Action Cost/Deaths Ratios For Covid-19, Malaria, Infant Health,  Starvation, Poverty & Pollution

coronavirus india lockdown

The world has been forced to adopt economically hugely expensive lockdown measures to stem the huge mortality associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. However the global Action Cost/Deaths ratio is about $3 million per death for tackling the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic but merely about $9,000 per death for tackling malaria that massively and disproportionately impacts the Developing World. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over the World must seriously reassess global humanitarian obligations. Brown and black lives matter.

Unfortunately US President Donald Trump has added to his appalling record of Stupidity, Ignorance and Egregious Greed (SIEG as with Dr Strangelove and “Sieg Heil!” ) by doing the precise opposite through  suspending America’s $400 million annual contribution to the vital World Health Organization (WHO) on the basis of alleged WHO and China tardiness over the worsening Covid-19 emergency [1]. The first case of Covid-19 in China may have been on 17 November 2019 but the Chinese Government notified the WHO that the first  confirmed case had been diagnosed on 8 December 2020,  and (tardily) notified the world about human-to-human transmission of coronavirus on 21 January 2020 [2]. According to the WHO: “Since 2 January 2020, the three levels of WHO (China country office, Regional Office for the Western Pacific and headquarters) have been working together to respond to this outbreak of COVID-19. On 30 January, WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). On 11 March, WHO Director General characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic”[3].

In contrast, Trump’s criminal tardiness over Covid-19 is summarized thus by Julian Borger of the UK Guardian (15 April 2020): “By early February the WHO was in a position to distribute a Covid-19 test worldwide, but the US government opted not to have it fast-tracked through approval. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instead produced its own test at about the same time, but it was flawed and had to be recalled. US testing would be set back more than six weeks compared to the rest of the world. While virtually no testing was under way in the US throughout February, Trump assumed the consequently low number of confirmed US cases meant that his country had somehow escaped. “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,” he boasted on 24 February, nearly a month after the WHO declaration of emergency. “We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health [Organisation] have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”” [1]. Indeed in mid-April 2020 SIEG Trump is threatening to stop the lockdown measure that is crucial for stemming the Covid-19 disaster, and has compounded this criminal idiocy by controversially declaring that only he as President (rather than State governors) has the power to order this [4].

Notwithstanding  saturation Mainstream media coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and the daily reportage of more Covid-19 cases and more Covid-19 deaths, endlessly mendacious Western Mainstream media resolutely refrain from highlighting  routine, pre-Covid-19 mass mortality in the Developing World (minus China) from other deadly impositions such as malaria and poverty. However Alternative media have enabled truth-tellers to evade this Mainstream media Wall of Silence about massive pre-Covid-19 avoidable mortality in the global South. Thus, for example,  my opinion as an Australian scientist and humanitarian truth-teller rendered  “invisible” by endlessly censoring, US-dominated Australian Mainstream media: “We are all shocked by the Covid-19-related carnage in Western Europe and the US in particular and fervently hope for an early end to the disaster. However it is timely to note huge avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China) prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Best-case Covid-19 Suppression scenarios for the rich UK and rich Australia  predict “annual Covid-19-related deaths as a percentage of population”  of  about 0.03% pa. In contrast, “annual avoidable  deaths from deprivation as a percentage of population” is already a shocking  0.30% pa for the Developing World (minus China), 0.60% pa for  Indigenous Australians, and variously about 0.1% pa – 0.4% pa for  Developing Countries [e.g. Morocco, India, Indonesia, Fiji]  that have been popular holiday destinations for relatively rich British and Australian tourists” [5].

Famous expatriate Australian  journalist and humanitarian truth teller, John Pilger,  has powerfully compared  the Covid-19 pandemic with pre-Covid-19 avoidable mass mortality in the global South  (13 March 2020): “A pandemic has been declared, [for Covid-19] but not for the 24,600 who die every day from unnecessary starvation, and not for 3,000 children who die every day from preventable malaria, and not for the 10,000 people who die every day because they are denied publicly-funded healthcare, and not for the hundreds of Venezuelans and Iranians who die every day because America’s blockade denies them life-saving medicines, and not for the hundreds of mostly children bombed or starved to death every day in Yemen, in a war supplied and kept going, profitably, by America and Britain. Before you panic, consider them” [6, 7]. My hero John Pilger is spot on – 15.2 million people in the Developing World (minus China) die avoidably from deprivation or deprivation-exacerbated disease each year i.e. 41, 615 people die avoidably thus each day in the Third World (the global South) [5, 8].

Implicit in John Pilger’s comment is the notion of effective humanitarian action in response to all ongoing  mass mortality events, not just those such as the Covid-19 pandemic that also impact rich, First World, “White” countries of the global North . Below are set out examples of ongoing mass mortality events, including  the  Covid-19 pandemic, together with estimates of the  financial cost of the required urgent actions for dealing with these disasters. The key parameters in this analysis are “deaths per annum” (“deaths pa”), “deaths per day” , “deaths as a percentage of sub-group population”, and the ”cost of actions taken” (“Action Cost”).  “Deaths” is a measure of the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis to be addressed.   “Cost of action” (“Action Cost”)  measures the financial cost of the measures taken to address the humanitarian crisis. Accordingly, as set out below,  the Action Cost / Deaths ratio – the amount spent trying to prevent each death – is a key parameter for comparing how the world has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and to other humanitarian disasters. The results are shocking.

(1). Covid-19 pandemic –  $9 trillion cost over 2 years, 1.44 million deaths pa, 3,943 deaths per day, Action Cost/Deaths ratio $3.13 million per death.

Al Jazeera has reported (14 April 2020): “The International Monetary Fund says the coronavirus pandemic will cost the world’s economies $9 trillion over the next two years. The extreme warning comes as countries around the world face prolonged lockdown as they try to contain the outbreak. The IMF’s chief economist described the crisis as the worst economic shock since the Great Depression of the 1930s” [9].

As of 15 April 2020 total Covid-19 deaths totalled 126,597 with about 95%  occurring in the previous month [10]. Assuming that it doesn’t get worse, and that this quasi-linear death rate continues for 12 months we can crudely estimate 12 x 0.95 x 126,597 deaths = 1.44 million Covid-19 deaths over 12 months and 1,440,000 deaths/365.25 days = 3,943 Covid-19 deaths per day (cf John Pilger’s “24,600 who die every day from unnecessary starvation” [6, 7]).  Accordingly,  the Action Cost/Deaths ratio for the forthcoming year would be $4,500,000 million/ 1.44 million deaths = $3.13 million per death.

By way of comparison, the Action Cost/Deaths ratio in relation to trying to stop malaria that kills 0.4 million people annually is a mere $8,889 spent per death pa (see section (2) below) i.e. 352 times less than that spent per death trying to stop the Covid-19 pandemic.

(2) Malaria – 0.405 million deaths pa, 1,109 deaths per day, $3.6 billion action cost pa, Action Cost/Deaths ratio $8889 per death.

The WHO on malaria (2018): “Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable. In 2018, there were an estimated 228 million cases of malaria worldwide. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 405 000 in 2018 [1,109 deaths per day]. Children aged under 5 years are the most vulnerable group affected by malaria; in 2018, they accounted for 67% (272 000) of all malaria deaths worldwide. The WHO African Region carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2018, the region was home to 93% of malaria cases and 94% of malaria deaths. Total funding for malaria control and elimination reached an estimated US$ 2.7 billion in 2018. Contributions from governments of endemic countries amounted to US$ 900 million, representing 30% of total funding” [11].

Assuming the approximation that essentially all of the annual malaria deaths are occurring in the Developing World (Minus China), the annual malaria deaths as a percentage of this  population = 0.405 million x 100/ 5,050 million = 0.008% pa or about 4 times less than annual UK Coveid-19 deaths as a percentage of population (0.03% pa [5]).

Therese Raphael of Bloomberg (6 April 2020): “As the crisis drags on, there’s also the key question of an exit strategy. The economic cost of lockdown [for the UK]  is estimated at 2.4 billion pounds ($2.73 billion) a day” [12]. $2.73 billion a day for the cost of Covid-19 lockdown in the UK corresponds to $997 billion per year (pa)  for a crisis in which 20,000 will die in a year [55 per day] [13-15] as an acute measure of seriousness  i.e. $997,000 million/20,000 deaths = $50 million spent per death pa. Compare this to $3.6 billion pa for the malaria crisis in which 405,000 die each year i.e. $3,600 million /0.405 million deaths = $8,889 spent per death pa –  5, 625 times less than the Action Cost/Deaths ratio of $50 million per death  for the UK Covid-19 crisis.  Brown and black lives matter, indeed.

(3). Deaths from starvation – 9 million starvation deaths pa, 24,641 deaths per day, Action Cost / Deaths ratio $27,367 per death.

Voice of America (VOA) (2019):  “Today, some 821 million people suffer chronically from hunger. And although this is significantly fewer people than the numbers we saw a decade ago, hunger still kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. On May 28th, we observe World Hunger Day. It is an effort to focus attention on the fact that despite global progress, some 21,000 people still die every day from hunger or malnutrition. People do not go hungry because the world does not produce enough food for everyone. According to the world Hunger Education Service, over the past three decades, significant growth in food production, along with improved access to food, helped reduce the percentage of chronically undernourished people in developing countries from 34 percent to 15 percent. The principal problem is that many people in the world still do not have sufficient resources to purchase or grow enough nutritious food.   Indeed, hunger is a consequence of poverty, and also one of its causes[16].

The Mercy Corps (2018): “Many hungry people live in countries with food surpluses, not food shortages. The issue, largely, is that the people who need food the most simply don’t have steady access to it. In the hungriest countries, families struggle to get the food they need because of several issues: lack of infrastructure like roads and storage facilities, frequent war and displacement, natural disaster, climate change, and chronic poverty. The majority of those who are hungry live in countries experiencing ongoing conflict and violence — 489 million of 821 million. The numbers are even more striking for children. More than 75 percent of the world’s malnourished children (122 million of 155 million) live in countries affected by conflict…Up to one-third of the food produced around the world is never consumed… Around 9 million people die of hunger and hunger-related diseases every year, more than the lives taken by AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined” [17].

The Mercy Corps estimate of  9 million annual deaths from hunger and hunger-related diseases each year corresponds to 24,641 deaths per day (as reported by John Pilger [6, 7])  and 9 million deaths pa x 100 /7,600 million people = 0.12% of the global population dying from starvation pa.  However if we assume that these hunger-related deaths are overwhelmingly confined to the Developing World (minus China) (2020 population 5.05 billion [18]), then the 9 million deaths pa as a percentage of this sub-group population = 9 million pa x 100/ 5,050 million = 0.18% pa. Assuming that a per capita GDP of about $300 (as in the very poorest countries [19] )  represents bare subsistence existence [18] and that 821 million people suffer hunger [16], then one can estimate an Action Cost / Deaths ratio of $300 per person x 821 million persons /  9 million starvation deaths = $27,367 per death as compared to $3.13 million per death for global Covid-19 deaths (see section (1) above)  or $50 million per death for UK Covid-19 deaths (see (2) above).

(4). Under-5 infant deaths – 5.07 million deaths pa, 13,881 deaths per day, Action Cost / Death ratio $32,770 per death.

The United Nation Population Division estimates for 2020 that the impoverished Developing World (minus China) has a population of 5,050 million,  and that the birth rate is 21.85 per thousand of population i.e. 21.85 per thousand pa 46 x 5,050,000 thousand  = 110.3 million births pa. The under-5 infant death rate is 46 per 1,000 live births pa  i.e.  46 per thousand pa x 110,300 thousand = 5.07 million pa , or 13,881 per day. The annual  under-5 infant deaths as a percentage of the population of the Developing World (minus China) = 5.07 million pa x 100/ 5,050 million = 0.10% pa. By way of comparison, the annual UK  Covid-19 deaths expected for a “best case Covid-19 Suppression scenario” as a percentage of the UK population is 20,000 pa x 100/ 67.5 million people = 0.03% or over 3 times lower [13-15].

For low income countries the annual health expenditure per capita is $32.9 per head [21]. Assuming that essentially all the under-5 infant deaths are occurring in Developing Countries (minus China),  the Action Cost / Death ratio for under-5 year old infants is $32.9 per person x 5,050 million persons / 5.07 million under-5 deaths = $32,770 per death as compared to $3.13 million per death for global Covid-19 deaths (see section (1) above)  or $50 million per death for (UK Covid-19 deaths (see (2) above).  All lives are of equal value but as a 75 year old and thus in a  high risk group from Covid-19 [20],  I think I am permitted to state that most of the Covid-19 deaths in the prosperous UK are of people who have lived most of their lives as compared to the Third World under-5 year old infants who have just started their lives.

(5). Annual avoidable deaths from deprivation in Developing Counties (minus China) – 15.2 million pa, 41,615 per day,  0.03% of population pa, Action Cost / Death ratio $10,931 per death.

In wealthy countries there is a high life expectancy because of top medical services and in many cases universal health care for everyone. However in poor Developing  Countries deprivation through war or hegemony can have a big impact on mortality rate. Avoidable mortality from deprivation (avoidable death, excess death, excess mortality, premature death, untimely death, death that should have happened)  can be defined  as the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics (i.e. similar birth rate and percentage of children). Using UN Population Division data  it is possible to estimate avoidable mortality for all countries (for a detailed account of the methodology as applied to Developing Countries or Developed Countries (see Chapter 2 [4]).

The “annual avoidable mortality from deprivation” can be expressed as a percentage of the population and has been estimated as follows for various parts of Humanity (2003): 0.0% (Overseas Europe), 0.01% (East Asia),  0.03% (Latin America and Caribbean), 0.05% (Western Europe), 0.25% (Arab North Africa and Middle East ), 0.26% (Central Asia, Iran and Turkey), 0.26% (South East Asia), 0.31% (Eastern Europe),  0.38% (South Asia), 0.39% (Pacific), and 0.97% (Non-Arab Africa) [8].  

The “annual avoidable mortality from deprivation as a percentage of the population” is effectively about 0% for Overseas Europe (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Apartheid Israel), China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the wealthy Arab Gulf States and Cuba. In contrast, this parameter is 0.35% for India (2003 data) [8]. Assuming a baseline mortality of 4 deaths per 1,000 of population per year one can calculate from current UN data that  presently each year 15.2  million people die avoidably from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China), this representing 15.2 million x 100/ 5,050.2 million = 0.30% pa [8]. Annual avoidable deaths from deprivation presently total 4.55 million for capitalist ostensible democracy India (population 1.353 billion) i.e. 0.34% pa. In contrast annual avoidable death from deprivation as a percentage of population is 0.0% pa  for pluralist and One Party State China (2020) and 0.04% pa for the UK (2003 data, [8]).

Covid-19 is largely preventable with rapid total lockdown, social distancing, hygiene, infection testing, contact tracing,  and the very best medical intervention [13-15]. In contrast, prevention of the presently  huge avoidable mortality from deprivation in the global South requires  basic sustenance and good primary health care. For low income countries – countries in which most of the annual 15.2 million avoidable deaths from deprivation occur [8] – the annual health expenditure per capita is $32.9 per head [21]. Accordingly the Action Cost / deaths ratio is $32.9 per head x 5,050 million / 15.2 million = $10,931 per death, as compared to $3.13 million per death for global Covid-19 deaths (see section (1) above)  or $50 million per death for UK Covid-19 deaths (see (2) above).

(6).   Air pollution deaths – 9 million pa, 24,641 per day, 0.12% of population pa, Carbon Debt (carbon burning subsidy) increasing at $12.8 trillion pa, Action Cost/Deaths a shocking MINUS $1.42 million per death.

Air pollution from the burning of carbon fuels results in the death of 9 million people annually [22-25].  The Lancet Commission on pollution and health concluded (2017): “For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths” [23]. Annual pollution deaths as a percentage  of population” = 9 million deaths pa x 100/7,600 million people = 0.12% pa .

Deliberately and conveniently ignored  by the One Percenters dominating the global carbon economy  are air pollution deaths due to the long-term effects of toxic pollutants from carbon fuel burning e.g. carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), radioactivity, heavy metals, and  fine carbon particulates (e.g. PM2.5). By way of example, Australia is among world leaders in 16 areas of climate criminality [26,  27]. Australia with 0.3% of the world’s population contributes about 5% of global GHG pollution (including that due to the burning of Australia’s world leading gas and coal exports) [27]. Of the 9 million people dying  from air pollution each year,   75,000 are dying from the effects of pollutants from the burning of Australian coal Exports, and 10,000 are   Australians [25]. The recent huge bushfires that destroyed 20% of Mainland Australian forests generated huge amounts of toxic smoke that blanketed  3 capital cities (Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne). Informed Australians  await the long-term consequences of this exposure of millions of fellow Australians to toxic smoke [26]. It is estimated that pollutants from the burning of coal exports over the lifetime  of the initially  proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland would eventually kill 1.4 million India end-users. Of course both the pro-coal Coalition (COALition) Government  and the pro-coal Labor Opposition approved a modified form of this deadly scheme [28, 29].

The technical solutions are available although one notes that even if air pollution were totally removed now there would still be many premature deaths due to the long-term impacts of air pollution. The solutions that can be implemented immediately  include 100% renewable energy, electric vehicles, minimizing private transport, maximizing public transport, and  cessation of polluting air and sea travel [30]. Ironically the required lockdown solution to the  Covid-19 pandemic is making a big contribution to decreasing deadly air pollution.

9 million air pollution deaths per year corresponds to 24,641  air pollution deaths per day as compared to an estimated 3,943 Covid-19 deaths per day for the 1 year period of mid-April 2020-mid-April 2021. Whereas Covid-19 deaths have been addressed with a huge and economically crippling expenditure of $3.13 million per death and $4.5 trillion per year, governments throughout the world do the converse by hugely  subsidizing carbon fuel burning and consequent deadly air pollution. Thus assuming a damage-related  Carbon Price of $200 per tonne of CO2 [31, 32],  one can estimate that the world has an inescapable  Carbon Debt of $200-250 trillion, and that the annual increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution of 63.8 Gt CO2-equivalent [33] corresponds to an annual increase of Carbon Debt of $12.8 trillion [34-36].

The annual increase in Carbon Debt of $12.8 trillion  is a real, inescapable and negative Action Cost and accordingly the Action Cost/Deaths ratio for air pollution is minus $12.8 trillion pa/ 9 million air pollution deaths pa = MINUS $1.42 million per death (i.e. a massive subsidy promoting  pollution deaths), whereas  the Covid-19 pandemic is associated with Action Costs totalling  plus $4.5 trillion pa, 1.44 million deaths pa, and an Action Cost/Deaths ratio of  PLUS $3.13 million per death.

Final comments.

The Action Cost/Deaths ratio is a crucial measure of global responsiveness to particular deadly circumstances, and has been estimated as (1) $3.13 million per death (in response to 1.44 million Covid-19 deaths pa) as compared to (2) $8889 per death (re 0.405 million malaria deaths pa), (3) $27,367 per death (re  9 million starvation deaths pa), (4) $32,770 per death (re 5.07 million under-5 infant deaths pa), (5) $10,931 per death (re 15.2 million annual avoidable deaths from deprivation in Developing Counties (minus China)) and (6) MINUS $1.42 million per death ( re 9 million air pollution deaths pa that are deliberately and knowingly  subsidized by an annual increase of $12.8 trillion in inescapable Carbon Debt).

The  Action Cost of $4.5 trillion pa  to address the Covid-19 pandemic is as advised by medical experts and is obviously desirable. This huge expenditure represents  the sum of the huge economic cost of the crucial  lockdown measures taken in each  country, noting that the bigger the economy the bigger the economic cost. One supposes that most of this Covid-19 Action Cost reflects the economic downturn in the rich, One Percenter-dominated  global North.

The Action Cost/Death ratios for a variety of pre-Covid-19 and continuing mass mortality tragedies that variously disproportionately impact the global South can be expressed as a percentage of the  Action Cost/Death ratio for Covid-19 and are as follows: 0.28% (malaria), 0.35% (deprivation), 0.87% (starvation), and 1.05% (under-5 infant mortality).

In short, the endlessly greedy, neoliberal One Percenters of the North who dominate the global economy simply do not care for the 5 billion human beings of the global South. Indeed Development Aid  as a percentage of GDP ranges from 0.15% (US) and 0.26% (Australia) to 1.14% (Norway) and 1.36% (Sweden) [37]. Put simply, each year 15.2 million people die avoidably from deprivation or deprivation-exacerbated disease on Spaceship Earth with One Percenters in charge of the flight deck [8].

The One Percenters are prepared to accept a gigantic, intra-national Action Cost/ Deaths ratio for Covid-19 of about $3.13 million per death globally  ($50 million per death in the UK) because the non-living coronavirus (that can only replicate within infected target animal cells) operates blindly and independent of the Forbes 500 Index of the world’s wealthiest  people.  That said, the wealthy do have better access to top medical care than the poor  and, for example,  Hispanics and African Americans are significantly  more susceptible to Covid-19 than White Americans, the New York Times reporting that “In Chicago, more than 70 percent of the deaths related to the coronavirus were among black residents, though black residents make up only a third of the city’s population. In Michigan, black residents make up just 14 percent of the population, but over 40 percent of the Covid-19 deaths”  [38]. Nevertheless, our One Percenter rulers recognize that obscene wealth does not guarantee protection from Covid-19.  Indeed the UK Guardian reports: “The world’s richest people are chartering private jets to set off for holiday homes or specially prepared disaster bunkers in countries that, so far, appear to have avoided the worst of the Covid-19 outbreak. Many are understood to be taking personal doctors or nurses on their flights to treat them and their families in the event that they become infected” [39].

We are all deeply  impressed by the courage and dedication of health workers and readily accept the economically hugely expensive lockdown measures are for the common good  and that we “are all in this together”. There is hope that this general altruism and unity that has significantly replaced neoliberal greed  in this time of contagion will continue after vaccines spell the end of the pandemic.

Thus Arundhati Roy (Indian social activist,  writer,  and author of “The God of Small Things” and “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”) on Covid-19 social consequences (4 April 2020): “Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could… Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it” [40].

There is a  huge 100-360-fold disparity between the  Action Cost/Deaths ratio for Covid-19 versus the Action Cost/Deaths  ratios for ongoing, comparable and indeed much greater mass mortality disasters (ongoing malaria deaths, starvation deaths, infant deaths, and avoidable deaths from deprivation). Indeed the global economy actually subsidizes 9 million annual deaths from air pollution to the tune of $1.42 million per death. We must imagine and demand another world in which these deadly realities are acknowledged and addressed. Unfortunately, despite increased intra-national altruism in this Time of Covid-19 , One Percenter-dominated Mainstream media largely ignore these immense moral discrepancies.  Arundhati Roy has provided a succinct explanation for Mainstream lying by omission over such appalling social realities (2004):  “The ultimate privilege of the élite is not just their deluxe lifestyles, but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience” [41].

Decent people imagining and demanding  a decent future world must penetrate the Mainstream media Wall of Silence by informing everyone they can.

References.

[1]. Julian Borger, “Trump turns against WHO to mask his own stark failings on Covid-19 crisis”, Guardian, 15 April 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-against-who-to-mask-his-own-stark-failings-on-covid-19-crisis .

[2]. Helen Davidson, “First Covid-19 case happened in November [2019], China Government records show – report”, Guardian, 13 March 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/first-covid-19-case-happened-in-november-china-government-records-show-report .

[3]. World Health Organization (WHO), “Coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) outbreak”, 2020: https://www.who.int/westernpacific/emergencies/covid-19 .

 

[4]. “Coronavirus: Trump feuds with governors over authority”, BBC News, 14 April 2020: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52274969 .

 

[5]. Gideon Polya, “UK-Australia COVID-19 deaths, deprivation deaths in Developing countries, Indigenous avoidable deaths”, Global Research, 8 April 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/uk-australian-covid-19-deaths-versus-developing-country-indigenous-avoidable-deaths-deprivation/5708948 .

 

[6]. John Pilger, Facebook, 13 March 2020: https://www.facebook.com/pilgerwebsite/posts/a-pandemic-has-been-declared-but-not-for-the-24600-who-die-every-day-from-unnece/2727412360661549/ .

 

[7]. John Pilger   quoted in “Here is what legendary journalist John Pilger said about coronavirus outbreak”, The Week, 12 March 2020: https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2020/03/12/here-is-what-legendary-journalist-john-pilger-said-about-coronavirus-outbreak.html .

 

[8]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, this including an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .

 

[9]. Al Jazeera, “IMF: COVID-19 crisis will cost economy $9 trillion over two years”, Al Jazeera, 14 April 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knoJczU07ic .

 

[10]. Worldometer, “Corona virus”, 15 April2020: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ .

 

[11]. WHO, “Malaria”, 14 January 2020: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria .

 

[12]. Therese Raphael, “Britain’s government wasn’t built for a coronavirus crisis”, Bloomberg, 6 April 2020: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-06/boris-johnson-in-hospital-makes-u-k-covid-19-crisis-much-harder .

 

[13]. [5]. Neil M. Ferguson and 30 colleagues. “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and health care demand”, Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, 16 March 2020: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf.

[14]. Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart, John Burn-Murdoch and Alex Barker, “The shocking coronavirus study that rocked the UK and US”, Financial Times, 19 March 2020:  https://www.ft.com/content/16764a22-69ca-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75 .

[15]. Gideon Polya, “COVID-19 Pandemic & Coronavirus Suppression – Should Australian Schools Close? ”, Countercurrents, 22 March 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/covid-19-pandemic-coronavirus-suppression-should-australian-schools-close .

[16]. Voice of America (VOA), “World Hunger Day 2019”, VOA, 28 May 2019: https://editorials.voa.gov/a/world-hunger-day-2019/4935420.html .

 

[17]. Mercy Corps, “The facts: what you need to know about global hunger”, Mercy Corps, 1 October 2018: https://www.mercycorps.org/blog/quick-facts-global-hunger .

 

[18]. UN Population Division, “World Population Prospects”: https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/ .

[19]. “List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita .

[20].  Jason Oke and  Carl Heneghan, “Global Covid-19 Case Fatality rates”, Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM), 17 March 2020: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/global-covid-19-case-fatality-rates/ .

 

[21]. World Bank, “Current health expenditure per capita”, 2017: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?locations=ZW-XM  .

 

[22]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .

 

[23]. Philip  J. Landrigan et al., “The Lancet Commission on pollution and health”, The Lancet, Vol. 391, No. 10119, 2017: https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/pollution-and-health .

 

[24]. Damian Carrington, “Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens ”survival of human societies””, Guardian,  21 October 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/19/global-pollution-kills-millions-threatens-survival-human-societies .

[25]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .

[26]. Gideon Polya, “Trumpist climate change denial, Australian bushfires,  fuel reduction, biochar & Carbon Debt”, Countercurrents, 10 January 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/trumpist-climate-change-denial-australian-bushfires-fuel-reduction-biochar-carbon-debt .

 

[27]. Gideon Polya, “Methane leakage makes Australia a world leading per capita greenhouse gas polluter”, Global Research, 19 February 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/methane-leakage-makes-australia-world-leading-per-capita-greenhouse-gas-polluter/5704047 .

 

[28]. Gideon Polya, “Latest Lancet data imply Adani Australian coal project  will kill 1.4 million Indians”, Countercurrents, 21 April 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/04/latest-lancet-data-imply-adani-australian-coal-project-will-kill-1-4-million-indians .

 

[29]. Gideon Polya, “Rampant Orwellian falsehood in neoliberal Australia – and in your country too?”, Countercurrents, 1 March 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/rampant-orwellian-falsehood-in-neoliberal-australia-and-in-your-country-too .

 

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Wrong way go back – global sectoral greenhouse gas emissions are all in the wrong direction”, Countercurrents, 20 March 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/wrong-way-go-back-global-sectoral-greenhouse-gas-emissions-are-all-in-the-wrong-direction .

[31]. Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9, 2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/media/assets/wp1109.pdf .

[32]. James Hansen, “Climate change in a nutshell: the gathering storm”, Columbia University, 18 December 2018: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2018/20181206_Nutshell.pdf  .

[33]. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6704/c7a0777c82357704d82b9ae8007c1197cb07.pdf?_ga=2.187734888.1597394103.1556059730-1006954717.1556059730  .

[34]. “Gas is dirty energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/gas-is-dirty-energy .

[35]. “Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/home .

[36]. Gideon Polya, “Inescapable $200-250 trillion global Carbon Debt increasing by $16 trillion annually”, Countercurrents, 27 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/inescapable-200-250-trillion-global-carbon-debt-increasing-by-16-trillion-annually-gideon-polya .

 

[37]. “List of development aid country donors”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors .

 

[38]. “How to save Black and Hispnaic lives in a pandemic”, New York Times, 11 April 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/opinion/coronavirus-poor-black-latino.html .

 

[39]. Rupert Neate, “Super-rich jet off to disaster bunkers amid coronavirus outbreak”,  Guardian, 12 March 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/disease-dodging-worried-wealthy-jet-off-to-disaster-bunkers .

 

[40]. Arundhati Roy, “The epidemic is a portal”, Financial Times, 4 April 2020: https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca .

 

[41]. Arundhati Roy and David Barsamian,  “The Chequebook and the Cruise Missile”, Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.

 

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript   ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: https://countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/  ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine  ;  Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home  ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/  .


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