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CHAPTER F-1
“Flattening the Curve” Through
COVID-19 Contagion Containment
Anis Chowdhury* and Jomo Kwame Sundaram**
Abstract
Limited, uneven, and possibly “inaccurate” tests make it impossible
to know the true scale of COVID-19 infections in the global South.
Nevertheless, given the grossly inadequate health systems, further
undermined by neoliberal reforms, catastrophic consequences for
developing countries are feared. “Flattening the curve” of new infec-
tions seeks to ensure national health systems can cope by rapidly
augmenting needed capacities and capabilities. The many “known
and unknown” unknowns about the pandemic, and its implications,
complicate the challenges posed by the complex and very varied
socio-economic conditions in most developing countries. Neglecting
prompt and adequate precautionary measures due to complacency
for a variety of reasons, many governments have belatedly tried to
check contagion by strictly imposing extended “stay-in-shelter”
“lockdowns.” Success for these types of measures require full public
involvement, through social mobilization, public understanding, and
credible leadership, enhanced by transparency, information sharing,
* Adjunct Professor of Economics, Western Sydney University and University
of New South Wales (Canberra campus); former Senior United Nations official
(2008-2016).
** Senior advisor at the Khazanah Research Institute and Former economics profes-
sor until 2004; and Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in the
United Nations system (2005–2015).
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International