 All right, a very, very good evening everybody who is watching us live on Facebook from Elpro International School and Wapping High at Central London. It is indeed a pleasure to be hosting the first virtual project between the two schools. It's been an honor to partner with Wapping High, which is at Central London. And my heartfelt gratitude goes out to Mr. Gary Nelson, the Head Teacher at Wapping High, and to Ms. Nicolet Sorva, the Assistant Head Teacher at Wapping High, who have been instrumental in ensuring that we see this day where we have our students presenting their first virtual project to you through our simulation of a press conference. I am very honored to have Ms. Nicolet Sorva with us. Nicolet, why don't you say a few things? Well, that was a very, very warm welcome from you. And I just want to say on behalf of the whole school that we've thoroughly enjoyed this project. We're very grateful to you for having invited us to be part of a project and for hosting it today. I think my students have really relished the opportunity to get to know your amazing students and to work collaboratively across continents and via Zoom. And at a time when we're facing a sort of an international crisis and students are in lockdown, it's been an incredible experience to be able to make these links between our students and your students and to work on this great project, which we hope will be the first of many to come. So a special thanks to you, Saganda, for making it all happen and we're looking forward to future projects in the future. Thank you so much, Nicolet. And like you mentioned, yes, I think we've been very excited. The students have put in a lot of hard work and we're very proud of them to kind of do this project so beautifully. I'm sure the audiences will now see what they have to present to us. We also have here Ms. Richa Bhatia, who is the activity in charge of the school again, who has been guiding the students throughout for this project. Richa, why don't you say hello to our audiences? Hi, everyone. Good evening. It has been a wonderful experience working with such wonderful students and the team has put in tremendous efforts for the same. I wish them all the best. Thank you. Thank you, Richa. Before we start and I hand the baton to the students, I'd just like to make a small disclaimer here. Okay. One second. Yeah, so we just wanted to say that the students are simulating the characters that they are playing. However, the thoughts, ideas, and speech presented in this virtual project are of the students research into this topic. They're only simulating the people from different organisations and agencies here. So I think we are good to start. Good afternoon. I am Lucia Prince, Senior Political Editor for the BBC in the UK. And I'm Makang Shamalla, Editor-in-Chief from CNN 18 India. We would like to welcome you to this international broadcast brought to you from the BBC in London in partnership with CNN 18 from India. Today we have brought together some of the most renowned international experts from around the world to explore a number of pressing questions that have arisen from this worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, I would like to introduce Mr. Anthony Fossey, an American physician who has served as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Welcome, sir. Next, we have Mr. Carson Brzezki, who is the Chief Economist, Eurozone, and Global Head of Macro for ING Research. We are honoured to have you here today. We also have among us Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, who will be giving us an insight into the global steps taken to curb the situation. Welcome, sir. And finally, we also have the pleasure of having Mrs. Joyce Missouza with us. Ms. Poussouza is a Tanzanian microbiologist and environmental scientist and serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. Welcome, ma'am. We would like to begin by exploring how our current experience of COVID-19 compares to previous global pandemics. We will then be looking at the choices made by political leaders from different nations to curb its spread. We will also explore the economic impact of the pandemic. Furthermore, we will be asking if there have been any gains during this extended period of lockdown, for example, in environmental terms, and we will also be considering what lessons can be learnt from these events. During the transmission, should we have any questions to put to our experts, please put it in the comment section below. To begin, I would like to introduce our BBC Scarlett Bruin and Domenico Sadaway. Thank you, Lucia. Mr. Poussou, before we understand the global effects of COVID-19, can you talk to us about scientifically how we have dealt with something like this in the past? Is there one common factor that links us to our current one? Hi. Thank you for inviting me. It's absolutely amazing to see such initiators, which will help spread information when our leaders and the common public bank. Coming to your question, there is only one thing I have noticed that has been a recurring theme throughout many of these epidemics. All of these diseases have one thing in common, and that is they all began when an animal virus merged with a human virus to create something so deadly. Talking about a past pandemic, I think it's always been like this. Chaos and panic have led the way rather than medicine and proper policies. Can you tell us about the NAPA virus and the H1N1 flu, which managed to wipe out 24% of the population? Is COVID-19 capable of working on similar lines? Can we stop it from following this pursuit? And what would you suggest to our world leaders? That's indeed a very good question, and I'm very happy to see that we've started off with the basics. Studying and gaining knowledge about past pandemics has always helped us with the present and the future. Talking about the NAPA virus, it is a virus that particularly impacted Asian countries and was started off by a pick-to-human transference. Many measures had to be taken and several towns were quarantined if there was a suspected case anywhere residing in the village, much like today's times. Although this virus is not so rampant in 2020, there is no vaccine for either the humans or animals expected. This is very similar to SARS, which was also belonging to the family of coronaviruses and does not have a vaccine to this day. If we talk about H1N1, the virus which was first detected in the United States and eventually spread across the world. Ten years later, I think we're still working on better understanding this virus and preparing for the next pandemic. However, this virus continues to circulate as a seasonal flu virus and where it causes illness, hospitalization and deaths worldwide every year. So, if you see in a way there are cases where the virus still prevails in our world and we haven't really found a vaccine for it. As of today, a lot of us around the world are working on solving this pandemic and getting ahead. But as I repeatedly said in many interviews, I believe that moving on is not the situation here. We need to fix the problem at hand and adapt to the new normal. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fossey. Today, we also have with us Mr. Karsten Brzezewski, who is the chief economist, Eurozone of macro for ING research. He'll be giving us a critical analysis of the situation in terms of the economic slowdown. Welcome, sir. As Mr. Fossey has already told us about the past pandemics and their relevance with COVID-19, but let's come to the present. Can you give us an overview of the impact on the global economy? Yes, definitely. First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to this platform. It's great to be here today. One thing to understand in these dreaded times is that over 2.2 billion people have been placed under a lockdown in over 40 countries and movement of men and material has been completely paralyzed in many parts of the world, manufacturing logistics, as well as the service sector involving movement are completely shut down almost everywhere, which is the main cause of the dire effect on our economy today. Many of the industries which are severely affected would be the tourism sector, the sports and entertainment sector, the food industry or the building and construction industry. But I feel that the main problem here is that governments are mainly focusing on large industries and large companies. Very few nations have addressed this issue at a micro level. That is true. Can you explain further as to what kind of problems need to be addressed at a micro level? Right, so basically when I say micro level, I mean that every week millions of people across the globe are losing their jobs. Many small businesses and practices are struggling to survive. Daily wage workers have no means of supporting themselves in these times and are completely dependent on local NGOs support groups. But most importantly, they are dependent on their own government. Clearly, these are very hard times for big businesses, small businesses and of course for workers. What about economic projections for the future? Basically in March of this year, the OECD estimated that global growth will be half to nearly 1.5% but that was definitely optimistic because the most recent estimates in June suggest an unprecedented collapse in the first half of 2020 and almost 13% decline in the global GDP. I have a very interesting graph here to show our audience. So if you have a look at the projections for 2019, 2020 and 2021, you will notice that most nations have seen a decreased annual percentage change in GDP and a lot of them have entered negative territory as well for 2020 and even though we will be bouncing back in 2021, it is obvious that all the support packages that nations have been giving out right now will have long lasting and complex effects. So it is important that they handle the situation right now very efficiently otherwise it can have dire effects in the long term. Thank you, Mr. Brzezky. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, we have heard here about the terrible economic impact some people and their jobs. So can you throw us some line on the steps countries can take or have taken to provide relief to their citizens in such difficult times? That's a great question. So during previous economic crises, a number of countries actually turn quickly to stimulus packages. In many cases, this included building more coal power plants, upgrading roads, investing in heavy industries such as automobile manufacturing and more. And actually following that old playbook to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic would be a terrible mistake as it would just amplify the air pollution health crisis, another huge and upcoming crisis. And why weather conditions due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have already been described as a silver lining to the coronavirus lockdown. And at the same time, many people have already expressed concern that this improving condition will not continue after lockdown ends and the situation will continue to worsen. As countries look to give their economies a much needed jolt in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, governments and companies essentially have two choices. They can either lock in decades of polluting inefficient high carbon and unsustainable development or they can use this as an opportunity to accelerate the inevitable shift to low carbon and increasingly affordable energy and transport systems that will bring long term economic benefits. And the latter will also fight two major health crises, that is air pollution and the growing climate emergency. Mrs. Mysusa, what are your views on the situation highlighted by Mr. Ban Ki-moon? Well, to be honest, I was expecting this question. Another lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has certainly led to weather changes that just cannot be ignored and left unnoticed. We're experiencing clearer skies, improving air quality, decreasing carbon emissions. And the reason as to why this is happening is rather simple. Transport use, electricity demand and industrial activity have reduced, streets are empty, cities are silent, factories are closed, vehicle traffic is also reduced. And all of this is giving the planet a much needed respite. Now it might be right to say that the coronavirus lockdown has been good to the environment. I agree that these conditions will not last long if pre-pandemic activities continue with the same vigor even after the pandemic. Okay, could you also suggest ways we can protect the environment even after lockdown ends? Definitely. Considering the growth in the tertiary sector, telecommuting from home, for those who can, even just for a couple of days a week, can have a marked reduction in terms of emissions. Governments must not backtrack on the massive air quality gains post the COVID-19 crisis. They need to move towards renewable energy faster instead of using coal and non-renewable energy. And carbon projects is also an affordable measure to keep climatic conditions from deteriorating. Mr. Fauci, we understand the virus has created an impact everywhere, but you previously talked about how studying history is a much better approach to solving these issues. When we do look at the past pandemic, they had an impact which is much more severe in comparison to COVID-19. If this is the case, then how did governments react when trying to aid people in staying safe? Yes, I definitely agree. So if you're seeing the governments didn't really know what to do, which is the case in many countries today as well. So what happened then was that people were ordered to wear masks, schools and theatres were closed, and bodies were piled up in makeshift masks. Now, during those times, if we see the medical industry had not advanced as much as today, so temporary solutions were viable. However, today when we have the technology and money, it is our duty to use it. We're a global village, therefore it should have been easier for us to combat these certain discrepancies and move forward. If we do want solutions to the problem at hand then honestly setting up research labs, promoting hands-on learning and encouraging global communication should be our go-to answer. I suggest our political leaders do not go about imitating policies which are incompetent and honestly raise a question towards your leadership. Okay, so thank you. Mr. Brzezinski, as Mr. Fauci mentioned, today our economy is based on globalization and most companies have manufacturing units dispersed all over different countries. So how has the global lockdown impacted international trade and manufacturing? That's a very good question actually. So basically, trade and output are having unavoidable declines and they will have painful consequences for households and businesses on top of the human suffering that is already caused by the disease itself. I think a major impact on companies was due to the initial lockdown in China. For a few years now, China has been the central manufacturing hub of many global business operations. So any disruption in China's output is sure to have repercussions elsewhere through regional and global value chains. But I feel that at a time like this, keeping trade flowing requires cooperation and trust. For example, that the market will supply central that countries will not impose export restrictions and imports will not pose health risks. It would be very easy for our audience to understand the trend of trade with this representation over here. So if you can see, even after the financial depression of 2008 and 2009, we were never really able to go back to how we were before the depression, which is dotted by the gray line. And coming to the years 2020, 2020, 2021 and 2022, you see that there are two scenarios. The red line shows the pessimistic scenario and the green one shows the optimistic scenario. Both of which suggest that there will be a rebound in trade and manufacturing, but it would be very difficult for us to match to what we were before, which is the yellow line over here. So I feel that right now it would be unrealistic to keep hoping that we would go back to something that we were before, but we can definitely work towards efficiently managing everything right now, so that this does not leave long lasting effect. Mrs. Mysisa, Mr. Brzezky just spoke about the decrease in manufacturing and it is a fact that all kinds of manufacturing results in a significant carbon footprint. So once manufacturing and trade starts rising again, we need alternatives to ensure that carbon emissions do not start soaring again. In your previous answer, you talked about carbon projects as a solution for improving climatic conditions. Could you elaborate more on the carbon projects? Definitely. I would love to give an example of the carbon project in the Tula Hills of Southeast Kenya. Now over here, income from the sale of carbon credits as a result of the region's critical forests, woodlands and grasslands being protected and are providing a cushion to local communities when the areas other main employer, in this case ecotourism, is on hold. The project aims at providing the community with infrastructure including water tanks, cattle crushes and around 400 beehives. We can also take an example of the Altimao Forest in Peru, where a similar carbon project has reduced illegal deforestation by about 75%. Another notable point is that in this area, when COVID-19 exposed to put on hold, income from carbon credits was able to ensure that people could remain employed and fed, making this an incredible initiative to help sustain the ecosystem and to ensure sustainable employment. However, we would need a combined and coordinated effort of governments and citizens to actually achieve our goal. Currently, some countries have changed several of their environmental policies and these decisions shall heavily influence the air, water and wildlife around us. So while carbon projects is a way to sustain and take care of the environment, its goal cannot be achieved if a combined effort is important. Mr. Prizesti, Mrs. Matuza has just given us quite an insight as to how carbon projects can significantly decrease the growth of carbon footprint. It is known that crews or production contribute to around 5% of the global total carbon emissions and during the past few months, oil demand has fallen a great deal, which definitely has led to a positive impact on the environment. But economically, what kind of repercussions are op-ed nations going to face due to this? So basically, first of all, it is important to understand that the lockdown measures put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19 represent an unprecedented shock to the global oil demand right now. I would like to talk to our audience about a condition called super contango that has sent oil markets into a frenzy. So basically, a contango market implies that oil traders believe crude prices will rally in the future. Thus, what prices are being offered at super discounts to future prices. But then this year, oil prices fell due to the lockdown and this time gap widened tremendously. So if you have a look at the crude oil prices over the years, you will see that even in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, oil prices did not dip as low as they did now. And on April 20 of this year, we made history when oil prices closed off at minus $37 a barrel, which technically means that producers had to pay people to get stock off their hands. And this is something which would be very, very difficult for nations who completely depend on crude oil for their income, for example, Algeria and Nigeria, who require the prices to be around $100 per barrel to balance their government books and to prevent their economy from completely crushing. If that's the case, then why don't companies announce an temporary cut down on production of oil? The thing is, keeping aside the theoretical aspects of this, operationally, there is only up to a certain extent that a company can reduce production. To cut production further, they may have to seal their oil wells and thus risk losing their asset permanently. And strategically, this would also mean recurring capital and abandonment expenditures for the company when the market does revive, and they will be losing their market share to their competitors in the long run. So if major oil producing nations like the OPEC countries choose to do this, their currency might devalue significantly. Can you give us some specifics on the impact on Saudi Arabia considering that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received a lot of criticism for bidding discount on oil prices in early 2020? Right. So basically, this price war began between Saudi Arabia and Russia when Saudi Arabia failed to convince Russia to reduce production of oil, an agreement that had been reached with all the members of the OPEC group. So early March, Saudi Arabia decided to ram up its oil production and offered discounts to buyers in a bid to win market share because it failed to reach an agreement with Russia. But the thing is, by the time the Saudis, Russians and other major oil producers agreed to cut output, it was already too late. Daily demand had already fallen by more than 20 million barrels a day because of the lockdown. And as a thing is, Saudi Arabia is a nation that is still recovering from its last major drop in oil prices in 2014. Over that, Saudi Arabia suffered even more because they stopped all the pilgrimages, including the annual hedge to Mecca, which hasn't been interrupted in a very, very long time. So the irony of the situation rests in the fact that Saudi Arabia triggered this oil price war to punish Russia, a country which is far less vulnerable to drops in the price of crude oil as compared to Saudi Arabia itself. Thank you, Mr. Brzezky. Like crude oil, plastic waste and plastic pollution continue to remain a contributor to land degradation, and its hazardous effects are very well known. Ms. Masisa, can you tell us if the coronavirus lockdown resulted in a decrease of its usage? If yes, how could we ensure that such a decrease continues in the future? You know, it's truly remarkable to see how so many questions deal with certain futuristic ideals to effectively tackle climate change. So private companies like Apple are using plastic to make and provide face shields and they were planning to ship 1 million face shields to hospitals in the United States every week. So it has an entirely led to the decrease in the usage, but we can see that during the pandemic, steps were and are being taken to use plastic efficiently. As for solutions, countries should invest in sustainable disposable infrastructure, improving waste collection systems, and they can do so by splitting the islands into zones to make the most efficient use of shared resources. Plastic recycling centers should also be set up. Now over here, plastic would be recycled to obtain fuel from it, and this fuel can be distributed in villages for various purposes, as a replacement for kerosene and for generators and in boilers, making it a very efficient solution. Thank you, Ms. Masisa. I think we have discussed and understood the environmental repercussions of the COVID-19 lockdown at length. Let's talk about the humanitarian aspect of it. Billions of people have filed for unemployment in these difficult times. Mr. Brzezki, can you tell us which sectors have seen the highest level of unemployment? Right. So basically the international labour organization has estimated that globally more than 25 million jobs would be threatened due to the spread of coronavirus. If you see the US, UK, Canada, and most of the European and Asian countries have already begun to register huge job losses, leading to a significant rise in the unemployment rate. Now, there are high concerns for low-paid and low-skilled informal workers, especially in low and middle income countries, where the proportion of such workers is very high, and they completely lack any kind of social protection. And the thing is that this sudden loss of livelihood would have a horrifying impact on them. Also, casual workers are more vulnerable right now because of their irregular nature of work and the daily wage payment. Even regular salaried or contractual skilled workers and shopkeepers who may be sitting at home idle right now or have returned to their native places may not be able to recover their jobs once they come back after the lockdown is over. And if you think about small entrepreneurs or self-employed people, many of them will not be left with the capital to restart their business after this lockdown is over. I think Mr. Bankimol will be able to give us some insight as to what kind of steps governments can take to provide relief in such a situation. Thank you, Mr. Brzezki. Mr. Brzezki has raised some great points and has given a great encapsulation on the whole scenario. However, to provide more information to the spectators here, I would just like to show you guys some data. When we see this graph over here, there's this enormous and very concerning spike in this unemployment rate, in this unemployment rate, which was certainly a huge concern to the whole world community. And now to share some more information about this, for combating this as a whole, countries, regions and cities can quickly develop a grassroots view of where jobs are at a risk and where there is additional demand for labour, either by sector, occupation and geography. And that view needs to put special focus on small businesses and the most unsafe workers, including those in the gig economy and the informal sector. We need to build smart cross-sector solutions to get that help to them fast. As governments prepare to reopen economies post lockdown, they need to find smart ways to maximize employment and protect against new infections. Again, as Mr. Brzezki just said, special focus will be needed on restarting and supporting small businesses, which account for a majority of jobs in most countries. At the same time, governments and businesses will need to create new mechanisms to help people whose jobs are at a risk and redeploy them into occupations in which the labour demand still outstrips the supplier and rapidly builds the skills needed for their new roles. So these are particular ways that countries, regions and cities, which they can adapt to make this a much more safer situation for all. As Mr. Ban Ki-moon pointed out, we need to find smart ways to protect ourselves against the new infection and how new viruses, strains may be related to the ones we already know about. So I think Mr. Fucci, a common question that arise often is how similar COVID-19 is to SARS and MERS, considering that there are all strains from the same disease. I definitely agree with what Mr. Brzezki and Mr. Moon have just highlighted and that is why I believe we encourage research rather than speeches and political vendetta. Talking about the corona viruses, as you mentioned, they are actually more similar than we think. They all mutate, as most viruses do, and their symptoms can be quite similar. However, SARS and MERS are much harder to catch because of their low R0. So there has never been a much worldwide scare like the COVID-19 has been. So if you see this comparison chart that I will just share with you, you see that all of these are respiratory viral infections. That is, they will mainly impact your this region. Now, if you see the fatality rate of SARS and MERS is much higher. That is why some people dread being caught by it. However, catching the virus as a whole is much low. Therefore, the scare has been more in terms of COVID-19 rather than the other corona viruses. Oh, no. The one word that everybody has been on their mouth. Since the virus originated, can you tell us what this means and how it impacts the virus? Definitely. The reproduction number or R0 is a mathematical term that tells you how contagious or infectious a disease can be. Specifically, it's the number of people who catch the disease from one sick person in an outbreak, if you see. Now, this very clear picture will show you how R0, so patient zero is basically the first person to contract the virus. He spreads it to two people and they eventually spread it to other people. So if you see eventually, it goes on to spreading to other people. Now, if we compare viruses as a whole, you see the COVID-19. It has an R0 that sits around two to 2.5. That means one person who is infected can spread it to two to 2.5 people on an average when nobody's vaccinated. Apologies. The H1N1 virus, however, sits at 1.2 and 1.6, which is comparatively low to the COVID-19. The Ebola virus and measles, if you've heard of it, measles is one of the viruses that has a very, very high R0. It sits around 18. That means one infected person can spread it across to 18 other people, again, when nobody's vaccinated. So if you see R0 is not, R0 is basically helping us to understand how contagious or how infectious a disease is. And when we compare it across several pandemics, we see COVID-19 is still on the lower side when compared to diseases like measles, Spanish flu, H1N1, but considered deadly when we compare it to viruses like Ebola, SARS, and MERS. Thank you. So we have just heard about a lot of contagious diseases, but there are so many things that we, living in developed nations, do not understand. For example, how are countries that are already suffering from a humanitarian crisis, like Yemen, being impacted, and how can they possibly cope with this added pressure of a pandemic? That is actually an excellent question, but the problem is that it doesn't have a very clear answer because it is very hard to get a clear picture of the condition in such nations where a humanitarian crisis is going on for the simple reason that there are no trusted sources of information, and the media does not show us the correct picture. But coming to Yemen, perhaps no other country is more vulnerable to COVID-19's depredations than Yemen is right now because even before the virus's arrival, the country was grappling with the world's largest humanitarian crisis in the world as a result of their ongoing civil war. So Yemen's official coronavirus caseload is actually among the lowest in the Middle East, but that is most certainly misleading because the WHO has recorded only about 253 confirmed cases in a population of 28 million people, and in neighboring Oman, authorities have confirmed over 8,000 cases with a population of 1,600 sites. So the thing is, Yemen has a miniscule case count only because of the near total absence of testing. And now after staging massive aid operations in Yemen for so many years, the United Nations itself is running out of cash as donations from member countries who are busy battling COVID-19 on their own turf right now. And if you think about it, after years of war and after years of having no proper services, people in general don't trust what the media says and they don't trust the authorities. Yemen is a nation where people are already suffering from widespread starvation, a malaria epidemic and a cholera outbreak. And at this point, donations and NGOs are not a sustainable option. A child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen, and the only way possible in which we can prevent Yemen from getting completely wiped out from the face of the globe is by providing political stability, something that only Saudi Arabia and the United States can accomplish there. Thank you, Mr. Brzezky. The condition of people in Yemen is shocking, and we would like to remind our spectators that Yemen needs our attention, and we urge all of you to take any step possible in raising awareness and making donations. Thank you, Mrs. Maesusa. I would now like to talk to you about the effects lockdown has had on the fauna. For example, the lack of human presence has led to the return of certain wild animals in urban and rural areas. Should these effects be considered a positive or a negative thing? Well, in previous answers, I talked about lockdown and how it means a lot less traffic on the roads and less pollution. And clearly, this gives wildlife space to thrive. However, it means some people are being driven to extremes to support themselves through poaching. Yet another threat for wild animals. During lockdown, people can't go to work, especially those in the informal market, because these people rely on going out every single day to make ends meet and come back with some food. And this is leading to an increase in poaching for bush meat. Animals hunted for bush meat are not the only ones at risk. The rhino, which is poached for its hunt, is also vulnerable. Now, international travel restrictions may have hampered wildlife trafficking across borders, but it is also leaving wild animals in the wild with much less protection. On the other hand, however, bees during lockdown are finally getting a break. One of the biggest environmental impacts of the global shutdown has been the significant reduction in air pollution. The pollutants break down the scent molecules emitted by plants, making it harder for bees to detect food. This means they often end up flying further to find food and bring it back to their desks. In a world with less air pollution, these can make shorter and more profitable trips, and this may have been rare more young. So it would be right to say that lockdown has had both positive and negative effects on animals, and I've given proof of both of them. And what steps should be taken for the welfare of vulnerable wild animals? Yet again, carbon projects will fit in as a solution, along with solutions like backyard poverty reduction. Because this shall dramatically reduce pressure on terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, and is one way of ensuring food security, and trying to reduce the scarring amounts of bush meat hunting. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Ryuse spoke about food security, and this is a major issue in nations with a higher population. So isn't it harder for a nation with larger population to deal with a pandemic like this? How will a country like India provide effective relief to their citizens? So that's a great question and a very valid observation. So considering the fact that managing pandemics in large countries like India is extremely tough, and action plans should be formulated, such that the policy decisions are taken on both a central and a grassroot level. So what the central government of India should probably be doing now is firstly expanding training and deploying healthcare and public health workforce, secondly, implementing a system to find every suspected case at a community level, thirdly, ramping up production capacity and availability of testing, and lastly, identifying, adapting and equipping facilities to manage risk, treat and isolate patients. So these measures are the best way to suppress and stop transmission so that when restrictions are lifted, the virus won't resurge. And the last thing any country needs is to open school and schools and businesses only to be forced to close them against because of resurgence. In times like this, coordination between central and state governments will be crucial. So what do you think the state government should be doing to curb this situation? Absolutely correct. Coordination is very valid at this time. So what the state government should be doing right now is arrangements for testing, making arrangements for isolation and treatment of mild and moderate cases. Thirdly, they need to make arrangements for treatment of severe patients and for providing critical care. And lastly, addressing human resource requirements and ensuring supply chain management. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Some people have argued that the coronavirus pandemic is a blessing in disguise. Mrs. Mysisa, what are your views on this statement? Well, that is a great question and I'm very glad someone brought that up. Now, I would definitely agree with the fact that this pandemic has given us time to reflect on our actions. We know that pollution is reducing and nature is in a way reclaiming itself. And I've also given reason to support that fact in previous answers. And there's a rather interesting graph that I would like to show for everyone. So this graph shows that more people think that climate change is as important as coronavirus, that the percentage of people agree that in the long term, climate change is as serious a crisis as COVID-19. Now, once people have seen and realized that the condition around them is improving, it might appeal to their conscience and make them work for the betterment of the environment. So this has allowed us to think and to deliberate and to understand that this positive impact on the environment may be temporary and that governments and individuals should learn from this lockdown on how to reduce pollution in the long term. Thank you, Mrs. Mysisa. Finally, I would like to ask Mr. Bozeski, how long is it going to take to rebuild the global economic forward due to this pandemic? I think that is a question that a lot of countries are looking to answer. But the thing is, this isn't a question that has a definite answer. But I want you to consider our history. So let's take the greatest session that was brought on by fundamental overreach in 2008. Now, there were underlying problems in the economy. There was too much debt. There was overbuilding of housing. We were just overextended and that was hard to cure. It took us a long time to work up those things. But what just happened now, there was nothing like a housing bubble or the extraordinarily high levels of household debt we had in 2008. That was just an act of nature that forced us to shut down a large part of our economy. So you don't have that kind of underlying drag from the past excesses that we had last time. And I think that once the threat of the virus lives, it will not take us long to get back on our feet. What do you exactly mean by when the virus lives? See, basically everything hinges on epidemiology. In the 1918 influenza outbreak, there was a first wave that proceeded and then a monstrous second wave. And that unfortunately does look like a real possibility for us. If this virus hangs in there, then all my arguments about how the economic scarring from this is not so severe that we can't recover fast enough will become completely irrelevant because we cannot recover fast if the virus is still hanging around. So do you think that once we make a full recovery from the virus, we will economically be able to go back to how we were before the pandemic? So full recovery is a tough standard. Absent a vaccine or herd immunity, there will probably still be some drag. We may have an interesting situation where the economy is growing quite rapidly starting later this year or early next year. But we are so far down that rapid growth still doesn't get us back to where we started. And at the end, it comes down to individual nations and how efficiently they manage this situation. For some particular nations right now, their presidents are prioritizing their economy over the health of their citizens. And this will only lead to distress for the authorities among the citizens and condemnation from the global community. Mr. Futschi, Mrs. Brzezki spoke about the importance of epidemiology in economic recovery. So as an expert, do you think that there will be a second wave of this virus? And do you think that we will handle it any better than last time? Second wave, that's what a lot of people have been talking about. But my only question would be why create chaos when we haven't even started dealing with the first wave. In my opinion, definitely, there will be a second wave of the COVID-19. But waiting for it to happen isn't the real deal here. The first wave is getting worse in its sense and we need much more effective policy implementation. If we do want to talk about a second wave, then obviously I would hope things aren't handled in the same way. I think that prevention techniques are essential in its sense. But if you see, we should also look at long-term solutions. If you do look at past global pandemics, they have used the same methods of preventing the spread of these diseases. Washing hands is effective against any communicable disease. But it should definitely not be the only call for action. For this, I have repeatedly suggested interactions between our political leaders and hopefully one day they will listen to me. But till then, all I ask is a general public take care of themselves. This is the new normal and it won't go away easily. Interactive session. I'm glad you brought this up. Sitting here, I have seen that a lot of us have repeatedly mentioned that there's no going back to what we were. Honestly, there might not be a pass to return to. This pandemic has helped us realize that maybe it's time for reformations. Reformations in our political institutions, reformations in our medical institutions, and reformations in our social institutions. We have to work hard and we have to start the chain somewhere. This is not the end, but the beginning to a new world. This might sound a little philosophical, but that is how our world works. Someone has to do the preaching. Honestly, I would have left it to our beloved president, but clearly he has important matters to attend to. And thus we experts have to step in into these August gatherings and address the general public and ask you to just be safe. I would like to thank all our experts today who have covered a wide range of topics and given us a lot of food for thought. We now like to open the debate with some questions from our viewers who have been commenting the questions throughout today's program. And the first question that we have here is, what is the impact on the insurance industries or the environment, entertainment industries? Mr. Prasatsky, would you like to put you on that? Yeah, sure. We didn't go into the details of the effect on separate industries, but I can address insurance and entertainment industries because if you think about it, obviously in the insurance industry, there has been a surge in the number of people who asked for health insurance or medical insurance. And at the same time, there has been a dip in travel insurance because of all the travel restrictions. So it kind of depends on the type of insurance that a company is offering. And then you can decide what kind of effect has been on them. When you come to the entertainment industry, now the entertainment industry is a big one. If you talk about malls, shopping centers, and theaters, they have obviously been closed down for quite some time now. And they have had a negative impact. And even if you talk about theme parks like Universal Studios or Disney, which have been closed for over two to three months now, have had severe impacts. Actually, coincidentally, I think Disney in Florida is opening today and Disney in France is opening tomorrow. And especially Disney World in Florida has seen a lot of criticism to this decision, simply because Florida is one of the states with the highest number of cases and the highest number of deaths. But I think the United States has already shown us where their priorities lie at this point, so I will not be commenting on that. Coming back to other kinds of media, I think digital media like video games or streaming platforms have definitely had more users in the past few months because as we know, everybody has been stuck at home. So they've definitely seen an increase in their users which has had a positive impact on them. So yeah, I think that's about covers it all. And if we go deep into them, there are a lot of separate, what do you call, subsets in all these industries, which will have different kinds of effects in the end. Another question we have been asked is, we haven't seen our political leaders be too vocal about the current scenario. Are they afraid of what is going to happen or are they're afraid of taking care of it and don't want to create panic? This is directed to Anthony Vossi. That's indeed a very good question and I'm really glad that it just popped up after Mr. Brzezinski highlighted where our political leaders main platform stands. So yes, to a certain extent, firstly I thought that the absence of political leaders here was because they were afraid of dealing with this all of a sudden because we could see that this year could have been the set for World Wars and Cold War and several political vendetta that has been going on. But now that I see there are several nations and I am privileged to live in a world where I get to see such leaders step in, especially when we have female leaders stepping up specifically in New Zealand and Germany where they have worked very hard and they are helping their citizens. I wouldn't wish the same from our president as well but we've seen he does what he wants. He has his own priorities. But yes, we will work on it and I'm pretty sure that there will be a great outcome of all this and we'll come back stronger. Thank you for your input, Mr. Fossey. And the next question is directed to Mr. Ban Ki-moon. How important is international cooperation between nations in tackling this pandemic? Sir, please go ahead. Thank you. So this is absolutely true as the former Secretary General of the United Nations and organization aiming at international cooperation. And as Dr. Fauci just said, this is a global village and international cooperation will aid the situation in so many aspects. Whether it is effective vaccine development and deployment, whether it is continued surveillance to detect the re-emergence of the virus or whether it is the continuous and strong support for less developed countries such as Yemen, international cooperation will go a long way in solving this crisis. Thank you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. We have another question. Telecommuting is a solution that everyone cannot afford. In that case, what alternatives could we have? Any of you would like to pitch in on that? Since I think I talked about telecommuting, I would like to answer this question. So I did highlight the fact that telecommuting can happen when and where it is possible, considering the tremendous growth in the tertiary sector. But otherwise, the main agenda remains the same, that is to reduce carbon emissions and to reduce vehicle traffic. Now, while telecommuting may not always work because not everyone can afford to do that. What we can suggest, keeping in mind that agenda powers is to walk shorter distances than using a bike or a scooter or a car. So again, what I would like to say is that we have to put in a combined effort to this. I think coincidentally, Mr. Brizarski talked about Disneyland and there's a very good quote that I found by Mr. Walt Disney that says that whatever we accomplish in the end will belong to the entire group as a tribute to a combined effort. So keeping in mind the fact that all of us together can make a change and irrespective of the fact that telecommuting cannot be afforded a hundred other things that we can do. All right. Thank you, Ms. Misusa. And that is all we have time for for today. We'd like to thank all our guests today who have been interviewed by our team of reporters. We'd also like to thank you for joining us today. This program has been brought to you from BBC UK. And from CNN 18 India with the support of students from Wapping High School London and Alper International School Pune. Goodbye and take care. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us and thank you students. I think there's a huge round of applause for everybody, your thoughts, your researches, your statements and the entire presentation that you put in together was indeed commendable. I congratulate all of you. And I encourage you to continue to be on this path where you all read, read and learn more. So thank you. I think it was a great presentation. Nicolette, why don't you say something? I just want to congratulate the students. They've done a huge amount of research and I think you can tell they have become real experts. And actually this is only the tip of the iceberg. The other research they've done on many other case studies and nations is quite incredible and it's been terrific to see today. And just a really exciting collaboration between the two schools and we very much hope that we'll be able to do something like this again in the future. Well done. All right on then with that note we leave for today and thank you to all the viewers who have joined us on Facebook and punched in all your questions which our panelists have answered. Thank you very much for joining. Bye-bye.