The "unnews" we missed in the epidemic

1. Unprecedented speed of vaccine development

Vaccines to protect against Covid-19 have been developed, tested and put into practice in less than a year—a pace unprecedented in the history of vaccine science. Scientists at Pfizer Inc. and its partner BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca Plc. and the University of Oxford, as well as China’s Sinopharm Group Co., have been working overtime to create vaccines that could protect the health of billions of people. Moreover, Pfizer and Moderna’s success in using mRNA—genetic material—to transform the body’s cells into vaccine factories also offers hope for developing treatments for a range of other incurable diseases, including cancer and heart disease.

2. Experiment with life 4.0 comprehensively

While things didn’t start off smoothly – with challenges around childcare at home, longer working hours, uneven access to technology or internet, and the psychological stress of being stuck at home for so long – hundreds of millions of people have managed to adapt and work and learn remotely for almost a year, keeping banks, schools, government agencies, businesses, and even hospitals running smoothly for the past two years. The radical shift to a digital world has also forced humanity globally to rethink how work and human life will change after the pandemic subsides, including: flexible hours, less commuting or traveling, and more flexible work and family time in the new normal.

3. Economic stimulus worth trillions of dong around the world

Unlike the response to the 2008 global financial crisis, a range of governments and central banks have been proactive in unleashing more stimulus packages for workers and workers to help the economy than ever before: more than $20 trillion in support has been spent and the numbers are still rising. In some developed economies, such as France and the UK, that has helped to reduce unemployment and keep housing markets and businesses afloat. Optimists also see China’s steady economic recovery as a guide to where the rest of the world is headed in the coming months.

4. Nature is healing

The collapse of tourism and manufacturing has created huge economic problems for many countries, but it has also brought a much-needed environmental pause. Air pollution has dropped dramatically, by as much as 65%, in some cities – if only in the first few months of 2021. Turtles and whales have returned to Thailand’s now-quiet beaches, and pink dolphins have reappeared on Vietnam’s Do Son beach, prompting many governments to consider closing nature reserves for a few months each year to fully preserve these beautiful ecological specialities.

In Hong Kong, endangered pink dolphins returned in larger numbers after tourist ferry services collapsed. At the height of lockdowns in April, animals were seen on the streets of Spain, Chile and the United Arab Emirates, showing how ecosystems can quickly recover when human presence is reduced.

5. The revolution of clean raw materials

The sharp drop in demand for crude oil since the onset of Covid-19 has prompted a fundamental rethink of how the world is powered. Some experts say the era of crude oil is over. Some grid operators are turning to less expensive renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

In 2020 and 2021, Tesla's sales (a super cheap electric car) increased sharply, which is one of many manifestations of the success of the revolution of converting from raw materials to using clean sources of energy globally.

6. The whole world willgreenreturn

After witnessing a miraculous recovery of nature amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the world's top polluter, China, has vowed to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2060, prompting Japan and South Korea to make similar pledges.

Dozens of cities, states, and countries have set targets to phase out new fossil-fueled car sales. Major U.S. banks have promised to stop funding Arctic oil and gas exploration projects. Even BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has said it will put climate issues at the center of its investment strategy. Time will tell whether all these initiatives will lead to lasting change, but it’s clear that this is one of humanity’s most important milestones on its journey to helping the Earth.greenreturn.

7. Technology connecting all humanity?

Imagine a life of isolation, but without the technology to keep us connected. It would be terrible. During the Covid-19 pandemic, generations (from young to old) have honed their cooking skills at home and shared them on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Internet users embarked on virtual expeditions or converged on a tropical island in the multiplayer game “Animal Crossing,” or shared mixed emotions with popular TV series. While people stayed indoors, drones and autonomous robots were deployed to deliver emergency medical supplies, groceries, and relief supplies to millions of people.

8. Millions of new scientific discoveries are published

This year, it wasn’t just vaccines that excited the scientific community. Researchers found an antibiotic that could treat both acne in humans and fungal infections in koalas. Archaeologists found evidence of prehistoric rainforests in Antarctica, and a massive 2,500-year-old Egyptian tomb containing mummies and treasure. Biologists figured out how to use algorithms to solve the problem of disease invading cells, and NASA astrophysicists even found signs of life in acid-soaked clouds as far away as… Venus.

9. Nobel, peace and humanity

Recently, two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their courageous struggle for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia.” Ms. Ressa, with her work against disinformation, has always been a thorn in the side of members of the Party that supports President Rodrigo Duterte, the authoritarian president of the Philippines. Mr. Muratov has defended freedom of expression in Russia for decades, working under extremely difficult conditions.

The awarding of the prestigious Nobel Prize to the two journalists also symbolizes the actions that the Nobel Committee has been doing since April this year: every Friday, they will release a white dove named "Good News of the Week" from the headquarters of the Nobel Committee.

This year, the Nobel Committee also awarded the first Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to a large group. The laureates – David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens – provide us with new insights into the labor market, and point to conclusions aboutcause and effectcan be drawn from natural experiments. Their approach spread to other fields and revolutionized experimental research.

Many of the big questions in social science involve cause and effect.How does immigration affect wages and employment? How does longer education affect an individual's future earnings?These questions are difficult to answer, because we have no basis for comparison. However, this year's Nobel Prize winner in Economics has shown that it is possible to answer these and similar questions using natural experiments.

The key is to use situations where random events or policy changes lead to different treatment of groups of people, in a way that resembles clinical trials in medicine. Using natural experiments, David Card analyzes the labor market effects of minimum wages, immigration, and education. His research, dating back to the early 1990s, has challenged conventional wisdom, leading to new analysis and additional understanding of seemingly fundamental issues of human society. The results show that raising the minimum wage does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs. We now know that the incomes of people born in a country can benefit from new immigration, while those who immigrated earlier risk being negatively affected.

From Card’s research, policymakers are also realizing that school resources are far more important to students’ future job market success than previously thought, opening up a whole new realm of research and new avenues for countries trying to escape poverty, and for low-income workers around the world.

CB (Photo: Internet)