Health and Healthcare Systems

No refuge from COVID-19 for poor and displaced: this week's World Vs Virus podcast 

David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations hearing on the conflict in Syria on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 15, 2017.  REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein - RC178F0DA8F0

David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. Image: REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

Robin Pomeroy
Podcast Editor, World Economic Forum
  • World Versus Virus is a weekly podcast from the World Economic Forum.
  • David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, sounds the alarm for the world's poorest.
  • We hear how the crisis is impacting Bangladesh and Kenya.
  • Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders discuss adapting to the outbreak.
  • Hear a musical representation of COVID that could help us beat it.
  • Subscribe to World Vs Virus on Apple or Spotify to get it every week.

“If you think it is really terrifying to face the prospect of COVID in an advanced industrialized country … just imagine what it's like to face the prospect of a virus where there isn't running water, where there isn't a proper health system, where densities of population [are like] Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, where there are a million.”

David Miliband, former British foreign secretary tells this week’s World Versus Virus podcast of his fears for the world’s most vulnerable as the virus outbreak heads their way.

Now head of the International Rescue Committee, a global organization that delivers aid to people displaced by war, persecution, or natural disasters, Miliband said we have a matter of weeks to get preventative measures in place in those countries to avoid “death on an absolutely appalling scale”.

That's all in this week's World Versus Virus podcast, available on Apple Podcasts as part of its Essential Listening collection. The podcast is also available on Spotify and Libsyn.

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Hosted by World Economic Forum editor Robin Pomeroy and published every week, the podcast puts the news in context with insights and analysis from top global experts in economics, technology, health and culture as well as the World Economic Forum’s reporters and editors.
Hosted by World Economic Forum editor Robin Pomeroy and published every week, the podcast puts the news in context with insights and analysis from top global experts in economics, technology, health and culture as well as the World Economic Forum’s reporters and editors. Image: World Economic Forum

Other guests this week:

Asif Saleh head of BRAC, and a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders community. Read his blog post on the lockdown's impact on Bangladeshi workers: In Bangladesh, COVID-19 threatens to cause a humanitarian crisis

Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, Executive Director, Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers; Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, PhD, Director, Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue Jewish Theological Seminary; Bob Roberts, Founder CEO Glocal.net and Global Senior Pastor, NorthWood Church Keller, (DFW), Texas. Read their co-authored blog: Love your neighbour: Judaism, Islam and Christianity come together over COVID-19.

Markus J. Buehler, McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT, and a composer of experimental, classical and electronic music. Read this blog post on his research: If a virus could sing ... Could this musical version of COVID-19 help us defeat the disease?

Articles discussed in the podcast:


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