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Opinion | Why China and the US must set aside their differences to tackle the coronavirus crisis
- The Covid-19 outbreak is occurring at a time when global organisations, including the WHO, are weakened, making it imperative for world powers to step up
- Just as they did for the global financial crisis, the US and China should convene a special G20 summit to form a coordinated response to the pandemic, before it kills more people
Reading Time:5 minutes
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Sometimes the most obvious lesson from a global crisis is the hardest one to see.
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The most obvious lesson from the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus is that Planet Earth has become – like the ill-fated Diamond Princess, moored off Japan, and the Grand Princess, moored off California – a virus-infected cruise ship.
In theory, the 7.5 billion inhabitants of planet earth live in 193 separate countries. In practice, these separate countries have functionally become cabins on the same ship. Why? After decades of accelerating globalisation, millions of people, goods and services travel across borders. Viruses take the same routes.
Despite China’s valiant efforts to contain the virus, it has now reached all corners of the earth, with countries as far apart as Italy and South Korea being seriously affected.
One undeniable hard truth is that humanity now lives in a single, deeply interconnected health ecosystem. The data confirms this.
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