The Inside Story Podcast

The World Health Organization has warned the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic could shift to the United States.

Although Italy, Spain and China have higher death tolls, the U.S. now has nearly 165,000 infections - more than anywhere else in the world.

A U.S. naval ship with 1,000 hospital beds has arrived in New York to provide relief to overwhelmed hospitals.

Emergency medical centres have been set up across the country.

However, health workers say they're running out of supplies and testing kits.

President Donald Trump, who has been criticised for downplaying the crisis, says the number of cases won't reach its peak for another two weeks.

The pandemic has become a major political issue.

Can the U.S. prevent the crisis spiralling out of control?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Julie Fischer - Associate Research Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center

Dr. Peter Drobac - Co-founder and First Executive Director of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda

Adam Goodman - U.S. Republican Strategist

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The number of people infected by covid-19 is more than 700,000 globally. The number who've died, over 34,000

Those are the estimates by Johns Hopkins university, but do those figures accurately reflect reality?

If we are talking pure mathematics, curves usually indicate how severe cases are in a country and show its ability to control a crisis.

But there are other factors too: governments denying risks, facts supressed, lack of access to poor people and limited testing.

Be it in slums, townships, countries suffering conflicts and those without democracies; what is unknown is whether the outbreak is bigger than politicians are admitting, or are able to handle.

So is that hampering efforts to curb the disease?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Mark Heywood, human rights activist and editor of the Daily Maverick's Maverick Citizen section.

Arun Kumar, economist and professor at the Institute of Social Sciences.

Hopewell Chin'ono, an award winning journalist and documentary film maker.

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The spread of coronavirus has shut borders across Europe and challenged people's freedom of movement and free movement of goods.

Those are the very foundations of the European Union and some argue the bloc could be facing an existential crisis.

European governments have been criticised for initially retreating behind their walls in response to the outbreak.

And its leaders are divided over how to tackle the crisis economically.

They've also recently squabbled over how to share the debt burden.

Germany and the Netherlands are among EU nations objecting to a joint debt initiative that's also disappointed Spain and Italy.

They were joined by France in calling for a grander plan of action.

On Inside Story, an in-depth discussion on the future of the EU as it's struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Giulia Alagna, journalist and field producer workling with foreign media.

Fabrice Pothier, Chief Strategy Officer at the political advisory firm, Rasmussen Global.

Thorsten Benner, director of the think tank, Global Public Policy Institute.

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World leaders are being forced to take drastic, emergency measures to confont the worsening Coronavirus crisis.

They're meant to keep people alive, but are killing the global economy. And few industries have been hit as hard as airlines.

The International Air Transport Association says the industry stands to lose more than $250 billion dollars in revenue this year, and that's assuming things recover in three months.

Singapore, Emirates and Turkish Airlines are just a few of the big names to halt almost all their operations.

An estimated 8,500 aircraft are sitting in storage around the world.

Governments are promising bailouts to keep the industry afloat.

But will that be enough?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Alex Macheras, editor of AviationAnalyst.co.uk

Anil Padhra, head of aviation at the university of West London

Brendan Sobie, founder of Sobie Aviation and former chief analyst at the Centre for Aviation

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It's being called a war against an invisible enemy, and it's now being fought on a global scale.

The world is in a race to stem the increasing number of Coronavirus cases.

As many as 60,000 new infections are being reported every day, and governments and healthcare systems are struggling to keep up.

Even among the richest nations, the spread is spiralling out of control.

Restrictions on people's movement and mandatory quarantines are in place around much of the world, measures that many experts say have come too late.

As the number of sick and dying rises, governments are scrambling to get the resources needed for the fight and to rescue free-falling economies.

But can countries deal with the threat of the coronavirus alone?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden and the Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Sarah Eltantawi, Professor of Modern Islam at Fordham University.

Melinda Liu, Beijing Bureau Chief at Newseek Magazine.

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Much of the world's focus is on the growing coronavirus pandemic.

And as the war on the disease is stepped up, the United Nations is calling for a ceasefire in other wars - such as in Syria and Yemen - saying people should be fighting the outbreak, not each other.

The warring sides in Yemen are cautiously backing the UN's appeal.

Five years of conflict have killed at least 100,000 people and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

What are the prospects of ending the conflict?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Hussain Al-Bukhaiti - Journalist and commentator on Houthi affairs

Afrah Nasser - Researcher on Yemen for Human Rights Watch

Elisabeth Kendall - Senior research fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford

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Three Olympics Games have been cancelled in the past because of the two World Wars.

However, this year is the first time the event has been postponed.

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics say the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to hold the events this summer.

The delay will cost the Japanese government, businesses and sponsors billions of dollars.

Hundreds of tournaments and competitions around the world are either on hold or cancelled.

What will be the financial and psychological impact on athletes, fans and businesses?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Gail Emms - Badminton silver medallist for Team Great Britain in the 2004 Olympic Games

Tadgh MacIntyre - lecturer in sports and performance psychology at the University of Limerick

James Reade - Associate professor at the University of Reading

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Coronavirus infections have now been reported in nearly every country in the world.

And the number of people getting sick in Europe and the United States is rising rapidly.

However, scientists warn the next big spike could occur in developing regions with already weak health systems.

The United Nations is asking for two billion dollars to help poorer nations.

Millions of people around the world do not have access to basic washing facilities, sanitation and hygiene.

Some nations' health systems lack medical supplies, or are under strain after natural disasters and other outbreaks.

So, how can we avoid a catastrophe?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Kanuru Sujatha Rao - Former Secretary of Health in India.

Sheila Davis - C-E-O of Partners in Health, a non-profit healthcare organisation.

Ifeanyi Nsofor - Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch.

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Isolate, test and trace.

That's the urgent message from the World Health organization to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Many countries have imposed mass lockdowns, and ordered people to stay home.

However, few - such as South Korea and Singapore - have implemented widespread testing.

Many European countries and the U.S. are limiting tests for only the most critical of cases, as testing kits are in short supply.

So how can we overcome challeges to widespread testing?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Arisina Ma - President of the Hong Kong Public Doctors' Association.

Yik Ying Teo - Dean at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

Ingrid Katz - Assistant Faculty Director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard University.

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Hospitals and morgues overwhelmed, bodies piling up in churches and just under 800 deaths in one single day.

That's the shocking reality in Italy which has become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.

And a symbol of the enormous challenges facing Europe's public health systems.

The Italian government is struggling to keep up with the spread of the virus.

It has sent in the army to enforce the lockdown in Lombardy, the northern region at the centre of the outbreak

And it's tightening already strict controls on daily life.

Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte has ordered all but the most essential businesses to close until April 3.

But will that reduce the number of people dying?

And what lessons can other countries learn from Italy?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Francesca Borri - Journalist.

Rossella Miccio - President of the non-governmental medical organisation, Emergency.

Peter Drobac, Co-founder and First Executive Director of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.

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