WEBVTT - The Virus Explodes in Latin America 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:10.039 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day since coronavirus 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:15.560 was declared a global pandemic. Our main story. The outbreak 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.639 has a new epicenter in Latin America. But why have 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:24.320 some Latin American countries managed to slow new infections while 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:30.320 others are becoming new hotspots. But first, here's what happened 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:44.920 in virus news today. For the first time, a drug 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:49.240 has been shown to improve COVID nineteen patients chances of surviving. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:54.440 It's a low cost anti inflammatory called decks of metha zone, 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.440 and it's been on the market for decades. A studied 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.720 by University of Oxford research chers found that patients who 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.959 needed breathing support were less likely to die over a 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.839 period of four weeks when they were on the drug. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.959 For patients who weren't unventilators or oxygen therapy, there was 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:17.880 no benefit. A number of anti inflammatory drugs are being 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:22.120 studied around the world for helping coronavirus patients cope with 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:29.679 a powerful immune system over reaction sometimes called a cytokind storm. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:34.039 Texas reached a record level of COVID nineteen hospitalizations, with 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.840 the biggest daily jump since June four, according to state 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:43.440 Health Department data. Meanwhile, Florida reported that new cases rose 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.680 to the highest level since the pandemic began. They are 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:54.040 among several states for the coronavirus outbreak is worsening. Finally, 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.440 Beijing has raised its COVID nineteen emergency response to the 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:03.880 second highest level after coronavirus infection cases researched. According to 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:09.680 China Central Television, all schools will restore online courses and 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:19.440 college students will stop returning to campus. And now Today's 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:24.200 main story. As the pandemic spreads around the world, new 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:30.720 hotspots are emerging. Coronavirus is spiking in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.120 and elsewhere, and health experts have called Latin America the 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.840 new epicenter of the pandemic. The America's with more than 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:44.400 three point eight million reported cases, is now the hardest 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:49.320 hit region in the world, but the impact has been uneven. 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.760 Some countries have successfully slowed the rate of new infections, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.600 others see that rate continuing to climb. Bloomberg Senior editor 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.680 Jason Gale spoke with the World Health Organizations half official 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.480 for the region to find out what makes some populations 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:17.239 especially vulnerable. Dr Carrissa Ettian is director of the Pan 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:21.000 American Health Organization. She says the United States has the 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.680 most cases, but other parts of the region are seeing 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.600 an uptick in cases as well. We are seeing rising 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:34.040 levels of transmission, some of them exponentially in Brazil, in 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:40.640 Chile and Peru, in South America, in Mesoamerica, in Mexico 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.400 or So Panama and Costa Rica. At the start of 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.720 the pandemic, Latin American countries closed their borders and issued 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.720 physical distancing measures, but Carissa says the virus eventually came 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:57.080 in with returning travelers. So the early cases of COVID nineteen, 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:05.880 we're returning national who had been to Europe holiday in 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.120 um Spain and Italy and France for the most spat 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.960 and then they were returning home and we're being diagnosed. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.880 These initial cases often had the space and financial resources 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.080 to self isolate, so it was easy to control the spread. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.520 But Chris says eventually COVID reached poor and vulnerable communities 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.120 where transmission was much harder to contain. That was especially 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.359 the case in crowded urban areas within adequate access to 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.600 water and sanitation. In money of our our vulnerable populations. 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.800 They belong to an informal economy, so they have to 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.040 go out every day. They must go out every day 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.599 for their livelihood, and they share public transportation. They cannot 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.239 implement physical distancing. There is no facility for hand washing. 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.799 So in fact, all of the all of the public 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.400 measures that we are insisting to to be able to 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:07.719 protect yourself, they can't. Chris says, there's another reason why 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:12.039 the poor have disproportionately suffered from this outbreak. They don't 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.839 have significant access to health services, even when when the 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.680 government says, well, you can come to health services and 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.960 and it's free, but they are so not used to 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.520 run into a health service for a car, for a 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.440 hold because normally they would have to pay, or the 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.479 services so far away from them. So so that's that's 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:40.560 complicates really the efforts of the government to slow the transmission. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.719 Chris says, the coronavirus is exposing vulnerabilities amongst certain racial 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:51.080 and ethnic groups, the migrant population, the urban urban population 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.120 that are living in low income areas for descendance, so 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.559 the black population in Latin America is a vulnerable group 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.680 as well. We saw around the Amazon Basin. We are 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.919 seeing really large number of outbreaks with large number of cases. 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:12.040 The two most vulnerable groups and even Brazil is your 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.760 Afro descendant population under indigenous population, and when they catch 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.160 the coronavirus, they're more likely to get sicker because they 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.159 already suffer from higher rates of tuberculosis, diabetes, and chronic 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.760 diseases known to increase the severity of COVID nineteen, and 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.839 that also makes them potentially more infectious. They when they 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.520 come into contact with the COVID nineteen case, it just 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:41.120 spreads it in that community. Chris And says Latin America 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.320 is also experiencing arising cases because countries don't have sufficient 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.240 access to gloves, face masks, and other personal protective equipment 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.359 or PPE he needed to keep healthcare workers safe. It 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.400 isn't made locally and shortages have led to infections among 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:01.600 healthcare workers. The percentage rates different from countries to countries. 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:06.360 But yes, we are seeing a moderate level of infection 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:11.400 of healthcare workers because they have no PPS, because they 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:17.120 have to reuse PPS because so um that is a problem. Still, criticists. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.000 Some Caribbean nations have managed to contain transmission. They are 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:27.600 small population, but they very early. They instituted very strict 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:33.160 public health measures. They closed their borders, they instituted lockdowns, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.720 UM severe social distancing. They did a lot of risk 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:42.040 communications as well. They were prepared with testing, they did 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:47.920 contact tracing, the isolated and the quarantine. They were perfect 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:53.240 public health uh case. And I think what has helped 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.520 they in the Speaking Caribbean as well, all of them 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:02.720 have well developed primary healthcare UM systems with public health 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.440 and so they have already healthcare workers in the districts 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.520 who are trained to do contact tracing, who are trained 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.680 to UM, to visit m do home visiting to UM. 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.960 They know where the population lives and who they are. 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.000 Chris says the intensity of COVID nineteen differs across the 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.679 Americas and there's no uniformity and when transmission will peak 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.760 by in large cases a still rising, and modeling predicts 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:34.959 that might continue for some weeks, certainly for countries in 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.120 Latin America and the twelve countries or so, that we 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:43.480 will continue to see UM rise rising transmissions and probably 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.920 the next three or four weeks. Yeah, so in Haiti 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.200 we probably will see peaking maybe in six weeks or 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.599 five weeks. You know what whats us and concerns, as 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:57.480 is that even with the rising transmission um some countries 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.920 are looking to open up to lacks the stay at 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:07.840 home measures and more people entering the workplace, entering society. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.000 Chrissa was responsible for drawing up the Regent's plan for 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.600 an influenza pandemic in two thousands six. She says the 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.960 coronavirus pandemic is nothing like should imagine. COVID nineteen has 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.280 taught her a couple of things, the importance of a 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.960 solid primary health system and equitable access to health care. 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:32.000 I have characterized this pandemic as a crisis of health, 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.719 a crisis of the economy, and a social crisis. And 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:41.199 I think as we go forward, we need to plan differently. 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:46.679 So we need to do social inclusion and and and 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:51.560 look after people's people's needs much better. But I think 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.960 we need to think going forward and with an approach 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.920 that is based on equity, on human rights and solidarity, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:08.520 because really countries cannot think of going it alone. They 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:14.080 have to come together, they have to share experiences. While 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:17.559 economic development has been a major priority for many countries 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.640 in the Americas, the pandemic has shown how quickly and 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:25.760 devastatingly a virus can undermine years, if not decades, of prosperity. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.920 Chrissa says she's no doubt the world will face more pandemics. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:43.839 What's important is that we learn the lessons from this one. 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.079 That was Jason Gale in Melbourne, and that's our show today. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.840 For coverage of the outbreak from around the world, visit 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.720 bloomberg dot com Flash Coronavirus and if you like the show, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.760 please leave us a review and a rate on Apple 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.320 Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:09.120 listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.960 produced by Topher foreheads Jordan gas Pure, Magnus Hendrickson and 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:19.000 me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Jason Gale. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:24.440 Original music by Leo Sidran. Our editors are Francesco Lead 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:29.120 and Rick Shine. Francesco Lead is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:30.680 Thanks for listening.