Award winning journalist slams US COVID-19 policy

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - The policy developed by the U.S. on the coronavirus outbreak was based on "denial," just like its attitude toward climate change, an award-winning journalist said Friday.

Activist and journalist Naomi Klein said the Trump administration was opposed to taking necessary steps toward the virus, although many scientists saw what was coming.

"Everything has been wrong in the way we have responded to this crisis. In large part, because it is the exact same way that this country’s government has responded to the climate crisis, which was with denial," she said at a webinar of the Talks for Future series organized by the Fridays for Future movemen,.

Klein lives in New Jersey, the state with the second-highest number of reported cases of the virus, and said her neighbors who needed to be hospitalized have not been able to be tested.

Despite having symptoms, Klein was told she cannot get a test. "I feel like I'm in ground zero of a country that has done it wrong at every turn. And frankly, it's terrifying," she said.

The U.S. is now the country where most coronavirus cases have been recorded with more than 97,200 cases, according to data compiled by U.S-based Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. It has1,478 fatalities from the pandemic, while more than 860 have recovered.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg's asked a question on the future of pandemics, taking into consideration environmental destruction and climate change.

Senior World Health Organization official Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum responded by saying 70% of emerging infectious diseases that world has faced came out of the natural environment.

"There is evidence that the more pressure we put on the natural environment, the more we undermine biodiversity, the more we have deforestation, the more chance we have of getting the of the next pandemic coming out of that system," he said.

Highlighting that people rely on the integrity of natural ecosystems, he said to tackle diseases, including the coronavirus, the first thing to do is stop to damaging the climate and biodiversity.

"Diseases like dengue, fever, malaria, and others are made easier to transmit by warming climate, diseases which are transmitted through food and water, like cholera are also highly sensitive to climate conditions," he added.

Like many economic, sports and cultural events, climate demonstrations have been affected by the outbreak but not all demonstration have stopped.

Groups such as Extinction Rebellions, Fridays for Future and 350 urged protesters to prevent mass gatherings but continue with digital activism.