Pandemic platform power, Frontline Italy, Schoolkids 1 Coronavirus 0...

Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, welcome to this World Economic Forum newsletter.

So much going on in the world right now. Let’s keep it simple. Here’s the World Health Organization advice.

Top of their list? Wash your hands regularly. Don’t dodge the soap.

If you like this newsletter – please share it with friends, family, and co-workers!

–––

1?? Play Your Part in Fighting the Pandemic

This is a historic moment. Businesses need to do their bit. We all need to do our bit. Here’s a platform to help make that happen.

• The COVID Action Platform aims to get the business community together for collective action.
• We need to protect lives and livelihoods.
• The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization – it’s open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders.

Arnaud Bernaert explains more:

? Here’s where to sign up.

–––

2?? Posts From The Pandemic Frontline

This is why we need action. Italy’s medical staff are among the latest to be thrown into the frontline.

An Italian doctor’s grim post:

Social life is suspended for us. We no longer see our families for fear of infecting them. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols ... So have patience, you can’t go to the theatre, museums or the gym. Try to have pity on the myriad of old people you could exterminate. We just try to make ourselves useful. You should do the same ... Please share this message.

Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues for a precautionary approach:

It will cost something to reduce mobility in the short term, but to fail do so will eventually cost everything—if not from this event, then one in the future. Outbreaks are inevitable, but an appropriately precautionary response can mitigate systemic risk to the globe at large.

? Stay up to speed on the coronavirus.

–––

3?? Learn More About Coronavirus

Michal Tal of Stanford School of Medicine runs a webinar on coronavirus. It’s just over an hour long, but it’s very clear and informative.

Here are Michal’s slides:

This is one way the Forum’s experts make sense of the pandemic:

? Here’s where we map knowledge on COVID-19.

–––

4?? What Business Can Do

Ryan Morhard is a health security expert, and point person on the COVID Action Platform. He’s long been working behind the scenes on pandemic preparedness (e.g. Event 201). Here he is on what business can do to help against #COVID19.

And here’s another colleague, our Chief Business Officer Jeremy Jurgens:

? Read Ryan’s report from last January, Outbreak Readiness and Business Impact.

–––

5?? Even When Wuhan Faced its Darkest Coronavirus Hour, Schoolkids Rose to the Challenge...

Kids 1 Coronavirus 0...

[London Review of Books]

–––

6?? What’s Your Go-to Greeting?

French President Emmanuel Macron is going with ‘Namaste’. What’s your choice?

[via NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine]

–––

7?? And before you go...

Climate change hasn’t slowed down.

–––

Thoughts? Reactions? Suggestions?

Bow, nod, wave? What’s your no contact greeting?

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition,

Adrian

For more from the Forum, sign up for our weekly email.

With thanks to all those folks without whose encouragement and critical feedback this newsletter would never get written.