in view that most of the residents do not have natural immunity against the virus. A substantial number of people in China are feared to have no natural immunity because they have never been exposed to the virus in the past due to strict lockdown measures under the policy.

Vaccine hesitancy among people, possible infections vulnerable, and an under-vaccinated population are other factors piling up against China’s COVID-19 fight.

ALSO READ | China to drop travel tracing as it relaxes ‘zero-COVID’ policy

2 million COVID death in China possible

While China has officially reported 5,242 COVID deaths, new analyses by various modelling groups predict the reopening could result in as many as 2.1 million deaths. Moreover, in a series of tweets, an epidemiologist estimated that “more than 60 percent of China” – equivalent to 10 percent of the world’s population – are “likely (to get) infected over the next 90 days”.

Eric Feigl-Ding, the epidemiologist, further shared a news report alleging that “The deaths in mainland China are being hugely underreported outside of China”. Along with this, he shared a video purportedly showing “Dead bodies piled up in NE China in 1 night”.

⚠️THERMONUCLEAR BAD—Hospitals completely overwhelmed in China ever since restrictions dropped. Epidemiologist estimate >60% of 🇨🇳 & 10% of Earth’s population likely infected over next 90 days. Deaths likely in the millions—plural. This is just the start—🧵pic.twitter.com/VAEvF0ALg9

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 19, 2022

A similar warning was sounded by Zhou Jiatong, head of the Center for Disease Control in the southwestern Guangxi region, last month. Infections could rise to more than 233 million, his forecast showed.

Meanwhile, a modelling team at the University of Hong Kong estimated simultaneous reopening of all provinces in December 2022 through January 2023 would result in 684 deaths per million, according to a paper released on Wednesday on the Medrxiv preprint server that has yet to undergo peer review. Based on China’s population of 1.41 billion, and without measures such as a mass vaccination booster campaign, that amounts to 964,400 deaths.

Hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums are busy

Major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wenzhou announced earlier they had added hundreds of fever clinics, some in converted sports facilities. Besides this, funeral homes and crematoriums across Beijing are reportedly struggling to keep up with demand with more workers and drivers testing positive for coronavirus call in sick.

Reuters had earlier reported that on Saturday, 30 stationary hearses were seen in the driveway leading to the Dongjiao funeral home, a COVID-designated crematorium in Beijing. “A few metres away from the crematorium, in a funeral parlour, the Reuters journalist saw about 20 yellow body bags containing corpses on the floor. Reuters could not immediately establish if the deaths were due to COVID,” the report said.

Meanwhile, at Huairou Funeral Home, a body was kept for three days before it could be cremated, a staffer said. “You can transport the body here yourself, it’s been busy recently,” the staffer said.

Vaccine hesitancy

Several reports have mentioned that vaccine hesitancy is among the factors adding to the woes in the country. Although Chines authorities have time and again urged citizens, especially the vulnerable groups and the elderly, to take COVID vaccines, the call seems to be in vain.

A 28-year-old woman, who took two doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac last year, had grown more sceptical, citing stories from friends about health impacts, as well as similar health warnings on social media. “I don’t trust it,” she said.

Officially, China’s vaccination rate is above 90 percent, but the rate for boostered adults drops to 57.9 percent, and to 42.3 percent for people aged 80 and above, according to government data. This had sounded warnings that the country could see over 1.5 million deaths after lifting curbs such as lockdowns and mass testing that held most virus spread at bay.

Zhang Wenhong, head of Shanghai’s expert COVID-19 team, said last month that the virus had become less virulent with Omicron and this, along with high overall vaccination levels, could finally give China a “way out” of the pandemic disruption.

Concern over new variant

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said this week the potential for the virus to mutate as it spreads in China was “a threat for people everywhere”.

“Every new epidemic wave in another country brings the risk of new variants, and this risk is higher the bigger the outbreak, and the current wave in China is shaping up to be big,” Alex Cook, vice-dean for research at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The virus affects China’s economy

The virus is also hammering China’s economy, expected to grow 3% this year, its worst performance in nearly half a century.

The World Bank slashed China’s growth forecast to 2.7 percent from 4.3 percent for this fiscal year citing Covid lockdowns across cities and weaknesses in the real state sector. It also revised its forecast for next year from 8.1 percent to 4.3 percent.

Workers falling ill are slowing down production and disrupting logistics, economists were quoted by Reuters as saying. A World Economics survey showed China’s business confidence fell in December to its lowest since January 2013.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Pfizer vaccine expert brings threat over flu pandemic back into focus — How serious is it

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Even as the world was beginning to cheer the slowing down of COVID-19, a vaccine expert has warned of an influenza pandemic. In a recent interview, Kathrin Jansen, the former head of vaccine R&D at Pfizer, raised the alarm over a new pandemic due to the spread of an influenza virus. “Before SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19 infection), we had worried about the pandemic flu. And just because corona came first doesn’t mean flu is just sitting there,” she said to STAT.

Jansen said that an influenza-based pandemic is just a matter of time. Only “the question is, does it come tomorrow or 50 years from now?” she added.

What is influenza pandemic?

The CDC said that an influenza pandemic happens following a global outbreak of a new influenza virus. There are two types of influenza viruses — A and B. While both are common causes of acute respiratory illnesses, influenza A viruses are the principal cause of large epidemics and pandemics, the WHO said. The influenza A virus was reportedly responsible for four pandemics — 1918 (H1N1), 1957 (H2N2), 1968 (H3N2), and 2009 (H1N1).

ALSO READ | Monkeypox outbreak still a global health emergency — WHO lists reasons for concern

The influenza virus is said to be constantly mutating, and the pandemic occurs when a new virus emerges that can easily infect people and spread among them. Most people might not have immunity against this virus.

“Influenza may not always be thought of by most people as a serious illness — the symptoms of headaches, runny nose, cough and muscle pain can confuse people with a heavy cold. Yet seasonal influenza kills up to 650,000 people yearly,” the WHO alerted earlier.

Is the influenza pandemic a matter of concern?

Jansen is not the first to sound an alarm over an influenza pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) and some scientists and researchers have spoken about the dangers of it in the past well.

“Another pandemic caused by a new influenza virus is a certainty. But we do not know when it will happen, what virus strain it will be and how severe the disease will be,” said Dr Wenqing Zhang, the manager of WHO’s Global Influenza Programme, quoted by the WHO as saying in an undated article.

Moreover, a study published in Nature in 2021 said, “The influenza virus is a global threat to human health causing unpredictable yet recurring pandemics, the last four emerging over the course of a hundred years”.

Also Read: Bill Gates: Hope the world learns from the pandemic and is better prepared next time

How much a flu pandemic costs?

According to the WHO, a flu pandemic is predicted to cost $60 billion every year. However, pandemic preparedness could cost only US$4.5 billion a year. “The cost of pandemic preparedness has been estimated at less than US$ 1 per person per year, which is less than 1% of the cost estimates for responding to a pandemic,” the WHO said in 2019.

Therefore, Jansen called for a “better global surveillance of viruses and communication infrastructure so that”. This would help scientists learn about these viruses and respond as quickly as possible.

Is it more serious than the seasonal flu?

Even the seasonal flu turns fatal for many every year, so think what mayhem a pandemic can possibly cause.

Talking about numbers, the WHO said that every year, there are an estimated 1 billion cases of seasonal influenza, of which 3 to 5 million are severe cases, with 290 000 to 650 000 influenza-related respiratory deaths worldwide. “Reducing the impact of seasonal flu through better surveillance, prevention, and control helps countries prepare for a pandemic,” it said in an article published in 2019.

ALSO READ | Deaths due to India-made cough syrups in Gambia a serious issue, says WHO

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

What should rich countries do with spare masks and gloves? It’s the opposite of what the WHO recommends

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Most developed countries hold significant quantities of medical supplies in reserve to respond in an emergency. For example, Australia has its National Medical Stockpile, which stocks personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, among other items. New Zealand has its national reserve supplies.

If these supplies are not used in an emergency, such as a pandemic, they typically stay in the stockpile until their use-by date, then are sent to landfill. Surely there’s a better way, especially with some developing nations short of medical supplies. Donating surplus stock to developing countries seems an obvious solution.

Our study (University of Wollongong and Tava Olsen, University of Auckland Wollongong) looked at the likely impact of donating excess stock to developing countries dated items close to or past their labelled use-by date. We found this a viable option, even better than donating fresh items. What’s in the stockpile? In 2011, Australia’s stockpile contained about 3,000 pallets of expired stock, the bulk of which was personal protective equipment, including 98 million latex gloves.

While some of the reserves have been used during COVID, items are being restocked. So these too will likely expire if not used. For instance, we know surgical masks in the stockpile are already expiring. Similar issues have been seen in other developed countries such as the United States, New Zealand and Canada, before and during the current pandemic.

Why not donate surplus stock? This expiration and waste is in sharp contrast to the situation in some developing countries. Some are forced to reuse normally disposable items, such as surgical gloves, masks and syringes. While donation of surplus stock seems an obvious solution, donations of dated medical supplies are typically discouraged.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends against it. It expects donations to arrive in another country with an expiry date of: at least one year, or half the shelf life if the expiry date is less than one year. The idea is to protect recipients from degraded or faulty stock.

We found a pragmatic option Our study modelled the impact of donating stock, in particular personal protective equipment and similar low-risk products. We did not look at donating dated vaccines or medicines, which come with higher safety risks. We found dated donations close to or recently past their use-by date was the best option. This benefited the recipient country the most, as it was least likely to push local suppliers out of business.

The next best option was donating fresh stock. The least preferable option was donating very dated stock, such as items out of date by more than a year. How could old stock be better? It’s easy to assume that donating large volumes of fresh, excess stock, still within its use-by date, would be the best option. But we showed how this can distort the local market.

Flooding the local market with free, fresh products can force local suppliers to lower their products’ market price, and make them potentially stop making or supplying these products. This discourages any further attempts to develop local supply capacity, and makes the recipient country more reliant on donations.

This may be compounded by corruption. If corrupt officials siphon donated products and sell them on the black market, this too may force local suppliers out of business. This may also drive prices up on the black market, putting an extra strain on already stretched health-care systems.

Whether or not such corruption is involved, somewhat dated supplies could enable the local supplier to stay in business and supply the country’s health-care system. What should happen next? Some surplus medical supplies are being donated. But these programs are small scale and face many restrictions and challenges.

These include a limited and unpredictable supply of donated items and relying heavily on volunteers and community partners to distribute donated stock. So donating surplus stock could be better coordinated at a larger scale.

Our evidence calls us to rethink what we do with dated donations of low-risk medical supplies. Masks, respirators, syringes and hand sanitisers from national stockpiles would be a good start. Such products can continue to be useful even when dated, especially if the products are stored well.

Indeed, even in developed countries, personal protective equipment has been distributed past its expiration date when needed during the pandemic. It would be prudent to run a pilot program to donate dated, surplus stock, possibly with a single product.

Medical suppliers could also get on board. They may be willing to pay the costs of such a donation program if it allows them to regularly restock national stockpiles and similar reserves with fresh items. Many countries were surprised at the start of the pandemic to find how much expired stock was in their reserves.

A donation program would prevent this happening again and help us better prepare for the next pandemic.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India should get serious about cloud adoption, become a cloud-first country: Palo Alto Networks CEO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Former SoftBank executive and the Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks Nikesh Arora called on businesses to think digital and cloud-first. He also added that India should get serious about cloud adoption and become a ‘cloud first’ country.

He said if there was a magic wand and if he could wave it and ask for a wish, it would be for Indians to get serious about understanding cloud adoption in the country. He believes most of the future technologies will be built in the cloud, which would allow for low latency, high bandwidth, high data processing capability, which he said is is what would be needed to deploy AI in this country.

He said if India can leapfrog the technological revolution in a way, where it actually becomes a cloud-first country, then it would also require the regulators to be more progressive from a cloud-thinking perspective.

When asked what are the deterrent factors in cloud adoption Arora told CNBC-TV18, “Across, the world there is a degree of apprehension in letting all the data sit on the cloud. Because the cloud companies are primarily foreign businesses, which put the data in the cloud.”

He believes that the best companies are those that serve a local market and develop for the global market. “If you look at companies that have businesses in India or teams in India, the most successful companies from a technology perspective are ones who both serve a local market and deliver for the global market. I think there’s a huge opportunity for securing the country’s infrastructure securing the infrastructure for thousands of companies large and small, which allows us to have a large domestic market. We want best of bleeding edge product centres in India, we don’t want this to be delivery market, we want innovation to happen here. We want that innovation delivered to the rest of the world and also local market,” he said.

‘COVID-19 made us tech-reliant, but digital adoption brings cybersecurity risks’

Arora said the COVID-19 pandemic enabled a technology-reliant society across the globe. This however, also expands the risk of security hacks, he said.

Also Read: Apple releases iPad with all-new design & 5G support, M2 Pro model

“I think what the pandemic showed us was that every company, barring a few, is a technology company. Because everything else vanished, legacy business, traditional business vanished, you wanted to be in a zero-touch environment, and technology came to the rescue. So we became a very technology reliant society across the globe. When that happens, it expands the risk of security hacks, it expands the exposure that cybersecurity brings to your business,” Arora said.

He however doesn’t think people are going to reprioritise technology adoption. “Governments around the world were pumping money into the economy because we believe we were dealing with a pandemic. That was the biggest shock to the system. We all thought the only way to write it out was to take the uncertainty of the pandemic away by making all the other uncertainty go away,” he said, adding that managing COVID created economic risks for the future.

‘Many investments, not exits’

Talking about the Indian economy, Arora said that a lot of investments are coming into the country, but it is not seeing many exits. “I would contend that India hasn’t seen the cycles yet and what I mean by that is, a cycle is when you enter and you exit. We see a lot of investment, we see a lot of markups, we haven’t seen a lot of exits,” he said, adding that all exits are either strategic buyers buying assets or a few IPOs.

Arora said there are still a lot more unicorns which have to go through that cycle. “So I think this is a bump in the road for a lot of the unicorns which have had re-rating. So hopefully, many of these are robust businesses, they can survive the downturn or survive the sort of the cold winter for the next few years, where they either have to go raise money at a lower valuation than they did the last time around, which I think has even more consequences in the Indian ecosystem than it has in the western ecosystem,” he said.

On the Indian IPO window and the need to build robust businesses

Talking about Indian IPO window for businesses, Arora said that if one has built a robust business and has profitability show or has the path to property very clearly articulated in the market, there is always a window for an IPO. “I don’t think the IPO window is contingent on lofty valuations market,” he said.

Arora believes there is a difference between a venture being a venture capitalist and being an entrepreneur. “A venture capitalist has clearly defined entry and exit criteria, they will enter cheap, and they will leave when they make a multiple of your money. As an entrepreneur, you’re stuck with the consequences. You build a business, you’re with it for a long time, because you still own a substantial stake in the company, you have obligations to your employees, to your customer, so you don’t get to run away. So an entrepreneur has to build a robust business, because it has to stand the test of time,” he said.

“India as the largest democracy in the world, allowing a very stable political environment and more and more consistency in the way policies are implemented, the more and more consistent the way things are followed to so I think it has tremendous potential going forward,” he added.

Watch video for more.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Joe Biden says COVID-19 pandemic is over but there’s still a problem

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Joe Biden on Sunday said the COVID-19 pandemic is over but there’s still a problem.

“We still have a problem with COVID,” he said at the Detroit Auto Show that he was attending for the first time in three years.

In the ‘The 2022 60 Minutes Interview‘ published in CBS news, Biden said, “We’re still doing a lot of work on it. It’s — but the pandemic is over.”

Noting that no one was wearing masks and everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, Biden said, “I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.”

“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” President Biden tells 60 Minutes in an interview in Detroit. https://t.co/7SixTE3OMT pic.twitter.com/s5fyjRpYuX

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 19, 2022

Commenting on the annual inflation rate of 8.3 percent, nosediving markets and mounting grocery bills, Biden said, “Inflation rate month to month was just — just an inch, hardly at all,” as he hoped to bring inflation under control.

“I’m telling the American people that we’re gonna get control of inflation. And their prescription drug prices are going to be a hell of a lot lower. Their health care costs are going to be a lot lower. Their basic costs for everybody, their energy prices are going to be lower. They’re going to be in a situation where they begin to gain control again. I’m — more optimistic than I’ve been in a long time,” he was quoted by 60 minutes as saying.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Aether Industries sees a lot of opportunities in contract research and manufacturing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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[wealthdesk shortname=”Aether Ind” isinid=”INE0BWX01014″ bseid=”543534″ nseid=”AETHER” sector=”Speciality Chemicals” exchange=”nse”]

Aether Industries’ revenue growth is tepid at just seven percent for the April-June quarter while the margin came in weak, contracting to around 26 percent from the 30 percent the specialty chemical manufacturer had posted last year. Aether Industries’ founder and director Aman Desai, however, is  seeing a lot of opportunities in contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS).

“In the CRAMS market, we are seeing a tremendous influx of opportunities as we had always foreseen in a post-COVID-19 era, where the countries and companies are opening up, and external programs are being started, and so we see that effect also coming in the Q3 and Q4 of this year,” Desai told CNBC-TV18.

Desai expects the revenue in the third and final quarter to get a boost once the firm’s new Greenfield manufacturing site plant starts production.

“We expect Q1 and Q2 of the current fiscal year with a softening effect, but in Q3 and Q4, we have the new Greenfield manufacturing site coming up, which is on track and to be commissioned by the end of this calendar year, and so we will see the reasonable significant brunt of revenues from it coming in the last quarter of this fiscal year,” Desai added.

Also Read: Aether Industry says R&D to be the growth engine of the co; aims to maintain margins around 30%

On growth, he said that the company is currently focusing on organic growth and discussions about inorganic growth are happening at a very small scale.

Aether Industries’ revenue jumped seven percent to Rs 160 crore year-on-year, while profit after tax (PAT) fell six percent to Rs 30 crore. Aether Industries’ order book as of June 30, 2022, stood at Rs 246 crore, while export revenues surged 17 percent YoY to Rs 111 crore.

Aether Industries is a specialty chemical manufacturer and produces intermediaries and specialty chemicals to clients in the pharma, agrochemical, material science and coating sectors. Pharma gives its bulk of clients with a share at 63 percent, while Agrochemicals contribution is 23 percent.

For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video

Also, catch all the live updates on markets with CNBC-TV18.com’s blog

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

45% of employees have returned to office full-time

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The number of employees returning to office touched its highest point since the pandemic accelerated the work-from-home push in March 2020, with 45 percent back at their workplaces, according to a report by Work In Sync, a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution that enables organisations to establish hybrid workplaces and return-to-office routines.

The report, titled “The Return-to-Office Index, April 2022”, found that the easing or outright removal of COVID restrictions has encouraged employees across the country to return to the office. The 45 percent registered in April this year was a 38 percent jump over May 2021, when the devastating second wave of COVID-19 was at its peak.

According to the report, 99 percent of Mumbai residents have gone back to the office,  with the National Capital Region ranking second, with 61 percent. Bengaluru (42 percent), Pune (39 percent), Hyderabad (35 percent) and Chennai (27 percent) are the other metros featured in the report.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WEF 2022: Climate, mental health among top 10 risks humanity faces in next 10 years 

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) showed climate action failure, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss as the top global risks the world is likely to face over the next 10 years. Infectious diseases came in as the sixth risk under the societal risks umbrella.

Not a pandemic, but climate change and other environmental issues are likely to pose long-term global risks in the future, revealed this year’s World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report.

Also read: World Economic Forum says nations responsible for 50% of global emissions pin hopes on hydrogen to cut carbon footprint

The annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) showed climate action failure, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss as top global risks the world is likely to face over the next 10 years.

Respondents to the GRPS ranked “climate action failure” as the number one long-term threat to the world. They said this is the risk with potentially the most severe impact over the next decade.

“Climate action failure is also considered the most critical threat to the world in both the medium term [2-5 years] and long term [5-10 years], with the highest potential to severely damage societies, economies and the planet,” the report said.

Meanwhile, “extreme weather” and “climate action failure” were listed among the top five short-term risks to the world.

The insights from the report draws relevance as the globe already faces the brunt of climate change with several parts of the world experiencing extreme heatwaves, droughts, fires, floods, resource scarcity and species loss.

Top 10 risks world faces today and in next 10 years (Courtesy: World Economic Forum)

Societal risks

Infectious diseases — which were categorised under the umbrella category of ‘societal risks’ — ranked sixth on the chart showing the top 10 severe global risks over the next 10 years.

Societal risks, overall, made up a third of the global top 10, with societal cohesion erosion and livelihood crises featuring among the top five.

“‘Social cohesion erosion’, ‘livelihood crises’ and ‘mental health deterioration’ are three of the five risks that have deteriorated the most globally through the crisis,” the GRPS revealed.

Also read: WEF Davos summit: 300 govt leaders expected; Sitharaman, three CMs to attend from India

Looming debt crises

The GRPS showed “debt crises” as an imminent threat to the world for the next two years. However, the respondents believed that they will reach their most critical point in 3-5 years.

The report suggested that a “disorderly climate transition, characterised by divergent trajectories worldwide and across sectors, will further drive apart countries and bifurcate societies, creating barriers to cooperation.”

The report said, “The risk horizon changes over the coming years, as the full implications of the pandemic become clearer.”

It said that by 2024, developing economies — except China — will have fallen 5.5 percent below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9 percent.

Also read: India is the fastest-growing major economy in 2022 with projected growth of 6.4%: UN

Risk experts said in the next two years, they “see the erosion of social cohesion, the deterioration of mental health, infectious diseases and livelihood crises as being equal to environmental threats.”

According to the report, all these factors are constant across the short to long term.

In the next five years, debt crises and geo-economic confrontations are likely to emerge as governments struggle to balance fiscal priorities.

Experts worried

This WEF survey was conducted among nearly 1,000 risk experts and global leaders in business, government and civil society.

When asked about their outlook towards the world order and global crisis, the majority of the respondents said they were “worried” or “concerned” over the situation.

Around 84.2 percent of the participants said they were “concerned” or “worried,” while less than 16 percent of the respondents said they have an “optimistic” or “positive” outlook.

Also read: Over 50 heads of government to attend World Economic Forum’s annual meeting

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China reports first human infection with the H3N8 strain

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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China has reported the first human infection with the H3N8 strain of bird flu. The variant was found in a four-year-old boy, who belonged from the central Henan province. According to the National Health Commission, fever among other symptoms were recorded.

The child had been in contact with chickens and crows raised at his home, the statement added. The H3N8 variant, which is commonly found in horses, seals, and dogs has never been reported in humans.

China’s huge populations of both farmed and wild birds along with poultry animals of many species provide an ideal environment for avian viruses to come into human contact.

China, last year reported the first human case of H10N3 with the health commission stating that the risk of a large-scale epidemic was low.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow