Politics get in the way of Public Health we talked to a specialist in taiwan about whether the World Health Organization missed an opportunity to draw on type a success in combat virus outbreak. Im calling aspen thanks for joining us we start in the United States where the death toll from covert 19 now exceeds 3000 more than a 3rd of those victims are from new york state whose governor has issued an urgent appeal for medical volunteers andrew cuomo called the number of deaths staggering so far out 80000 former medical professionals have answered well most call meanwhile a u. S. Navy hospital ship has arrived to help relieve pressure on the citys hospitals. A welcome sight for new york. As the battle against the corona virus ramps up a u. S. Navy medical ship with a 1000 beds docked in new york harbor on monday. The mayor spoke of the citys frayed nerves with hospitals are already stretched to a breaking point weve all been through a lot these last few weeks. And we needed this roost we needed this hope thats being created by our brothers and sisters the u. S. Navy marine corps central park in the middle of manhattan is the latest site to be taken over by a Field Hospital but new york has been caught in a war of words President Donald Trump says that medical equipment already in place should be enough for the city but the mayor and the state governors say they both need more help from the federal government to be ready for whats coming. It is a fundamental blunder to only prepare for today thats why in some ways we are where we are weve been at behind this virus from day one you have this scientist in the data projections show you a cur. The curve goes like this youre over here prepare for the high point of the curve and do we know when you can do it the night before. Medics have become the heroines and heroes of the day and monday was Even National doctors day but in new york theyve had no chance to celebrate their on the front lines in a city or the coronavirus death toll is rising rapidly meanwhile states such as michigan louisiana and new jersey also report a spike in coronavirus cases and brace to become the nations new hot spots and all of this is happening while the u. S. Is still struggling to get testing ramp it up and to better coordinate the efforts to come but the pandemic but president still no charm dismisses and the criticism of the federal governments describing the job they are doing asked tremendous on monday president s trump urged the American People to vigorously follow the fertile social distancing guidelines that were extended through april he said he was not thinking about opening the u. S. Economy very soon instead suggested he might be toughening up the measures in the coming weeks. Spain has europes 2nd highest card virus death toll behind italy and its nearly 8000 fatalities have now surpassed china with the elderly and high risk Nursing Homes in spain have been overwhelmed by the number of infections the reports of dire conditions with dead bodies left in beds for hours relatives are worried about their loved ones but theyve been banned from visiting our correspondent Philip Schultz as this report from seville. What is happening behind these windows concerns many spaniards almost 2000 nursing home residents have died after contracting the coronavirus every day more homes are affected morenos uncle has parkinsons and lives in a nursing home in Southern Spain a while ago he learned that the 1st cases of corona virus had been diagnosed there too since then he tells me the residents of the nursing home and their relatives have become increasingly worried. So what are they doing to do with the difficult situation. Care workers complain about terrible conditions in many homes they say theres not enough protective clothing and that hundreds of their colleagues are infected authorities are investigating reports that some workers went home after the 1st cases were identified leaving residents forgotten that thats the dramatic situation in many Nursing Homes has shocked people here in spain the spender society takes pride in its Strong Family ties and in taking well care of people possible treatment. Neglect and the feeling of hopelessness among family members starts to affect the so that ventured out of spread out steer that the situation in Nursing Homes might get worse in the coming days. In the nursing home where often more dangerous uncool lives the management has set up whats no doubt for you and the other relatives feel a little bit closer to their loved ones. Lets take a look now at some other coronavirus developments italy the country with the most deaths will extend its lockdown until least april 12th have been under lockdown for 3 weeks already france has reported its worst daily death toll more than 400. 00 france has become the 4th country now to report more than 3000. 00 fatalities Brazils Health minister has defied president diables norrell and urged brazilians to practice social distancing also naro has downplayed the pandemic and he opposes regional lockdown measures and the World Health Organization is warning that although the focus is now on europe and the u. S. The coronavirus pandemic is still quote far from over in asia and the pacific region. One Success Story in battling corona virus is taiwan just over 300. 00 cases have been reported with only 5 deaths so far the island is capitalized on its experience battling the sars epidemic in 2003 taiwan moved early to roll out a coordinated effort this time around to teach hospitals how to cope with the new coronavirus taiwan was also equipped is the to disinfect public transport and to quarantine travellers once cases began appearing containment teams isolated them and tracked down their social contacts all of that was done without support from the World Health Organization taiwan is not in the w. H. O. Because its not recognized by the United Nations and thats because china views it as a renegade province. Were joined now by mr john chang hes the dean of the college of Public Health at National Taiwan University Thanks for taking the time to speak with us now back in 2003 taiwan was was hit hard by the sars epidemic what lessons did taiwan learn then from that outbreak. You know we learn harsh listens for on the sars outbreak and doctors nurses you know taking care of their sars patients so the whole society has a height or in the past few years says to be youre 84 names a tag for only merge indeed did it and it took us 7 years to being just a judge and one thing we learned 1st is theres any news from china and you had to leave very cold ships and you like to get a few cases of every or as a serious as you can so when we learn for is full of these 19 at that time we dont have a name for that but our government decided its every of these so we took a bit early. On december 31st is early on that any countries and date wrong we insist we have to beat site to look at the situations and we insist it and Chinese Government as some of our experts who go there but they were not allowed to see why they want so n. Z. In return we really we thought this is serious because every person to person is head but in the air is so we took that older possible actions that we can then attack when rachel was not identified in any travel advice and we decided to ban any trade barriers from china that i want to ask you to just hop in here quickly because taiwan is not a member of the World Health Organization because beijing objects politically did the w. H. O. Here miss an opportunity to maybe better contain this outbreak by not including taiwan and its consultations. Yeah you know that. If we look at the past few months this is the average year has amanda several mystics of the lay. Mix you know dont even know enough to write a device to kind reach even the could in cruise time one in the full monty skies you know and some of our successful majors could be. Somewhat of a country who are suffering now and so by screw the time when its not a good for the night before Death Threats of war do you think do you think politics won out here over over global health. Yeah until now i still see this part it is over as a public ails you know that it still put our duty to our new china and hes not right and even though there is some of these discrete hues we are whole our name is taiwan and there is a 23 counties by they put our name is type b. You violence you know indirectly you can not get a correct data that you had to be very serious all of the look in it already it are reporting from the country they have to do everything by and then if you are using not the right to tell you im it wrong d. C. It said the season on time one name are already in china and i will have to leave it there a thank you very much mr john dean of college of Public Health at the National Taiwan University Thanks for speaking with us you are its my prayers to be here. Are the quick check now of some of the other stories making news at this hour ford and General Electric will produce 50000 emergency ventilators in the next 100 days they join carmaker g. M. In the race to repurpose factory lines to produce ventilators hospitals across the u. S. Are urgently seeking the devices as they deal with an onslaught of coronavirus patients. A painting by dutch master Vincent Van Gogh has called Spring Garden has been stolen from a museum in the netherlands thieves broke into the singer lauren museum near amsterdam which is closed right now because of the and demick the painting from 884 is valued at up to 6000000 euros. Travel restrictions across the globe have left large numbers of to rest stranded many are now relying on flights chartered by the National Governments to get back home around 175000 germans have been repatriated since the start of the pen demick but another 25000 remain stuck abroad for one group of tourists in peru its not clear when they will be allowed to leave and life under lockdown is not easy. Im with koori in then quickly back inside the hospital in the tourist town of cuzco in the andes where theres a curfew in force. At meal times social distancing over 70 tourists is staying in this some may be infected with the coronavirus none of them are allowed to leave time maybe for a month or even longer German Tourists find is one of them. Are trying to fulfill from march that was when everything was closed down full Lockdown Police in front of the door street blocked off nothing coming in or going out since then the supply of food and water isnt completely stable 2 people here have a fever theyre sick insuring typical covered symptoms. Side of. The square in front of the cathedral deserted it used to be buzzing with tourists most of them here for the same purpose to visit the ruins of match to it was here that u. B. S. Had his holiday fun came to an abrupt end. With may have been a tax kind of racism towards europeans some supermarkets. Stuck in cuzco and unwanted its a plight shared by many tourists who hope that governments can soon arrange flights to get the might. The pyramids in egypt have stood through thousands of years of human disasters demick sworn and famines and now as the coronavirus takes its turn the pyramids are being used to project a message of gratitude to essential workers around the globe during the outbreak for everyone else. To stay at home all archaeological sites in egypt have been shut to prevent the virus from spreading. Youre watching news from berlin and ill be back with more news at the top you. Combating the pandemic. Where does research stand and. What are scientists learning. Background information and news. 19 special next on d w. How does a virus spread. Through the topics covered and weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like in the information on the crown of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. In times of day it might be one of the key weapons to curtail the pandemic the data on our smartphones for example that can show nearly every step we take every step people around us take scientists estimate that one infected person passes the virus on to around 2 to 3 people on average so what if we used all that we already have on our smart phones to track people infected with the coronavirus and warn those who have contact with a carrier prevent more infections build Something Like a digital. Seems to have been one of the keys to keep their infection flat surveils can data trucks help us find the Current Crisis. This is the news welcome to our special coverage of the global covert 19 outbreak today want to take a closer look at south korea country was hit hard by the corona virus but now it has seen a steep decline in new coated 900 cases compare that with the numbers in germany they are currently nearly 10 times. The number for germany in recent weeks it appears south korea has largely reined in the disease and without closing down public life to a degree were seeing in europe and elsewhere now how theyve done it nobody knows exactly but making use of Internet Technology to share confirmed patients occasions and travel information directly with the public seems to have helped quite a lot actually. So theory a seems to be battling the coronavirus covert 19 effectively without implementing a complete lockdown in addition to rigorous and innovative testing for the virus online applications and social networking have been crucial to encourage ongoing Public Participation in the battle against the corona virus every day south Korean Health authorities send Text Messages to everyones smartphones the advisories remind people to avoid large groups practice to meter safe distancing and regularly disinfect their homes leaving the windows open. So 3 in Health Authorities emergency alerts to share the locations of new coronavirus patients people can then follow the links to detailed patient tracking data Web Developers like ryan home have collected and aggregated that information to more user friendly websites up provide the troubled history of each patient. Thats in the text so even if you. Read that placing you dont really know where exactly to locate it so i try to put that out on the map so that people can. Officially see where its exactly look at it so that they know if theyve been to the place the korean public has become a bit complacent as the pen demick drags on so websites like this may help remind people that the risk of infection is still out there and possibly nearby there are lots of people like the thiele in korea. Because they think they didnt have any contact with the patient with this web site they have a better idea of that they can really you know deal with situations since their creation in late january in early february independent coronavirus patient tracking web sites have received millions of page views offering users reassuring information. When the coronavirus became a threat i downloaded the app some started using them to understand the situation you can see where infected people have been and avoid going there so it helps to stop the virus from spreading. So 3 has managed to flatten the curve and reduce new cases of the coronavirus in recent weeks although Health Officials here still worry about potential new clusters. Well from Seoul South Korea im now joined by Professor John one son associate professor at the bar school of Planning University College London professor after a peek at the beginning of march south korea has kept new infections very low you say besides that Testing Program thats due to surveillance how yes tracing through to Surveillance Technology played a pretty part in this fight against the corner. If the country has pretty be complicity with testing if you dont know who to test the Testing Capacity has only limited use so to find out who to test disobedience technology was really cool so the cool east to find though that it would be one in every single one patient to come from the patient contacted in the past so ted way you can find out who this patient could fighters from and who this patient could have been biased to what kind of data exactly has the government there gathered. Because the initial data is the interview of People Experts interview interview patients who too is king rarity but then this entity just quote your work at all says to police state. Resources overtaken through police and thats a credit card transaction move like point. And this is cities so this mobile a form every every move i point to Service Networks have information about where mobile phone has been through g. P. S. And intensive sieber connection and the 2nd a critic cars is again the banks can tell you. When detestation happened so combination of these 2 will it gives you a lot of cars so for example if a keshia was patient for example everest every single customers or potential patients they had to be tested and using credit cards or of course you can find out all day with a critical scholars and then says the t. B. s can give you even more finite movement today. To the patient to talk to in the past who the patient to pointing to poor example and i saw one. Very did only thing profess a this it is dangerous when a government can track every step of its citizens it is certainly is so this is this is an emergency measure all only when the only when the president of troops it does dental put it is a controlled access to these authorities or with a ta through police so when this situation is over they dont have the data dont get all sustained longer Professor John once on joining us live from seoul in south korea thank you very much for this important. I think you. Know that answer a few questions about how south korea handled the fight against the virus but 1st questions around the global outbreak arise every day. Your questions most important and you have sent us plenty Facebook Twitter and email and to answer them at least the part of them. Every day here is our science correspondent williams. If we start Data Tracking are there any assurances in place the Technology Wont be used against us in the future that depends a lot on the country i think where you reside any assurances put in place will have to come from governments now theres no question that digital surveillance measures like cell phone tracking that are used to trace the contacts of someone who has been infected are one of the most effective ways that we have now to find out who else might have been exposed but a big fear of course is that once given the right to track their citizens in this way some governments might continue to do it once the Current Crisis is over and it needs to be addressed and the legislation expanding the rights of governments to track their own citizens striking the right balance between outbreak oversight and data privacy is not going to be easy. What data can be used to track the spread of the coronavirus. Well nowadays practically all of us leave a kind of trail of digital bread crumbs behind us as we move through our lives if you had g. P. S. Or bluetooth turned on on your phone for instance than that can provide pretty specific information as to your whereabouts or who you might have come close to other information that can be used as for example when or where you might have made purchases with a bank card or a credit card and then of course in places that are directly monitored by c. C. T. V. You can employ facial Recognition Technology to pretty precisely determine exactly when someone was where in south korea which has so far had some of the greatest success at containing the virus without resorting to draco nian measures like lockdowns tracking the Previous Movement of people who tested positive has relied on the companys. Of all those measures. Can big data help us avoid a 2nd corona virus outbreak. The short answer to that is no the only thing that will stock over 1000 for gerd is herd immunity which hopefully we will acquire through a vaccine in the not all too distant future however there are many ways that big data techniques can help us better control any future outbreaks they can help us recognize when ones beginning at an earlier stage to start with and dealt also tell us a lot more about what measure is being instigated all over the world at the moment actually work best so even if it doesnt solve the coronavirus problem for us big data it is providing valuable information all the time on how we can hopefully solve the problem ourselves. And that was a covert 19 special coverage for today for more on the pandemic to check out all social Media Channels and our website thats the w dot com which has a dedicated cove of 19 pages in 30 languages. At the end of the show we leave you with pictures from a back a mole in long body into lees region that hit hardest by the Novel Coronavirus streets that. Come from sacrificing almost all folds of Business Activity to fight them and death and their crowded again Data Tracking will be an issue to avoid the 2nd wave of the pandemic and to stop company governments and companies from tracking every move. Even if the coronavirus is sending football into a force to break. Your wedding we will still be bringing you stories and small. Into stories eventually surrounding our favorite sports team. Because we wont matter to soccer fun stop just yet. Take off. Next d. W. I do see business with billions of euros cars hands much of the rubble used to make incomes come time here brooke is truly an under siege plantations the starvation wages in extruded unhealthy conditions the german manufacturers not the claims. Which units are fresher all the way down to the front steps. Closer to. 60 on t. W. Whats the secret behind this classic. Is it the same. As soon as you hear beethoven blows your mind. Or the story behind the music. Cares for the ages greatest. Up. Beethovens 9th. Or the world starts in agreement on t. W. I dont want to look at the video was all believable. Or you must