Earlier this month an official of the World Health Organisation said other governments need to prepare for domestic outbreak control if the coronavirus spreads in their countries.

The number of coronavirus cases rose alarmingly surpassing the number in the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS. The rapid spread of the virus prompted the WHO to declare it as a global emergency.

In this context one must also take a look at a disturbing revelation made by Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard University. He has predicted that between 40 to 70% adults in the world are likely become infected with coronavirus.

In this context, BJP, MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar poses a very important question. He asks if 40 to 70% of the adults around the world could potentially be victims of coronavirus, should the world not be suing China for this. China must pay the costs of this pandemic, he also said.

This disturbing revelation by Lipsitch was made in an interview with Noah Feldman. The podcast by Noah Feldman is titled The Coronavirus is not going away. Feldman says that it is a question that could soon become an urgent one. I recently interviewed Marc Lipsitch, the brilliant epidemiologist who runs the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health.

 

 

He says in the interview that based on past pandemics and current information, 40 to 70% of adults in the world are likely to catch the virus in the absence of strong countermeasures. Between 1 and 2% of them could die, he also said.

The WHO representative in Beijing, Gauden Galea, says that most cases reported so far have been the people who visited China or their family members. The agency has acted out of concern for poorer countries that might not be equipped to respond. This calls for a coordinated international response and it can bring both money and resources.

A Harvard Business Review article predicted that the peak of the impact on the global supply chains will occur in mid-March forcing thousands of companies to throttle down or temporarily shut assembly and manufacturing plants in the US and Europe. The most vulnerable are those companies which rely heavily or solely on factories in China for parts and materials, the report also states. The report says that we must brace for a major effect on manufacturing worldwide. It will begin to hit full force in two to three weeks and could last for months, the article written by Pierre Haren and David Simchi-Levi also says.

Replying to Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s tweet, several users agreed that China should compensate to the world. The severity was caused due to a cover from day one.

 

 

Another user wrote that China hid critical information and also tried convincing others that the virus did not originate from their country. This has led to such a critical situation and the virus has spread to 50 countries, they also said.