This is now officially a pandemic, the World Health Organisation confirmed today – although they declared it was not too late for countries to act, saying they were ringing the alarm bell “loud and clear”. 196 people have died in Italy in one day – while the total deaths in the UK is now eight. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe) The Chancellor has promised the NHS ‘whatever resources it needs’ to cope – along with other measures to support affected industries and those in financial hardship.
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this is now officially a pandemic the
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World Health Organization confirmed
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today although they declared it was not
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too late for countries to act saying
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that they were ringing the alarm bell
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loud and clear
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a hundred and ninety-six people have
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died in Italy in one day alone or the
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total deaths and the UK is now eight the
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Chancellor has promised the NHS whatever
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resources it needs to cope along with
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other measures to support affected
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industries and those in financial
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hardship more on those budget measures
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in a moment but first here’s our health
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and social care correspondent Victoria
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McDonald’s this is what a pandemic
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looks like the empty streets of Rome an
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entire country and lockdown this is what
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a pandemic looks like to hospital staff
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and full protection suits patients
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breathing with the help of ventilators
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overnight the number of people in Italy
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diagnosed was covered 19 rows to more
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than 12,000 with more than 800 deaths
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flying in the face of what seemed
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increasingly obvious the World Health
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Organization resisted declaring a
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covered 19 pandemic for nearly two
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months today that changed this is the
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first pandemic caused by coronavirus and
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we have never before seen a pandemic
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that can be controlled at the same time
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wh-wha has been in full response mode
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since we were notified of the first
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cases and we have called every day for
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countries to take urgent and aggressive
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action we have loud and clear
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from the epicenter and Wuhan and China
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it has spread and spread and spread
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again around the globe this new form of
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coronavirus and this is why it is now a
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pandemic in the past two weeks the
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number of cases outside China has
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increased 13 fold the number of affected
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countries has tripled more than a
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hundred and 18,000 people have been
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infected and 4291 lives have been lost
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thousands more the w-h-o said a fighting
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their lives and hospitals and they
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expect to see those numbers climb even
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higher whu-oh has been assessing this
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outbreak around-the-clock and we’re
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deeply concerned both by the alarming
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levels of spread and severity and by the
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alarming levels of inaction pandemic has
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declared when an infectious disease
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spreads easily from person to person in
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many parts of the world without a
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question that is what has happened now
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the UK response that some countries
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where they have perhaps not taken the
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threat seriously enough and do not have
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in place plan Demick plans or testing
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facilities or the capacity to isolate
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and treat in intensive care it means
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that they need to really consider what
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how they can do this and in learn
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middle-income countries that can be
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quite tricky and particularly because
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their health care systems are already
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stretched and they will need some
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support and assistance and international
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funding will be made available to them
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more than 90 percent of cases are still
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in just four countries China South Korea
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Iran and Italy and South Korea they now
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believe they are past their peak and
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have been applauded for their speedy
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response their advice is to focus
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efforts on early testing the w-h-o said
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that in Iran the situation is still
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serious with a high number of deaths and
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sick people and they called for global
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support for the clinical care of the
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infected the UK’s or a 22 percent rise
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in numbers from yesterday all trust in
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England have been told to identify areas
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now where they can treat infectious
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patients and sources of told Channel 4
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News that already some hospitals of
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clared wards and preparation and they
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are increasing the number of intensive
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care beds that can be opened identify
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cases isolating them and contact tracing
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that remains at the heart
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the fight but for how much longer
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tonight the w-h-o said urgent and
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aggressive action is required by
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countries with significant outbreaks
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Victoria MacDonald well we’re joined up
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from Geneva by dr. Margaret Harris from
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the World Health Organization thanks for
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coming on the program on such a busy day
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dr. Harris just tell us very clearly
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what by calling it a pandemic would make
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or should make the global response to
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this any different good evening what
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this really means and you’re quite right
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to talk about us calling it we’re
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characterizing it as a pandemic what
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this really means is we’ve gone from
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what we were saying for weeks we’ll just
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get ready get ready get your ventilators
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ready get your staff ready now we’re
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saying take this really seriously it’s
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here it’s in your communities but you
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still have a chance and this is a the
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the unusual thing about this virus you
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still have a chance to reverse it if you
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take the serious sustained aggressive
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action to find every person who could be
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infected find all the people who’ve been
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in contact with them work with them help
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them understand that it’s to their
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benefit and more importantly to the
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benefit of the people they love that
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they do so if I select they do
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quarantine to prevent onwards spread and
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that we all add three but what you’re
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also saying quite clearly and actually
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alarming is that we haven’t got ready
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enough and we’ve had weeks of this now
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you know you’ve been warning about the
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effects of this you’ve been talking
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about washing hands and in some cases
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self-isolation
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we don’t seem to have done enough and is
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that why we’re in this rather sorry
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state at the moment it’s a very human
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characteristic to like think yeah yeah
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yeah but it’s not me that it’s somewhere
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else it’s somebody else it’s somebody
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else’s problem now it’s everybody’s
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problem and as I was about to say the
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answer is in our hands it sounds simple
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the hand-washing I’m also talking about
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not touching your mouth nose and eyes
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and thinking about the ways not to take
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hand to mouth lots of different ways and
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the other
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really
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important strategy social distancing so
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how can we limit the close physical
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contact which is so much the norm we’ve
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never lived more closely than we do now
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because we are even though we’re spread
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out
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we’re so globalized we’re so close we
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spend so much time actually in close
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physical contact but given that reality
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does that not mean that countries where
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people are still going to schools and
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universities and restaurants and bars
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and museums should not be doing any of
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that
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well every country has an outbreak at a
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different stage so the time when you can
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really stop it is when you’ve got a few
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cases in your community and that’s the
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moment when you identify absolutely
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everybody around them you stop the
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transmission then and you but you also
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really mobilize your entire community
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you get everyone doing the hand-washing
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everyone paying attention to really good
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environmental hygiene everyone
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understanding that might be a few cases
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but stopping this thing is everybody’s
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business and where we’ve seen that
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happen in places like Singapore they
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haven’t stopped it completely but they
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slowed it enough so they are not seeing
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this terrible situation where you’ve got
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hundreds of people in hospital and on
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ventilators overloading the health
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system given that what you just said
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about Singapore should we here in the
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United Kingdom be locking down our
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cities only if you get to a stage where
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you’ve got a really big sustained
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transmission in a particular community
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so this is very much case by case now
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you’ve got a big advantage you’ve got a
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fantastic public health system you’ve
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got very very committed people I’ve
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heard about people being mobilized I’ve
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got friends and so on who are on the
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list on the roster to come in and help
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so you have actually made a lot of
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preparations so you have got the
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advantage but you still probably do need
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to persuade your community that this is
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serious the time to do something about
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it is absolutely right now ok I keep
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pressing you for guidance because you’re
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there and you know about this stuff
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should we shut down
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football matches should be shut down you
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know the Cheltenham race is taking place
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this week with tens of thousands of
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people watching horses you know jump and
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and gallop certainly mass gatherings are
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a problem they are an opportunity for
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people to come in close contact
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especially if they have to queue or
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they’re in situation when they have to
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use public bathrooms and QR but also
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when you organize a mass gathering if
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you decide to go ahead you have to do
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very intense risk assessment and work
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out how to avoid all the incidents all
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the opportunities for people to be
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jammed together not able to maintain the
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hygiene and the social distancing that
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does need to be maintained to protect
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everyone ok dr. Margaret Harris of the
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WTO thank you very much indeed
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let’s go straight to Washington DC where
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we’ll find dr. Johnson quick from the
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Duke Global Health Institute dr. quick
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thanks for coming on the program as well
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I mean what the World Health
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Organization has basically said is the
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China with its extraordinarily draconian
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measures bought the world some time and
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that we’ve kind of squandered it do you
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agree with that no I think two separate
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things are happening I think that the
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the China has indeed done a superb job I
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think what were but in in the rest of
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the world I think there’s been a strong
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response but not strong enough and the
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problem didn’t just start in January the
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the problem you don’t prepare for a
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crisis like this in four weeks and
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globally we have been under investing in
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preparing and we know it clearly six
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months ago the Economist Intelligence
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units unit Johns Hopkins and nti gave us
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our first map of the preparedness of 195
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countries we and four out of five aren’t
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prepared and that’s not a surprise so I
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think we have to recognize that we
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there’s been this pet cycle of panic and
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neglect okay wait I think the first
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corona virus broke out of China right in
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2003 there was thousands of pages of
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reports lots of promises but we’re still
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now almost 20 years later not as
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prepared as we should be much more
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prepared than we were but not as
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prepared as we should be okay this may
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be the wrong analogy but you’ve written
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you’ve written a lot about the Spanish
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flu of 1918 which killed more than 50
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million people worldwide are there any
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mistakes that we should have learnt you
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know after the 1918 Spanish flu that
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we’re committing again this time around
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well the the key the key lessons that
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came out of that is the importance of
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leadership at all levels and so I think
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early on we didn’t have leadership at
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the local level in China that lets them
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some stumbling happen so that’s one and
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and that needs to be everywhere messages
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from the top that are that are
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reassuring there’s some basic principles
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about be first get the information out
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from government sources be credible say
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what you know say what you don’t know
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yet be be empathetic so leadership okay
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you get in there a couple of other
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lessons right sergeant drugs are you
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getting that leadership in the United
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States because Donald Trump has been
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tweeting all sorts of you know
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contradictory things about this virus
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are you getting that leadership in a
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country that matters to all of us the
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u.s. well certainly we we have the
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strongest public health system and CDC
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and the leadership in in the in the
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health community and I think those
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messages have been coming down clearly
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from from people who are who are
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knowledgeable about epidemics and how to
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deal with those epidemics
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okay just briefly well I’m not for done
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sorry do you think that what if you
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think of the United States and in the
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United Kingdom we should be doing what
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the Italians are doing now because if
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we’re not careful we’re going to be like
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Italy in two weeks time so here’s the
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important thing when you have no vaccine
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and you have no proven cure you rely on
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public trust understanding trust
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cooperation if you can it has to be
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based on what’s appropriate for the up
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in that setting if you call the alarm
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bell too early in a particular country
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and too often when you do people are
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going to say it’s them calling the alarm
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bell so one of the principles is that
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each country and in a big country each
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state needs to make that risk assessment
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based on the realities there and then
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move quickly and decisively when it gets
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to the point where it more decisive and
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more the Chinese would say draconian
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action more severe action is needed has
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to be based on the local risk assessment
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okay dr. Jonathan Creek gotta leave it
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there thank you very much indeed for
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joining
stock vector ID: 1629512083