On the latest episode of GZERO World, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy joins Ian Bremmer to discuss how the Sun Belt states became America's epicenter in the COVID-19 outbreak, the latest treatments and therapies for the most severely ill, and another pandemic plaguing America in this time of social distancing and isolation—loneliness.
Imagine you're a crew member aboard a space craft. Beyond the safety of the hull lay a hostile wilderness, devoid of oxygen and home to a deadly mix of photons and cosmic rays. That's the thinking behind an old philosophy to which the Covid-19 pandemic has breathed new life. It's called Spaceship Earth. The idea: we're all hurdling through space together with no escape capsule, so planetary problems have to be addressed for everyone's sake.
In commentary for the latest episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer is taking a look at the challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic. The worst crisis of our lifetime is affecting every country, race, and ethnicity. More than 10 million are infected. More than half a million have died and economies and health systems have been devastated. But it may have also given us a rare opportunity to fix our ship. That is, if politics doesn't stand in the way. Case in point: Arguments over wearing a mask have proliferated across the U.S., even in some of the most heavily impacted states.
Do masks really protect us? Are children less vulnerable to COVID-19? And why do scientists hope you avoid indoor bars? This week, GZERO World is taking all of our burning questions about the latest in the pandemic to a Harvard epidemiologist. Marc Lipsitch is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. So, he knows his stuff!
GZERO Media, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Eurasia Group, today hosted its first virtual town hall on how to fight global poverty amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The panel featured Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media President Ian Bremmer, and Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The conversation was moderated by Africa No Filter's Moky Makura.
Watch the full video above.
As the novel coronavirus burns its way around the world, the race for a vaccine is now well underway. More than 100 Covid-19 vaccines are now in some stage of research, and there are eight candidate vaccines already in clinical evaluation, according to the World Health Organization.
Of those eight, four come from China, two from the US, one is a collaboration of companies in Germany, China, and the US, and another is the product of a partnership between Britain's Oxford University and AstraZeneca. Companies in Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, and Switzerland may not be far behind.
