Dr. Sousounis has highlights his observations of climate on historical pandemic outbreaks. He also discusses how climate, if not climate change, may affect the outcome of COVID-19 and future public health crisis’s

Policy making at many companies is scattershot,especially at those that haven’t yet seen the coronavirus directly. Many, such as professionalservices and tech companies, lean very conservative: their protection mechanisms often add to a perception of safety without actually keeping people safer.

Apart from its sheer size, India’s other challenge is the density of its population: 420 people live on each square kilometer (about 0.4 of a square mile), compared with 148 per square kilometer in China. Its cities are crammed with slums and low-income housing clusters where the living conditions are tight.

As COVID-19 spreads across Europe, leaving new patients in its wake, the fear of infection and a saturated health-care system are driving large numbers of people online for medical consultations. Startups like General Atlantic-backed Doctolib and insurer AXA SA-supported Qare in France, Swedish Kry International AB’s unit Livi, the UK’s Push Doctor and Germany’s Compugroup Medical SE that offer up virtual doctors are raking it in.

Nearly three-quarters of all deaths from infectious disease in 2016 happened in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. While just 5% of Europeans die from infections, the rate in Africa is more than 40%.(2) Conditions such as HIV, diarrhea and malaria have seen precipitous declines south of the Sahara in recent years, but diseases of the nose, throat and lungs like influenza remain far more prevalent. After cardiovascular and neonatal conditions, respiratory infections are now the leading cause of death in Africa.