One infected person in Yemen, no deaths to lament! Every morning and throughout the day, we are bombarded with astonishing and contradictory data, the meaning of which often eludes us. Worldwide, 2.4 million people infected, more than 160,000 deaths; 760,000 positive cases and 40,000 deaths in the United States, the world's leading power! Some clarifications are in order: 1) Information related to Covid-19 depends on statistics. In the absence of statistics, there is a good chance nothing will be done. As far as the number of infections is concerned, this obviously depends on the number of tests being done: the greater the testing, the greater the likelihood of getting a picture close to the reality of the epidemic. 2) All figures being announced are provisional. The epidemic is still evolving. 3) The vast majority of infections end in full recovery. A small proportion of infected cases end up in hospital. And an even smaller...

No need to google it, the term is not in the dictionary, not yet. I coined it. The Covid-19 epidemic, which started - and was quickly controlled- in China, is prevalent in two regions: Europe and North America. Let's look at the data: almost 80% of infections and 90% of deaths are occurring in these two geographic areas. So I logically ask myself the question: What if this is not a pandemic, but rather an epidemic specifically concerning these two regions? It would then be more logical to call it the Eur-Am-demic. Beyond terminology, the situation is remarkable because these two regions are home to just 14% of the world's population. How to explain that nearly 90% of the epidemic concerns such a small percentage of the world's population? Of course, we do not know how the epidemic will evolve in the future. It may expand and affect the rest of the world's population to a similar degree. But at this point, it is legitimate to ask: is there something specific about ...

Two major nuclear powers have decided to end their operations patrolling the world's seas. The aircraft carriers of the United States and France, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the Charles de Gaulle, respectively, have returned to home port. The former has given up its role as world cop in the Pacific and the latter as world gendarme in the Atlantic. What is remarkable is that the governments of these countries did not even consult each other.   This is excellent news indeed for all those who are fighting for world peace. We can only hope that other powers - nuclear or not - will follow suit so that all peoples can finally breathe freely and look after business without the risk of being bombed. Having said that, it looks actually like COVID-19 is the only one responsible for ending these military activities, after defeating a large number of sailors, forcing these vessels to return home! It is surprising what this virus has to teach us every day. Benyounès

April 7th is a historic day: China, the first country affected by COVID-19, lifted the decision to confine the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic just weeks ago and which is now resuming normal life. Lights decorate the city while trains and planes are up and running (with 55,000 reservations) along with restaurants. This is a first episode of the victory over the novel coronavirus pandemic. Elsewhere, notably in countries of Europe and North America, such as France and Canada, people are still discussing whether wearing a mask is effective or ineffective. This recalls the casuistic discussions from the Middle Ages about the existence of the devil and the form it takes! This mask affair is full of lessons. Officials in industrialized nations first discouraged the population from wearing masks because they are "useless". Days later, French leaders of one such country encouraged wearing masks because they are ... "useful"! China's leaders never ...

To date, COVID-19 has infected 1.2 million people and killed 67,000. There are many questions and angles to explore: nature of the virus, causes of spread, degree of severity, status and evolution of the pandemic, possible treatments and vaccines, etc. Today I will focus on some lessons that can be learned from the evolving crisis and specifically some timely and effective decisions that have been taken so far. More than three months after the start of COVID-19, some countries have clearly achieved impressive results. Taiwan, which has one of the world’s most advanced and accessible health care systems, began by banning access to foreigners and then applied a combination of vigilance, proactive measures and information sharing with the public. The production of masks was quickly ramped up to 10 million per day. A unified command centre was set up, headed by the Minister of Health and Welfare. Taiwan used big data analysis technology. All of the above was accomplished with a gre...