The Inside Story Podcast

Our world is experiencing an extraordinary health emergency.

Hundreds of millions of people have been told to stay home and limit their contact with others.

The Coronavirus pandemic has killed nearly 11-thousand people and cases continue to rise.

And the situation is creating panic and anxiety for some.

Health experts are now warning our mental health is at stake.

Nearly 264 million people suffer from some sort of anxiety disorder.

And the global health crisis is leading to a loss of sleep, concentration and stress for many.

Doctors say they're treating patients who have been affected by the constant bombarment of information about the virus and the uncertainty it brings.

So how do you protect your mental health while in self-isolation? And what measures can be taken to lessen its impact?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Andreas Kappes - Social Psychologist and Neuroscientist at the University of London.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve - Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.

Dr Amir Khan - UK National Health Service (NHS).

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The world was stunned when China's government announced the shut down of Wuhan, the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

The blanket quarantine, designed to stop the spread of the disease, has never been tried on such an enormous scale in modern times.

Wuhan in Hubei Province is home to eleven million people. They've finally been allowed out of their homes after being stuck there for weeks.

Their suffering - and the government's gamble - seems to have paid off.

No new domestic cases were reported for the second successive day.

So should the rest of the world take the same measures?

And is China's experiment the model for us all?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests

Nicholas Thomas - Specialist in Asian health security issues, City University of Hong Kong.

Steve Tsang - Director of the China Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Al Edwards - Professor and immunologist, University of Reading in UK.

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Scientists around the world are racing to find a vaccine and a cure for the coronavirus.

Governments are pledging millions of dollars of taxpayers' money for research in both public and private firms.

The global vaccine market is estimated to be worth nearly 60 billion dollars annually.

Pharmaceutical companies have been criticised in the past for being too slow in combatting diseases such as SARS and Ebola, and charging high prices for new drug treatments.

So what should be done to ensure they don't put profit before saving lives?

Presenter: Maryam Nemazee

Guests:

Gustav Ando - Executive Director for the Economics and Country Risk Life Sciences practice, IHS Markit.

Gerald Posner - Investigative journalist and author of “Pharma: Greed, Lies and the Poisoning of America”

Andre Spicer - Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City University of London

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The coronavirus pandemic is triggering fears of a global recession.

Stock markets are suffering massive losses.

On top of all that is an oil price war between two of the world's biggest producers: Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The dispute pushed the price of Brent Crude to below 30 US dollars a barrel on Monday - the lowest in four years.

Global demand for oil was already low, since governments imposed widespread lockdowns, and airlines grounded flights because of the coronavirus.

How badly will this price drop hurt the global economy?

Presenter: Lauren Taylor

Guests:

Cornelia Meyer - Economist and C-E-O of Meyer Resource, a specialist consultancy on oil and gas

Mamdouk Salameh - International oil economist and visiting professor of energy economics at ESCP Europe Business School

Jeff Colgan - Associate professor of political science at Brown University

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The Coronavirus pandemic is putting further pressure on some of the world's lowest-paid workers.

Governments are putting cities in lockdown, urging everyone to avoid public spaces and to work from home if possible.

However, many so-called 'gig economy' workers around the world don't have that option.

Workers such as couriers, ride-share drivers, service staff and the self-employed face weeks without pay.

Many say they can't afford to miss work because they don't get social benefits like sick pay or medical insurance.

So, how to protect the millions of workers potentially exposing themselves to COVID-19?

Presenter: Maryam Nemazee

Guests:

Greg Howard - Delivery Driver for various apps such as Deliveroo who is currently in self-isolation at home.

Shannon Liss-Riordon - Attorney who has represented gig economy workers in the United States.

Vicky Pryce - Chief Economic Adviser at the UK-based think tank Centre for Economics and Business Research.

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From complete lockdowns of cities, to building new hospitals, rich countries appear to be better suited in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

But covid-19 is straining the healthcare systems of some developing countries.

This raises fears that nations whose hospitals are closed or ill-equipped may not be able to cope.

Conflict zones are of a particular concern.

Libya's UN-recognised government in Tripoli has declared a state of emergency.

It's ordered the closure of its land, air and sea crossings - as well as schools for three weeks.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government has suspended all flights to and from airports under its control for two weeks

And Syria has delayed its parliamentary elections and cancelled most public events.

So, can developing nations and those in conflict zones, handle a global pandemic?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Dr Ihsan Eidi - A Cardiologist at a hospital in Syria's northern province of Idlib.

Joelle Bassoul - Middle East and Eastern Europe Media Manager for Save the Children.

Claudia Gazzini - Senior Libya Analyst at the International Crisis Group and a former Policy Adviser to the UN Libya Envoy, Ghassan Salame.

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The global heath crisis created by the Coronavirus pandemic has led to extraordinary measures in an effort to contain the outbreak.

Countries from South Korea to the U.S., Italy to New Zealand are introducing measures that are affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Among the containment measures adopted by governments worldwide - many have banned public gatherings.

Cambodia and Indonesia are the latest countries to shut down schools in their biggest cities.

It comes shortly after major EU countries - including Italy, France, Germany and Spain - imposed similar restrictions.

But UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far refused to follow suit, despite warning the public to be prepared for what he called, 'the worst public health crisis for a generation'.

So, is distance learning the answer? and what's the impact on children?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Apostolos Veizis - Director of the Medical Operational Support Unit at Doctors without Borders Greece.

David Hawley - Director General of the International School of Geneva.

Deb Barry - Senior Adviser for Emergency Response at Save the Children.

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It's the world's biggest health emergency.

The coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic, and there are fears it can lead to a catastrophic global economic crisis.

Sweeping containment measures have disrupted markets around the world - including in the U-S.

A travel ban on 26 European countries came into effect on Friday and the unprecedented move sent stocks crashing to their worst losses in over 30 years.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 10 percent on Thursday-- its biggest plunge since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

While European markets showed some signs of recovery on Friday.

So, what's the economic fallout?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Pedro Da Costa - Senior Reporter at Market News International.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama - Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy.

Gareth Leather - Senior Economist who specialises in Asian and emerging markets at the firm Capital Economics.

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What probably started with a single sneeze is now a pandemic, so far infecting at least 120,000 people in more than 100 countries.

World leaders are warning the coronavirus crisis is going to get worse, but isn't unstoppable.

The measures to limit the spread vary from simply washing your hands - to complete isolation.

And it's not always your choice to decide how to protect yourself.

Governments have taken drastic action to help contain the disease.

China and Italy have locked down entire cities - hundreds of millions of people staying at home or off work.

Football matches and other sporting events are cancelled or played behind closed doors.

The US President has banned all transatlantic flights from Europe - except the UK - for 30 days.

And he's announced help for companies struggling to stay in business

But are travel bans enough?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Tarik Jasarevic - Spokesman, World Health Organisation

David Alexander - Professor of Risk & Disaster Reduction, University College London

Mark Honigsbaum - Medical historian & author of: 'The Pandemic Century; One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria & Hubris’

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He's Russia's longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

And if you are a Russian and you are under 20, you've never known another leader.

His critics fear he's preparing to be 'president for life'.

The 67 year old has backed a constitutional amendment to reset his presidential term count to zero, allowing him to run in another two elections.

The lower house of parliament passed the legislation on Tuesday.

And Russians are due to have their say in a constitutional referendum next month.

The amendments are the latest in a choreographed process that began in January.

Putin argues staying in power after his term ends will be good for Russia.

But how convinced are his critics?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests

Viktor Olevich - Center for Actual Politics

Sergei Guriev - Professor of economics, Paris Institute of Political Studies

Daragh McDowell - Russia analyst, Verisk Maplecroft global risk consultancy

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