Tag: WHO

Jordan: World’s Highest Smoking Rate, Big Tobacco Interference

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A 2019 survey by the Jordanian government and the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that over eight out of 10 men in Jordan regularly use nicotine products, the highest smoking rate in the world. This translates to male smokers consuming an average of 23 cigarettes per day. 

Nicotine products include e-cigarettes and vaping devices but the market for these products remains relatively small in Jordan. Alternative smoking devices are used by only 14% of men, and 66% of all men in Jordan continue to smoke cigarettes. The survey also found that 17% of Jordanian women smoke. 

The survey that revealed Jordan has the highest rates of smoking in the world found that unlike many other countries, Jordan’s smoking rates continue to grow. The 2019 survey found approximately 45% of young people had used some form of tobacco. 

This continued growth of smoking has been attributed to an uptake among young women and the popularity of shisha. As earlier reported by Arabia Policy, studies have suggested smoking shisha for one hour can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes. Experts do not expect to know the health impact of young people smoking until approximately 2030 when the population will reach 40 years old, the age when smoking related diseases begin to emerge. 

Already known is the current cost of smoking to the economy, estimated to be approximately $2.27 billion per year due to adverse consequences. This outstrips the $1.27 billion that the Jordanian government economy receives in taxes and wages paid by tobacco companies. 

The influence of big tobacco 

Anti-smoking campaigners are concerned that tobacco companies wield unchecked influence over policy makers in Jordan and there are multiple reports of tobacco company representatives or lobbyists attending meetings where the details of legislation to curb smoking were debated. 

Princess Dina Mired, the president of the Union for International Cancer Control in Jordan, reported industry representatives present at a meeting on tobacco standards argued against measures to reverse the alarming trend. Proposed measures concerned the size and composition of health warnings and the limitation of the graphics and colors permitted on the packages. 

Tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris International (PMI), and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), argue that attendance at meetings is standard practice and allows them to provide an industry perspective on the proposed laws. 

In addition to their presence at debates on legislation, tobacco companies enjoy close relationships with parliamentarians and are celebrated for their work in the community. PMI recently paid to refurbish a school in an underprivileged area close to its factory’s location. The company also provided school supplies to children at 25 schools. 

Philip Morris hit back at criticisms of its work in Jordan, saying, “It is saddening that even actions to improve the living conditions of people around our factory might be seen as a reason to attack us.” JTI claims that all of their corporate social responsibility work complies with local and international laws. 

Despite concern over the rising rates of smoking in Jordan, the government sees the industry as a job creator, a particularly powerful image in a country with an unemployment rate of over 19%. This indicates it is unlikely the Jordanian government will adopt further regulation aimed at limiting the tobacco industry anytime soon.

COVID-19 Pandemic Reaches Highest Daily Increase in Cases

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On Sunday, June 21, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called COVID-19 “the challenge and opportunity of our time” as the pandemic reaches a new phase. The world appears to be caught in the first wave of the pandemic, with cases still increasing daily. Countries reported 183,000 new cases on June 21, marking the largest daily increase since the emergence of the virus in 2019.

Growing cases

Brazil appears to be the worst-hit country currently. Its government’s much-criticized COVID-19 response led to a disastrous 55,000 new cases to add to its caseload of one million patients. Brazil has reported 49,976 COVID-19-related deaths. Brazilians took to the streets to protest President Jair Bolsanaro, as he appeared to bolster support of the military as tensions mount in the capital, Brasilia.

On the African continent, recorded cases reached 306,567 according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The African CDC also reported 146,212 recoveries amid a total death toll of 8,115 as the continent’s disparate regions face different phases of the epidemic. North African countries have achieved relative success through strict containment measures, keeping the total regional caseload at around 81,500.

In Southern Africa several nations are still facing the initial wave of infections with 101,700 recorded cases while West Africa has seen 62,400, East Africa reported 31,400, and Central Africa recorded 29,500. Africa’s young population appears to be keeping death tolls relatively low but, like in many places across the world, much remains unclear about the scale of unreported cases.

Socioeconomic impact

While Africa’s youthful population might be more resilient against the virus, the socioeconomic consequences of the global crisis are prompting a renewed call for solidarity in the pandemic’s aftermath. The president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, joined forces with Ghebreyesus to launch a “Solidarity Call to Action.”

Only by working together, the statement says, can we ensure a fair and equitable response to the economic aftermath of the crisis. The WHO’s June 1 call to action urges governments to avoid international competition over vaccines and economic support in order to mitigate the long-term effects of the pandemic that has claimed almost half a million lives in less than a year.

Urging an “open and collaborative” approach

Governments and researchers should “promote innovation, remove barriers, and facilitate open sharing of knowledge, intellectual property and data,” according to a WHO statement, as international frictions have emerged over the distribution of an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.

The WHO hopes to encourage a spirit of “open and collaborative approaches” to ensure an “equitable distribution and access to products needed for COVID-19.”

Some commercial companies working on vaccines are pressuring governments to outbid each other to receive “first access” to an eventual vaccine.

The US and EU are already buying up hundreds of millions of doses of yet unproven drugs, causing many to many fear the crisis will further exacerbate global inequalities.

Desperate need for unity

Calls for the development of a “People’s Vaccine” through global cooperation appear to have resulted in little, despite the concept’s broad support by many current and former world leaders.

The new “Solidarity Call to Action” appears to attempt to refocus the global pharmaceutical industry and its government funders to prioritize global stability and a common humanity over political decisions that lead to competition over vaccine access.

The Call to Action has received formal support from a variety of WHO member states across the world, but the future will tell if any true collaboration will materialize.

“The world is in desperate need of national unity and global solidarity. The politicization of the pandemic has exacerbated it,” Dr Tedros said on Monday, June 22, “…the greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership.”

COVID-19’s Secondary Effects Could Increase MENA Child Mortality by 40%

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Overstretched health services, missed vaccinations, and mistrust are all secondary impacts of COVID-19 that could lead to a dramatic increase in child mortality according to a new Johns Hopkins University study commissioned by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released on Sunday.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic is putting health systems under unprecedented stress in the region. Primary health care services have either decreased or been interrupted in several countries,” said UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa Ted Chaiban and WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari in a joint June 14 statement. 

The study looked at three different scenarios to understand how changes to health service provision and the economic impact of COVID-19 affect child and maternal health in ten MENA countries — Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen.  

The MENA region, like the rest of the world, has seen few actual cases of the coronavirus in children, but the secondary effects of the pandemic are nevertheless “affecting children’s health firsthand,” the study found.

The Threat of Secondary Effects

“An additional 51,000 children under the age of five might die in the region by the end of 2020 if the current disruption of essential health and nutrition services is protracted and malnutrition among children increases,” the joint statement revealed. 

“If this happens, it would be an increase of nearly 40 per cent in comparison to pre-COVID figures, reversing progress made in child survival in the region by nearly two decades.” 

The pandemic has directed frontline workers away from providing essential services to mothers and their children such as immunization, treatment of neonatal infections and childhood diseases, pregnancy and childbirth care, and malnutrition programs. The WHO and UNICEF say coronavirus movement restrictions, economic downturn, and wariness of health workers and facilities driven by fear of contracting the disease are also creating new barriers to pediatric healthcare. 

“But we can avoid this scenario, allowing tens of thousands of children to celebrate their fifth birthday surrounded by their families and friends,” the WHO and UNICEF say. 

The UN agencies are calling for MENA countries to resume vaccination campaigns and nutrition services, facilitate access to primary health care for all children, provide sufficient infection prevention and control equipment to health workers, and begin communication initiatives aimed at restoring trust in the public health system. 

Too Late for Children in Yemen 

The worst case scenario is already playing out in Yemen, home to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and where a funding shortfall has already forced the UNFPA to cut lifesaving reproductive health services to 140 out of 180 health facilities in the war-torn country.  

“We are now in a life-or-death situation. Women and girls will die if we do not provide critical reproductive health services. We can only do so if funding becomes available,” said the UNFPA’s acting representative in Yemen, Nestor Owomuhangi, on May 29.  

Food programs have also been cut as a result of insufficient funding in the country where an estimated two million children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition.  

The World Food Programme, which provides food and nutrition assistance to around 12 million people across Yemen, states it “urgently needs US$416 million to ensure uninterrupted food assistance for the next six months.” 

On June 2, an international pledging conference co-hosted by the UN and Saudi Arabia fell short of its $2.41 billion fundraising target, with donors pledging just $1.35 billion — a shortfall largely attributed to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

It remains to be seen if the UN will secure alternative funding sources to support essential programs in Yemen. If not, it seems the country’s most vulnerable, namely women and children, are destined to become the forgotten victims of the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

Read also: Saudi Arabia’s Anti-Mine Program “Masam” Works to Make Yemen Safer

 

COVID-19 Spreads to Darfur Refugee Camps

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The term “Internally Displaced Person” (IDP) is a rather abstract term the United Nations uses to indicate a person who has been made a refugee in their home country. For the 1.6 million people crammed in the permanent camps in Darfur, Sudan, the term is anything but abstract. For almost two decades, the residents of Darfur’s camps for “IDPs” have lived in fear of returning home as they remain powerless in the face of violence.

The relative safety of Darfur’s camps are now facing a new threat as humanitarian and medical workers in the area have warned of an alarming rise in suspected COVID-19 related deaths. Darfur’s camps have only sparse medical facilities in a country that has suffered immensely from two tumultuous decades during which Sudan has broken into two, seen a fragile and inconclusive popular revolution, and is now in no way prepared to face the threat of the coronavirus.

COVID-19 in Darfur

The Sudanese government has reported 7,007 cases of COVID-19 and 447 related deaths, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 15—a vast underestimation of the true scale according to experts, the Associated Press reports. In Darfur’s IDP camps, the elderly are getting infected and dying from COVID-19 symptoms without any treatment or response. People are dying at a disastrous rate as medical workers are unable to treat the infections that are creating another untold tragedy for Darfur’s fragile population.

Dozens of death announcements are posted each day in the camps outside Al Fashir, the capital of North Darfur province. The town has nearly tripled in size since the influx of internal refugees when heavily armed militias burned down villages during  Darfur conflict and forced many to take refuge in UN camps. Now, a new threat has emerged in their midst, leaving no safe place for the victims of Darfur’s brutal conflict.

Vanished people

Mohamed Hassan Adam, director of IDP camp Abu Shuk, told the Associated Press that his camp has seen 64 unexplained deaths in one corner of the camp alone. Adam told the press agency about his neighbors, all in their 60s, who withered away and “vanished” one by one.

“They get exhausted then they die. There is no way to tell what happened,” Adam stated.

Ashraf Issa, spokesman for the local UN peacekeeping mission said “we are in the eye of the storm” about the explosion of COVID-19 infections, as local officials have little resources to treat or even detect cases of the coronavirus. A health ministry official told the AP that Darfur is “like a separate continent” as Darfur’s problems are exponentially worse than the eastern parts of the country.

No revolution

For those in Darfur’s camps, the virus presents a potential death sentence. Most people there have nowhere left to run as continued violence and oppression awaits them if they attempt to return home. For many, the entire concept of home has changed as children have grown up in Al Fashir’s sprawling and crammed camps, with many knowing no other life besides it.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to try Sudan’s former dictator Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide and war crimes for his role in the Darfur conflict. Although the Sudanese transitional government has agreed to hand Al Bashir over to the ICC, few things have changed for the people in Darfur, for whom the revolution has meant very little.

With no outlook for change and the continued threat of violence outside of the UN camps, Darfur’s people face an unprecedented challenge with nowhere to go. “We’re losing a whole generation,” Gamal Abdulkarim Abdullah, director of Zam Zam camp, told the AP.

“The government barely knows we exist,” Mohamed Hassan Adam reiterated. “I fear the worst is yet to come.”

The United States Is In a State of Crisis

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In the midst of a global combined economic and public health crisis, American stock markets have been doing rather well. The country has pumped trillions into its large corporations which has avoided a large-scale market crash such as that seen in 2008. But while Wall Street remains relatively intact, the rest of the country is spiraling into chaos due to several inter-connected crises.

Just a month ago it was incomprehensible that any news could top the historic global pandemic as 2020’s biggest story. But a wave of protests across the United States has highlighted that the country is suffering from more than just COVID-19.

Crisis in health

After months of economically painful lockdowns, curfews, and restrictions the US is reopening the economy even as its cases continue to climb. Wednesday, June 10, saw the two millionth COVID-19 case recorded. US President Donald Trump has pushed for reopenings even while many public health experts warn the nation might still be in the first wave of infections.

Those who died from COVID-19-related complications have disproportionately comprised minorities, and continue a sad historic trend of hitting the country’s Black communities the worst.

The unique nature of the US healthcare system means many will now face thousands of dollars in medical bills just as a “tsunami” of bankruptcies is due to hit in the aftermath of lockdowns that saw millions lose their jobs.

Crisis in inequality

The brutal death of George Floyd served as another painful reminder that the United States still has not created even a semblance of parity between Black and white people in the country. The death of another Black man in police custody triggered protests around the country, and a heavy backlash from the country’s elites.

Media and many officials instantly painted the protests as violent riots, and labeled protesters “looters.” State officials and media channels rushed to discredit the genuine demands of the mostly peaceful protests. The anti-racism demonstrations have since been used by agent provocateurs from groups advocating for a second civil war to stir up more violence and resentment between racial and economic sections of the population.

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chris Hedges has called the government response to protests “treason by the ruling class” and says a “mafia state” has replaced the country’s capitalist democracy. “We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich,” Hedges wrote in Common Dreams, saying the country’s wealthy constitute “omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government.”

According to Hedges, who has seen several countries spiral into chaos and war, the US has only two possible paths left: Revolution or tyranny.

Crisis in the economy

The country’s shocking poverty has only worsened in a time of record highs in the country’s stock markets. The disconnect between main street and wall street is now painfully exposed as news of record highs in the NASDAQ feature on the same front pages as record numbers of deaths, unemployment, an approaching “avalanche” of evictions, and severe public discontent.

The crisis has similarly exposed the country’s nearly defunct labor laws to daylight as millions were immediately laid off from their jobs when lockdowns became a reality. Constantly clicking refresh on overwhelmed and continuously crashing state unemployment websites, citizens have started to realize that a welfare state is not a comfortable “handout” to those too lazy to work, as politicians have told them for years.

Instead people have been left to their own devices with little help from the government outside a one-time stimulus check that did not cover rent and expenses in most US cities. For decades Americans have swallowed tax cuts for big business, but the crisis has again proven that businesses actually have a responsibility to create as few jobs as possible to ensure maximum profits for shareholders.

Crisis in leadership

Amid the disintegration of the American social contract, US Donald Trump is rapidly undoing the post-WW2 era unspoken agreement that has sustained American hegemony. For decades, the US paid the most to global institutions such as the WHO and NATO. In exchange the US did not have to decolonize, was able to invade nations at will, and made its currency the favored exchange in the international market.

But President Donald Trump apparently considers that the country’s superior military strength alone should be enough to force the global community into compliance. By withdrawing funding from the WHO, pressuring NATO allies into paying higher dues, and sanctioning the world’s highest court, Trump is changing the image of the US from a benevolent global empire into a rogue state.

Vetoes at the Security Council are casually and repeatedly suppressing the will of the global community, while calls for mercy on states suffering under crippling US sanctions remain ignored. Trump has willfully broken the unspoken agreement between the US and the world, silently approved by Democrats who have signed off on every increase of the military budget, corporate hand-out, and even his wall on the Mexican border.

With America’s reputation badly damaged abroad and civil discord in the streets at home, the US is facing a historic crisis that could precipitate the final tumultuous decline of “global America” as we know it today.

Activism and Economic Activity Amid a Growing COVID-19 Crisis

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There are currently seven million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, 400,000 have died, and new cases are still on the rise. The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that the global COVID-19 crisis is “worsening,” yet life appears to return to normal at a lighting pace.

Many citizens who have faced long coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions are either waiting for their country to reopen or already seeing some elements of normalcy. Even though COVID-19 remains a global threat, economic and societal pressures are pushing people back onto the street.

Return to ‘normal’

In Europe, life seems to be returning to normal, with the EU planning to reopen its internal Schengen borders in time for summer vacations. Famous museums like the Prado museum in Madrid, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, and the Versailles museum in Paris have once again opened their doors to visitors.

The Bundesliga has returned and even family entertainment venues like theme parks are reopening. Tourists are again free to visit Rome’s Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, after which they are free to have some food or cold drinks in local bars and restaurants. Germany bars have been packed with patrons and Amsterdam’s famous Vondelpark saw an impromptu “mini-festival.”

Cyprus is so eager to again receive tourists that it is offering to pay for anyone’s COVID-19 treatment if they test positive upon arrival.

The US has seen no sign of effective containment as the country is preparing to confirm it’s two-millionth COVID-19 case, yet California bars are set to reopen on Friday, June 12.

Protesting racism

Hundreds of thousands of people in America’s largest cities have protested institutional racism in the United States over the past week, with protests now spreading to smaller towns. The brutal death of George Floyd in police custody has reignited the debate over the country’s ingrained and persistent racism.

The blatant case of police brutality has even sparked outrage worldwide, with large demonstrations across the globe. In Europe, thousands packed the streets of Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, and Warsaw while smaller cities also saw significant demonstrations.

In Asia, protesters in cities like Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Sydney, and Brisbane came out in a display of solidarity with US protests while highlighting local injustices, such as West Papua’s struggle for independence and the Philippine anti-drug war that has become a slaughter of impoverished locals.

Even in Brazil, where the local COVID-19 epidemic is rapidly accelerating, most large cities saw protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and in opposition to the Brazilian government’s COVID-19 response.

WHO warnings

When listening to the analysis of the WHO, both large-scale protests and the reopening of tourist attractions seems unimaginable.

WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his opening remarks during a June 8 media briefing said “the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening.”

On Sunday, June 7, “more than 136,000 cases were reported, the most in a single day so far,” he underlined.

Ten countries in the Americas and Central Asia currently account for three-quarters of all new cases, with fears of increasing numbers in Africa and Eastern Europe. But the WHO has expressed concern over the emergence of large protests. While Ghebreyesus stated that the WHO “fully supports equality and the global movement against racism,” he urged for “active surveillance to ensure the virus does not rebound.”

The world appears to have reached a “new normal” where some countries are resuming many parts of daily life while others continue to struggle with large local outbreaks. The patchwork of different approaches, preventive measures, and exit strategies mean that many countries base their policies on the local situation, even as the global problem grows.

While all sectors of the economy will cheer a return to normal, once international travel reemerges we could be reminded, once again, of the consequences of our interconnected global society.

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