COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A LEARNING CURVE FOR FOOD SYSTEMS REFORM.

 Covid -19 pandemic disrupted the world system, the world was on lock-down leaving many people unable to meet nutritional needs, many more lost jobs and so many just barely survived on goodwill. The food supply chain was totally disrupted giving a glimpse into the needed reform in the food systems.

   The lock-down due to the Covid19 pandemic increased global food insecurity showing weak links in the current food systems resulting in various think -tanks on how to strengthen food systems by reforming the current strategy.

 The rapid response of government to cushion effect of pandemic by way of giving out palliatives to the vulnerable in the society as well as private companies supporting the government by way of cash donations and food items and logistic companies providing support during the lock down period has given insight into the pattern of food system reforms.

  The Covid 19 pandemic opened up opportunities to create more efficient food systems. The world food system changed immediately to digital approach leveraging technology. The food system changed to virtual markets and purchasing of variety of products that are easy to handle with longer shelf life.

 The reforms triggered  by the Covid 19 pandemic aligns with attributes of a functional food system which are: 1)Efficiency 2)Inclusion of small holder farmers , major players. 3)Vulnerable are targets 4)  Establishment of food banks 5) Functional distribution network.

  The revamping of the food systems arising from the Covid19 pandemic  shows reforms in the food system can be immediate while long term initiatives can be proffer solutions to  prevent future shock.

 Food system reforms..changing the narrative about food production,food processing and packaging distribution and marketing.

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Abattoirs: Coronavirus can spread over 8m at cutting floor in slaughter houses.

Abattoirs: Coronavirus can spread over 8m at cutting floor in slaughter houses. Circumstances at a cutting floor can help SARS-CoV-2 spread over distances over 8 metres. That has become clear in a case study about the first wave of Covid-19 outbreaks in May, at Germany’s largest slaughterhouse, owned by Tönnies.

 The study also showed that all infections during this first wave of Covid-19 outbreaks originated with just one employee. It occurred because a slaughterhouse employee got in touch with employees of an infected plant of a different packer, Westcrown, located in Dissen. Thirdly, employee housing did not play a major role in that first wave, which occurred in late May.

 In mid-June a second wave followed, which caused the meatpacker to close its doors for almost a month. The research was carried out by a joint study of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, the University Medical Center Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf and the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology.

 The study showed that the virus most likely spread from 1 single employee who was working on the cutting floor for beef. This employee indicated that together with a colleague, he had been in touch with employees of the sow cutting floor at Westcrown in Dissen, Lower Saxony. He did so after Covid-19 had been detected in that plant.

 The Tönnies employee did not demonstrate any clinical signs of the virus and the contact with Westcrown employees was not considered to be a high-risk contact, which is why the employee continued to show up at work. At 3 days after the meeting, the employee was tested and one day later a positive result followed, for both the employee as well as the colleague. Both then had to go into quarantine.

 The researchers also zoomed in on the routes the virus took from this one employee to the other employees within Tönnies. From that research, it emerged that most colleagues within an 8m radius around the infected colleague had also tested positive.

In the study it was therefore concluded that virus particles can be transmitted over longer distances under the conditions of a cutting floor. Professor Adam Grundhoff, co-author of the research, said, “Our results indicate that the conditions during cutting enhance the aerosol transfer of SARS-CoV-2 particles over longer distances,think of the lower temperature and a limited input of fresh air in combination with heavy manual labour.

 It is very likely that these factors in general play a crucial role in outbreaks all over the world in meat or fish processing companies. Obviously, under those conditions, a distance of 1.5 to 3 metres are insufficient to prevent transmission.”

 There is a need to improve physical distancing in the slaughter houses as well as use better protective equipment to enhance safety.

Meat processing companies such as Cargill are protecting workers by provision of face shields, barriers between work stations, hair nets, boots and lots more.

The use of face shields in slaughter houses is a welcome development alongside maintaining required distance as well as use of hand sanitizers or washing hands with soap and water.

 More on research here

Emotional intelligence key to business success.

Developing Emotional Intelligence Learn how to recognize and interpret emotions in yourself and others. That way, you and your team can manage the anxiety, frustration and anger that can flare up in turbulent times.

 Emotional intelligence an essential skill for organizational growth, see how the lack of emotional intelligence destroyed an organization.

   An organisation with an understanding of emotional intelligence will be more productive with efficient service delivery.

COVID-19:A close relative of SARS-CoV-2 found in bats offers more evidence it evolved naturally.

COVID-19:A close relative of SARS-CoV-2 found in bats offers more evidence it evolved naturally.There is ongoing debate among policymakers and the general public about where SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, came from. While researchers consider bats the most likely natural hosts for SARS-CoV-2, the origins of the virus are still unclear. On May 10 in the journal Current Biology, researchers describe a recently identified bat coronavirus that is SARS-CoV-2's closest relative in some regions of the genome and which contains insertions of amino acids at the junction of the S1 and S2 subunits of the virus's spike protein in a manner similar to SAR-CoV-2. While it's not a direct evolutionary precursor of SARS-CoV-2, this new virus, RmYN02, suggests that these types of seemingly unusual insertion events can occur naturally in coronavirus evolution, the researchers say.

Vitamin D levels appear to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates.

Vitamin D levels appear to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates.Patients with severe deficiency are twice as likely to experience major complications.Researchers analyzed patient data from 10 countries. The team found a correlation between low vitamin D levels and hyperactive immune systems. Vitamin D strengthens innate immunity and prevents overactive immune responses. The finding could explain several mysteries, including why children are unlikely to die from COVID-19. The researchers noted that patients from countries with high COVID-19 mortality rates, such as Italy, Spain and the UK, had lower levels of vitamin D compared to patients in countries that were not as severely affected.

Cats, Dogs and COVID: How Safe Are Your Pets?

                    Cats, Dogs and COVID: How Safe Are Your Pets?

Nadia, a tiger at New York City's Bronx Zoo, tested positive for the corona virus. A few pet cats in the United States and some dogs  have  also tested positive.

The novel corona virus causing the current pandemic is thought to have originated at a live animal market in China, some people have wondered if they need to worry about their own pets.

 The good news is that any risk to humans from to pet is very low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  Humans with COVID-19 infections could pose a slight risk to certain animals, such as cats or ferrets. but not dogs.

 The basic thing to do is to stay safe and keep your pet safe. All personal hygiene protocol of hand washing, use of face mask is advised. The frequency of hand washing must be increased especially after handling your pet.

 When you take your dog out for walks its advisable to wipe the dog when you return paying particular attention to paws.

COVID: 19: Can You Catch COVID-19 Through Your Eyes?

COVID: 19: Can You Catch COVID-19 Through Your Eyes? You can catch COVID-19 if an infected person coughs or sneezes and contagious droplets enter your nose or mouth. But can you become ill if the virus lands in your eyes?

 Virologist Joseph Fair, PhD, an NBC News contributor, raised that concern when he became critically ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

From a hospital bed in his hometown of New Orleans, he told the network that he had flown on a crowded plane where flight attendants weren’t wearing masks. He wore a mask and gloves, but no eye protection. “My best guess,” he told the interviewer, “was that it came through the eye route.”

Asked if people should start wearing eye protection, Fair replied, “In my opinion, yes.” The clear tissue that covers the white of the eye and lines the inside of the eyelid, known as the conjunctiva, “can be infected by other viruses, such as adenoviruses associated with the common cold and the herpes simplex virus.

There’s the same chance of infection with SARS-CoV-2, says Duh. “If there are droplets that an infected individual is producing by coughing or sneezing or even speaking, then the front of the eyes are directly exposed, just like the nasal passages are exposed. In addition, people rub and touch their eyes a lot. So there’s certainly already the vulnerability.

COVID-19 :; FOOD SAFETY IN ABATTOIRS AND MEAT PACKAGING PLANTS.

The prevention of the spread of the corona virus has been ably captured as 1) washing hands with soap under running water for 20 sec or use a hand sanitizer. 2) practice physical distancing, give 2metres space between you and the next person and finally use a face mask.

COVID-19 and Diabetes.

COVID-19 and Diabetes.Everyone needs to be careful to avoid the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. If you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you should be even more cautious. Your risk of catching the virus isn't higher than anyone else's. But you could have worse complications if you do get sick. That's especially true if your diabetes isn't well-controlled. To reduce your chance of getting infected: 1)Keep your distance from other people. 2)Use good hygiene. 3)Keep your blood sugar under control Diabetes and Coronavirus Early studies have shown that about 25% of people who went to the hospital with severe COVID-19 infections had diabetes. Those with diabetes were more likely to have serious complications and to die from the virus. One reason is that high blood sugar weakens the immune system and makes it less able to fight off infections. Your risk of severe coronavirus infection is even higher if you also have another condition, like heart or lung disease. If you do get COVID-19, the infection could put you at greater risk for diabetes complications like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA happens when high levels of acids called ketones build up in your blood. It can be very serious. Some people who catch the new coronavirus have a dangerous body-wide response to it, called sepsis. To treat sepsis, doctors need to manage your body's fluid and electrolyte levels. DKA causes you to lose electrolytes, which can make sepsis harder to control.

COVID-19 May Trigger Rare Complication In Children.

COVID-19 May Trigger Rare Complication In Children.As COVID-19 continues to spread, there is growing evidence that children may be vulnerable to a rare but serious complication triggered by the infection. So far, studies have shown that children appear to be less vulnerable to this new coronavirus than adults. Kids under the age of 18 represent just 1%-2% of reported COVID-19 cases. But new reports, from the U.S. and several European countries, suggest that in rare cases, children can have a collection of symptoms -- including lengthy fevers, low blood pressure, rashes, red eyes, stomach upset, and inflammation of the heart and its arteries -- that share features of toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease.

COVID-19 AND MEAT PACKAGING PLANT.

COVID-19 AND MEAT PACKAGING PLANT. Although the identity of COVID-19's patient zero is still unknown, the virus is widely suspected to have originated in a Wuhan wet market. And one thing is crystal clear: These informal slaughterhouses, along with their more formal counterparts in the factory farming industry, are the perfect place to spread disease. Crowding animals into confined, unsanitary conditions to be slaughtered—mixing blood, guts and feces—creates a petri dish for pathogens. These informal and formal "flu factories" can quickly spread a bat- or bird-borne disease among intermediary animals that humans consume. Slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants are also among the worst COVID-19 hot spots for humans. Some of the largest outbreaks in North America occurred in meatpacking plants.

Without proper strategies, prisons could become COVID-19 ‘epicenter’.

Without proper strategies, prisons could become COVID-19 ‘epicenter’Compared with other countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States generally has a higher incarceration rate, with more than 10 million people booked into jails each year. This specific setting poses “a unique set of challenges” when it comes to COVID-19 prevention that require action and attention, according to an editorial published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Q: What makes inmates susceptible to COVID-19? A: People who are incarcerated are susceptible to COVID-19 for many reasons. They tend to, on average, have a higher burden of chronic illness compared with their nonincarcerated counterparts. In addition, factors at the facility level can put people in these institutions at increased risk, too. In these settings, it is very difficult to engage in social distancing, soap and/or hand sanitizer are not widely available and there may be medical copays that act as a barrier to seeking help.

Gender equality in the time of COVID-19.

Gender equality in the time of COVID-19.

In a report published earlier this week, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) points out that disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls worse. 

 With women representing 70 percent of the health and social sector workforce globally, special attention should be given to how their work environment may expose them to discrimination, as well as their sexual and reproductive health and psychosocial needs as frontline health workers, the report says.

 In times of crisis, women and girls may be at higher risk of intimate partner violence and other forms of domestic violence due to increased tensions in the household. Also, sexual and reproductive health and rights is a significant public health issue that requires high attention during pandemics. 

Safe pregnancies and childbirth depend on functioning health systems and strict adherence to infection prevention, the report says. “Clearly, we must fight the virus for all of humanity, with a focus on people, especially the most affected: women, older persons, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups,” Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed throughout the pandemic

How to minimize the impact of Coronavirus on food security.

How to minimize the impact of Coronavirus on food security“The economic consequences of this disease could end up hurting more people than the disease itself.” Avoiding protectionism, monitoring prices and supporting the vulnerable through social safety nets can limit the impact of the outbreak.In the past few weeks, as the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection spread to reach pandemic proportions, we have developed an obsession with figures and statistics — how many new cases have been reported from how many countries? How is the infection curve growing? What is the mortality rate and how does that compare with that of ‘normal’ flu? But these are not the only numbers keeping people awake at night. While still uncertain in its magnitude, the economic impact of the outbreak is of great concern too. While the food and agricultural sector should in principle be less affected than others, illness-related labour shortages, transport interruptions, quarantine measures limiting access to markets and supply chain disruptions resulting in food loss and waste could affect supply. On the demand side, a loss of purchasing power caused by the disease could change people’s eating patterns, resulting in poorer nutrition. Panic purchases of food — as those recently witnessed in countries around the world — could break the supply chain and cause localized price hikes. Apart from the food security implications of a COVID-19-triggered economic slowdown, an extensive spread of the disease in a poorer and more food insecure country could take a heavier toll on the economy than in those currently affected.

COVID-19 and the 5 major threats it poses to global food security.

COVID-19 and the 5 major threats it poses to global food security. Virus risks undermining efforts to reverse trend of rising hunger. Entering 2020, the number of hungry and malnourished people around the world was already on the rise due to an increase in violent conflict and climate change impacts. Today, over 800 million people face chronic undernourishment and over 100 million people are in need of lifesaving food assistance. The novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, risks undermining the efforts of humanitarian and food security organizations seeking to reverse these trends. As former International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Director General Shenggen Fan, writes, “COVID-19 is a health crisis but it could also lead to a food security crisis if proper measures are not taken.” Every major outbreak in recent memory — Ebola, SARS, MERS — has had both direct and indirect negative impacts on food security. This is what the experts are saying about the likelihood and nature of such impacts from COVID-19: 1)COVID-19 poses a great threat to nations lacking robust social safety nets. Safety-net systems are critical lifelines to help stem the negative economic and nutritional impacts of COVID-19. Many developing countries, however, lack safety-net systems to fill that void. In fact, less than 20 percent of people living in low-income countries have access to social protections of any kind, and even fewer have access to food-based safety net. 2) COVID-19 may cause breaks in food supply chains, food shortages and food price spikes. So far, the novel coronavirus has not shown a major direct impact on the supply or price of staple foods in places affected by the virus or globally. During the SARS and MERS outbreaks in China there was also minimal disruption to markets and prices locally, owing to sufficient buffer stocks and measures taken to ensure the continued flow of goods. This has not always been the case, however, in sub-Saharan African. The Ebola outbreak in 2014, for example, led to dramatic increases in the prices of staple foods in countries impacted in West Africa. Furthermore, the food-price spikes of 2007/8 demonstrate that export restrictions, market speculation and panic behaviour were, in part, responsible for the dramatic increase in global food prices in that period — measures we are not protected against today. In many developing countries, millions of families already spend upwards of half of their income on food in normal circumstances. Countries that rely heavily on imported food to meet demand, including sub-Saharan Africa, face disproportionate risk from supply chain failures, especially in the face of border-crossing closures. Finally, it is the impacts of farmers leaving their fields fallow (or facing delays in planting and harvesting) because of sickness and breakdowns in non-food supply chains, like fertilizer and other critical inputs, that may ultimately most impact developing country economies. 3)COVID-19 may cause the global economy to slow or fall into recession, exacerbating extreme poverty and hunger. 4)COVID-19 may prove especially deadly for people suffering from chronic or acute hunger or malnourishment. 5) COVID-19 poses a great threat to nations suffering from pervasive poverty and poor healthcare infrastructure.