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March 2022Opinion2022
Katherine Dorrer

As the Global West Prepares to Relax COVID Restrictions, is it Doing Enough to Combat Vaccine Inequality across Africa?

It has been two years since the World Health Organization’s designation of the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Since then, there have been 452,201,564 confirmed cases of COVID-19, along with 6,029,852 related deaths worldwide, reports WHO. As the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and local governments relax COVID-19 restrictions within the United States, the pandemic is still raging in developing nations, as both their economy and national morale struggle to regain normalcy. The COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately highlighted the growing global divide in the distribution of vaccine doses, particularly exposing vaccine inequality across Africa. 

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March 20222022International NewsEurope
Sophie Ulm

UK Ends COVID-19 Restrictions in “Living With COVID” Plan

For the first time in two years, England has lifted all government-sponsored COVID-19 restrictions in what has been dubbed the “living with COVID” plan. According to ABC News, England will no longer require mask wearing, mandatory isolation for those who test positive for COVID-19, or financial aid for people who have lost part of their income due to isolation. Beginning on April 1, free testing will also be scaled back. Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are all following suit in reopening, however with slightly more cautious policies.

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March 20222022International NewsAsia
Leah Chan

Hong Kong Maintains Zero-Tolerance Policy as COVID-19 Cases Surge

Amidst the ease of pandemic restrictions around the globe, Hong Kong is facing a devastating surge in COVID-19 cases, reports The Guardian. Hong Kong, following in the footsteps of mainland China, has maintained a zero-tolerance COVID-19 restriction policy over the course of the pandemic. This approach proved to be largely effective up until the recent emergence of the Omicron variant.

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March 20222022International NewsAsia
Andrea Hebel

Australia Fully Reopens Borders after Two Years of COVID-19 Closure

 Australia has officially reopened its borders to all travelers for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Much of the country lifted restrictions on February 21, sparking an influx of flights into the country as individuals reunited and tourism resumed, Reuters reports. CNN adds that the last state to reopen, Western Australia, accepted its first flights on March 3, fully reopening the country’s borders and ending quarantine requirements for vaccinated individuals.

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2021November 2021Opinion
Zachary Schullian

Are Vaccine Mandates Increasing Safety or Driving People from Vaccinations?

Taking efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19, some leaders around the world have decided to enact vaccine mandates. In many developed nations, such as the United States, vaccination rates for adults range between 70 to 80 percent, according to Reuters, with a slim subsection of the population extremely reluctant to get the vaccine. 

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September 2021Opinion
Catherine Anderson

Booster Shots Unethically Exacerbate Global Vaccine Inequity

It has been one year, six months, and a little over a week since March 13, 2020: the day that the flu-like illness called “coronavirus” suddenly brought the lives of every American to a screeching halt. The country waited nearly a full year for vaccines to become available yet, months after a nationwide vaccination campaign began, the crisis has morphed into a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” as The Guardian writes. Now, in light of the Delta variant and a slight waning immunity to COVID-19, there is talk of a third booster shot. 

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WorldWinter 2021 EditionAnalysis
Shweta Parthasarathy

The Burden of COVID-19 on Women

Before the coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm, society had begun treating women as equals and regarding women’s rights as human rights. Leading up to 2020, male-dominated fields were becoming more equal, illiteracy rates among women and girls were dropping, and marriage rates for girls under 18 were decreasing dramatically. Slowly, young women were climbing out of the age-old well in which they were drowning. However, COVID-19 erupted, halting progress and, in some cases, threatening its complete reversal.

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November 2020International News2020Europe
Ariel Go Jr

COVID-19: Lockdown in England and Europe as COVID-19 Cases Surge

The acceleration of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe has forced multiple countries to enforce stringent social-distancing rules to prevent a return to full-blown lockdowns. In the final week of October, however, countries across Europe- including the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal- all recorded their highest daily number of cases since the pandemic began, Time reports.

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WorldNovember 2020International News2020
Luisa Chainferber

Foreign Direct Investment Decreases by Half in  2020 as a Ripple Effect of the Pandemic

The United Nations (UN) announced that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows fell by about 49 percent in the first half of this year, reports the Economic Times. It is predicted that by the end of the year, there will be a total fall of 40 percent relative to 2019 levels. It is also the first time that FDI flows turned negative for European countries.

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