Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Brazilians Living In Favelas Fight Pandemic On Their Own; Virus Resurges In South Korea
When the president of Viela da Harmonia walks down the street, her constituents take note. An elderly neighbor needs groceries. A mother is looking for diapers. Another family asks for soap. Just weeks ago, Laryssa da Silva didn鈥檛 know where her next meal would come from. Now the 24-year-old single mother is responsible for making sure the 70 families who live on her street survive Brazil鈥檚 coronavirus outbreak. (Lopes, 6/10)
Just weeks ago, South Korea was celebrating its hard-won gains against the coronavirus, easing social distancing, reopening schools and promoting a tech-driven anti-virus campaign President Moon Jae-in has called 鈥淜-quarantine. 鈥滲ut a resurgence of infections in the Seoul region where half of South Korea鈥檚 51 million people live is threatening the country鈥檚 success story and prompting health authorities to warn that action must be taken now to stop a second wave. (Tong-Hyung, 6/11)
Some Chinese students returning to school after lockdown are grappling with familial conflict while others are stressing over how coronavirus disruptions have affected their academic performance, teachers and school counsellors say. The heightened post-lockdown anxiety has become a matter of central government concern as domestic media report a spate of suicides by young people. It has also led to unprecedented measures by schools and local governments to focus on student mental health - a topic that like suicide has often been taboo in Chinese society. (Zhou and Goh, 6/10)
It had been more than a decade since Choi Kun last set foot in a nightclub. There are things you don鈥檛 do as a married man with children, the 42-year-old said 鈥 and going to a nightclub, which in South Korea often entails waiters bringing over female patrons to tables of men, is most certainly one. But on a recent night, his friend had dragged him to a club in Daejeon, a city an hour south of Seoul. (Kim, 6/10)
Britain鈥檚 death toll from COVID-19 could have been halved if lockdown had been introduced a week earlier, a former member of the UK government鈥檚 scientific advisory group said on Wednesday. Britain has an official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases of over 40,000, rising to over 50,000 cases when deaths from suspected cases are included. Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed the lockdown on March 23. (6/10)