Globalization: Health & Pandemics PDF Spring 2023/2024

GLOBALIZATION: HEALTH & PANDEMICS SPRING 2023/2024 BACKGROUND Throughout human history, globalization and pandemics have been closely intertwined. The Black Death arrived in Europe in October 1347 when twelve trading ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. The word qu...

GLOBALIZATION: HEALTH & PANDEMICS SPRING 2023/2024 BACKGROUND Throughout human history, globalization and pandemics have been closely intertwined. The Black Death arrived in Europe in October 1347 when twelve trading ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. The word quarantine originates from the Italian word for a forty- day period of isolation required of ships and their crews during the Black Death pandemic. TRANSMITTED DISEASES Much more recently, on January 21, 2020, the first human-to-human infections of Covid-19 in Europe are presumed to have taken place in Starnberg, Germany, when a local car parts supplier organized a training session with a Chinese colleague from its operation in Wuhan, China. The level of complexity around containing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases has increased with the ease and increased frequency of global travel, along with greater global social, economic, and political integration. International travel is seen as one of the main human influences on the emergence, re-emergence, and transmission of infectious diseases in the 21st Century. GLOBALIZED COUNTRIES More globalized countries and, in particular, global cities are at the heart of human influence on infectious diseases; these modern, densely populated urban centers are highly interconnected with the world economy in terms of social mobility, trade, and international travel. One might assume that given their high exposure to infectious diseases, globalized countries would be more willing than less globalized countries to adopt screening, quarantine, travel restriction, and border control measures during times of mass disease outbreaks. However, given their globalized nature, globalized countries are also likely to favor less protectionist policies in general, thus, contradicting the assumption above. GLOBALIZED COUNTRIES Greater economic globalization may indicate slower policy adoption due to: 1. Legally binding travel and trade agreements/regulations 2. Economic losses 3. Social issues due to family relations that cross borders Moreover, the costs of closing are comparatively higher for open countries than for already protective nations. For example, more globalized countries are more likely to experience financial or economic penalties when implementing health policies that aim to improve the health of local populations such as import restrictions or bans on certain food groups/products and product labeling. GLOBALIZED COUNTRIES Also, countries that rely on international students and tourism and have a high number of expats living and working abroad might be even less likely to close their borders or implement travel restrictions to avoid economic losses. Membership and commitments to international organizations, treaties, and binding trade agreements might also prevent or inhibit them from legally doing so, suggesting there are social, trade, and political motivators to maintain ‘open’ borders. EMERGENCE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES Thus, greater globalization and the trade agreements and openness which often come with it, makes a country more susceptible to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Greater connectedness and integration within a global society naturally increases the interactions between diverse populations and the pathways through which potential pathogens can travel and hence, emerge in a local population. And in some situations, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, city lockdowns, and travel restrictions may serve as control measures when pharmaceutical options such as vaccines are not yet available. INTERNATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS (IHR) The WHO International Sanitary Regulations were adopted under Article 21 of the WHO constitution by the Fourth World Health Assembly in May 1951 as a revision and consolidation of International Sanitary Conventions that have roots in the International Sanitary Conferences of the 19th century. These regulations were again revised in 1969 and renamed the IHR. The regulations were originally adopted to protect public health from the spread of certain infectious diseases amid growing international trade links across the world. Despite the further intensification of trade and other global links in recent decades, the regulations remain the only existing international legislation to protect public health from a global threat of selected transmissible diseases. The IHR is important in confronting the health security threats posed by the globalization of infectious diseases. DEBATE QUESTION “The beauty standards have been deliberately manipulated by the West.” GROUP I GROUP E FOR AGAINST 1. Amna Salim Ali Hassan Alhosani 1. Moza Saif Saeed Khasaif Alteneiji 2. Haneen Ahmed Abdulla Ismail Alhammadi 2. Shamma Abdalla Rashid Allay Alnaqbi 3. Hessa Mohamad Mudhfar Mohamad Yousuf 3. Shaikha Mubarak Ahmad Aldakhan Al-ali Sultan 4. Maryam Khalid Saeed Bin Sulaiman 4. Hamad Hussain Murad Ibrahim Al-ali 5. Maha Mohamed Ahmed Ali Al-ali