Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day since coronavirus
Speaker 1: was declared a global pandemic. Our main story. The outbreak
Speaker 1: has a new epicenter in Latin America. But why have
Speaker 1: some Latin American countries managed to slow new infections while
Speaker 1: others are becoming new hotspots. But first, here's what happened
Speaker 1: in virus news today. For the first time, a drug
Speaker 1: has been shown to improve COVID nineteen patients chances of surviving.
Speaker 1: It's a low cost anti inflammatory called decks of metha zone,
Speaker 1: and it's been on the market for decades. A studied
Speaker 1: by University of Oxford research chers found that patients who
Speaker 1: needed breathing support were less likely to die over a
Speaker 1: period of four weeks when they were on the drug.
Speaker 1: For patients who weren't unventilators or oxygen therapy, there was
Speaker 1: no benefit. A number of anti inflammatory drugs are being
Speaker 1: studied around the world for helping coronavirus patients cope with
Speaker 1: a powerful immune system over reaction sometimes called a cytokind storm.
Speaker 1: Texas reached a record level of COVID nineteen hospitalizations, with
Speaker 1: the biggest daily jump since June four, according to state
Speaker 1: Health Department data. Meanwhile, Florida reported that new cases rose
Speaker 1: to the highest level since the pandemic began. They are
Speaker 1: among several states for the coronavirus outbreak is worsening. Finally,
Speaker 1: Beijing has raised its COVID nineteen emergency response to the
Speaker 1: second highest level after coronavirus infection cases researched. According to
Speaker 1: China Central Television, all schools will restore online courses and
Speaker 1: college students will stop returning to campus. And now Today's
Speaker 1: main story. As the pandemic spreads around the world, new
Speaker 1: hotspots are emerging. Coronavirus is spiking in Brazil, Mexico, Peru,
Speaker 1: and elsewhere, and health experts have called Latin America the
Speaker 1: new epicenter of the pandemic. The America's with more than
Speaker 1: three point eight million reported cases, is now the hardest
Speaker 1: hit region in the world, but the impact has been uneven.
Speaker 1: Some countries have successfully slowed the rate of new infections,
Speaker 1: others see that rate continuing to climb. Bloomberg Senior editor
Speaker 1: Jason Gale spoke with the World Health Organizations half official
Speaker 1: for the region to find out what makes some populations
Speaker 1: especially vulnerable. Dr Carrissa Ettian is director of the Pan
Speaker 1: American Health Organization. She says the United States has the
Speaker 1: most cases, but other parts of the region are seeing
Speaker 1: an uptick in cases as well. We are seeing rising
Speaker 1: levels of transmission, some of them exponentially in Brazil, in
Speaker 1: Chile and Peru, in South America, in Mesoamerica, in Mexico
Speaker 1: or So Panama and Costa Rica. At the start of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, Latin American countries closed their borders and issued
Speaker 1: physical distancing measures, but Carissa says the virus eventually came
Speaker 1: in with returning travelers. So the early cases of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: we're returning national who had been to Europe holiday in
Speaker 1: um Spain and Italy and France for the most spat
Speaker 1: and then they were returning home and we're being diagnosed.
Speaker 1: These initial cases often had the space and financial resources
Speaker 1: to self isolate, so it was easy to control the spread.
Speaker 1: But Chris says eventually COVID reached poor and vulnerable communities
Speaker 1: where transmission was much harder to contain. That was especially
Speaker 1: the case in crowded urban areas within adequate access to
Speaker 1: water and sanitation. In money of our our vulnerable populations.
Speaker 1: They belong to an informal economy, so they have to
Speaker 1: go out every day. They must go out every day
Speaker 1: for their livelihood, and they share public transportation. They cannot
Speaker 1: implement physical distancing. There is no facility for hand washing.
Speaker 1: So in fact, all of the all of the public
Speaker 1: measures that we are insisting to to be able to
Speaker 1: protect yourself, they can't. Chris says, there's another reason why
Speaker 1: the poor have disproportionately suffered from this outbreak. They don't
Speaker 1: have significant access to health services, even when when the
Speaker 1: government says, well, you can come to health services and
Speaker 1: and it's free, but they are so not used to
Speaker 1: run into a health service for a car, for a
Speaker 1: hold because normally they would have to pay, or the
Speaker 1: services so far away from them. So so that's that's
Speaker 1: complicates really the efforts of the government to slow the transmission.
Speaker 1: Chris says, the coronavirus is exposing vulnerabilities amongst certain racial
Speaker 1: and ethnic groups, the migrant population, the urban urban population
Speaker 1: that are living in low income areas for descendance, so
Speaker 1: the black population in Latin America is a vulnerable group
Speaker 1: as well. We saw around the Amazon Basin. We are
Speaker 1: seeing really large number of outbreaks with large number of cases.
Speaker 1: The two most vulnerable groups and even Brazil is your
Speaker 1: Afro descendant population under indigenous population, and when they catch
Speaker 1: the coronavirus, they're more likely to get sicker because they
Speaker 1: already suffer from higher rates of tuberculosis, diabetes, and chronic
Speaker 1: diseases known to increase the severity of COVID nineteen, and
Speaker 1: that also makes them potentially more infectious. They when they
Speaker 1: come into contact with the COVID nineteen case, it just
Speaker 1: spreads it in that community. Chris And says Latin America
Speaker 1: is also experiencing arising cases because countries don't have sufficient
Speaker 1: access to gloves, face masks, and other personal protective equipment
Speaker 1: or PPE he needed to keep healthcare workers safe. It
Speaker 1: isn't made locally and shortages have led to infections among
Speaker 1: healthcare workers. The percentage rates different from countries to countries.
Speaker 1: But yes, we are seeing a moderate level of infection
Speaker 1: of healthcare workers because they have no PPS, because they
Speaker 1: have to reuse PPS because so um that is a problem. Still, criticists.
Speaker 1: Some Caribbean nations have managed to contain transmission. They are
Speaker 1: small population, but they very early. They instituted very strict
Speaker 1: public health measures. They closed their borders, they instituted lockdowns,
Speaker 1: UM severe social distancing. They did a lot of risk
Speaker 1: communications as well. They were prepared with testing, they did
Speaker 1: contact tracing, the isolated and the quarantine. They were perfect
Speaker 1: public health uh case. And I think what has helped
Speaker 1: they in the Speaking Caribbean as well, all of them
Speaker 1: have well developed primary healthcare UM systems with public health
Speaker 1: and so they have already healthcare workers in the districts
Speaker 1: who are trained to do contact tracing, who are trained
Speaker 1: to UM, to visit m do home visiting to UM.
Speaker 1: They know where the population lives and who they are.
Speaker 1: Chris says the intensity of COVID nineteen differs across the
Speaker 1: Americas and there's no uniformity and when transmission will peak
Speaker 1: by in large cases a still rising, and modeling predicts
Speaker 1: that might continue for some weeks, certainly for countries in
Speaker 1: Latin America and the twelve countries or so, that we
Speaker 1: will continue to see UM rise rising transmissions and probably
Speaker 1: the next three or four weeks. Yeah, so in Haiti
Speaker 1: we probably will see peaking maybe in six weeks or
Speaker 1: five weeks. You know what whats us and concerns, as
Speaker 1: is that even with the rising transmission um some countries
Speaker 1: are looking to open up to lacks the stay at
Speaker 1: home measures and more people entering the workplace, entering society.
Speaker 1: Chrissa was responsible for drawing up the Regent's plan for
Speaker 1: an influenza pandemic in two thousands six. She says the
Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic is nothing like should imagine. COVID nineteen has
Speaker 1: taught her a couple of things, the importance of a
Speaker 1: solid primary health system and equitable access to health care.
Speaker 1: I have characterized this pandemic as a crisis of health,
Speaker 1: a crisis of the economy, and a social crisis. And
Speaker 1: I think as we go forward, we need to plan differently.
Speaker 1: So we need to do social inclusion and and and
Speaker 1: look after people's people's needs much better. But I think
Speaker 1: we need to think going forward and with an approach
Speaker 1: that is based on equity, on human rights and solidarity,
Speaker 1: because really countries cannot think of going it alone. They
Speaker 1: have to come together, they have to share experiences. While
Speaker 1: economic development has been a major priority for many countries
Speaker 1: in the Americas, the pandemic has shown how quickly and
Speaker 1: devastatingly a virus can undermine years, if not decades, of prosperity.
Speaker 1: Chrissa says she's no doubt the world will face more pandemics.
Speaker 1: What's important is that we learn the lessons from this one.
Speaker 1: That was Jason Gale in Melbourne, and that's our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from around the world, visit
Speaker 1: bloomberg dot com Flash Coronavirus and if you like the show,
Speaker 1: please leave us a review and a rate on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more
Speaker 1: listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is
Speaker 1: produced by Topher foreheads Jordan gas Pure, Magnus Hendrickson and
Speaker 1: me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Jason Gale.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo Sidran. Our editors are Francesco Lead
Speaker 1: and Rick Shine. Francesco Lead is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.