It started in Wuhan a few
months ago and has spread everywhere .. .. do you know that China is not in the
top 5 in terms of no. of people killed by the dreaded virus. United States tops the list, followed by
Italy, Spain, France & United Kingdom !
US
President Donald Trump has now halted
funding to the World Health Organisation over its handling of the coronavirus
pandemic, drawing condemnation from infectious disease experts as the global
death toll continued to mount. Trump, who has reacted angrily to criticism of
his administration’s response to the worst epidemic in a century, has become
increasingly hostile towards the WHO. The Geneva-based organisation had
promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider
outbreak than otherwise would have occurred, Trump said. “The WHO failed in
this basic duty and must be held accountable,” Trump told a White House news
conference on Tuesday.
Nearly
two million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died
since the disease emerged in China late last year, according to a Reuters
tally. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised with
Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its “unfathomable” support of
re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered animals are sold
and where the coronavirus first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.
In Europe, carmakers
initially seemed little inclined to support hospitals, medical workers and the
health industry to cope with the consequences of COVID-19. By the looks of it,
it’s mainly the OEMs headquartered in a highly affected country that are starting
to do something for the community – or at least communicate about it. The first OEM to speak out was FCA. Italy
being the country with the most victims and the highest need for support and
FCA playing an important societal role as one of the country’s largest
employers, it only seems logical they should do something. On March 19, the
Italian carmaker said it was in talks, together with Ferrari and Magneti
Marelli, with the nation’s biggest ventilator manufacturer (Siare Engineering)
to help boost the production from just 160 machines per month today to 500 in a
few months’ time.
Now that France sees the
COVID-19 numbers rise dramatically, PSA is making great efforts in
collaboration with Valeo and Schneider Electric to help Air Liquide Medical
Systems increase ventilator production by building components. By the middle of
May, some 10,000 units should be produced.
In Spain, Renault workers are using 3D printers to manufacture visors
for health workers from home. SEAT has converted part of its Leon factory in
Martorell to produce simplified automated ventilators using windscreen wiper
motors, gearbox shafts and gearbox housings. The ventilators were designed by a
team of engineers and are now undergoing final testing before approval is given
for mass production. In Belgium, the
Audi factory is working together with the Brussels VUB University to develop a
similar solution. A prototype developed by the university’s FabLab robotics
division is currently being assessed for approval and could already be built by
Audi later this week. Support is also given by Volvo's Ghent factory, even
though not officially so. It goes without saying that these devices are less
advanced than conventional ventilators, but they are able to do the job for
patients who need assistance in breathing but are not in the most critical of
conditions.
Meantime, a number of
European governments have rejected Chinese-made equipment designed to combat
the coronavirus outbreak. Thousands of testing kits and medical masks are below
standard or defective, according to authorities in Spain, Turkey and the
Netherlands. On Saturday, the Dutch health ministry announced it had recalled
600,000 face masks. The equipment had arrived from a Chinese manufacturer on 21
March, and had already been distributed to front-line medical teams. Dutch
officials said that the masks did not fit and that their filters did not work
as intended, even though they had a quality certificate. Spain’s government encountered similar
problems with testing kits ordered from a Chinese company. It announced it had
bought hundreds of thousands of tests to combat the virus, but revealed in the
following days that nearly 60,000 could not accurately determine if a patient
had the virus.
The Chinese embassy in
Spain tweeted that the company behind the kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology,
did not have an official license from Chinese medical authorities to sell its
products. It clarified that separate material donated by the Chinese government
and technology and retail group Alibaba did not include products from Shenzhen
Bioeasy. Allegations of defective equipment come after critics warned China
could be using the coronavirus outbreak to further its influence.
On a different note, a few
days ago, furious Germany accused US of 'modern day piracy' after 200,000 3M
face masks - destined for Berlin - were intercepted at Bangkok Airport and
flown to America instead - as France claimed Donald Trump was offering 'cash on
the tarmac' for medical kits. It was a
case of shipment of 200,000 FFP2 and FFP3 masks were made by the US company 3M
which has a factory in China. They were on their way to healthcare workers in
Berlin but the masks never arrived. Instead, German officials allege the
protective equipment was intercepted at Bangkok Airport and instead flown to
the US. 'We consider that an act of modern piracy,' Berlin's interior minister
Andreas Geisel blasted.
A spokesperson for Berlin
police later clarified that the masks
were bought at a higher price by a mystery buyer in Thailand - and their
whereabouts is unknown. The dispute came
after the White House condemned 3M for producing face masks for overseas
countries instead of focusing solely on the US.
The leader of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, also
accused unidentified Americans of swooping in with cash at the last minute to
secure shipments already promised to French buyers.
Shipping company Geodis was
responsible for the organisation of 16 flights by two chartered cargo planes,
reported World Cargo News. A senior US official on Thursday rejected
allegations from French politicians that Americans had accroached the French
shipment during the coronavirus crisis, calling the stories 'completely false.'
~ World Trade – and reaction
to Corona .. ..
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
15.4.2o20.
No comments:
Post a Comment