Link to article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56425115
The disruptions caused by Covid-19 could be to blame for deaths of 239,000 mothers and children in South Asia. The United Nations report named “Direct and Indirect Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic and Response in South Asia” focused on the 1.8 billion people in Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This region has had 13 million Covid cases with 186,000 Covid deaths despite having stringent lockdowns. The reports estimates that 228,000 deaths of children under the age of five is the result from the nutrition benefits and basic immunization being stopped. The reports show drastic drops in the numbers of children in programs for malnutrition – 80% in Bangladesh and Nepal and in India and Pakistan 35% and 65% of children did not receive their immunizations. India had the highest child mortality rate at 15.4% and Sri Lanka had the highest maternal death rate at 21.5%. The health crisis continues with an additional 3.5 million additional pregnancies that occurred with a lack of health care. It is believed that these numbers will continue to surge as more data is reported over the next few months. The region is now seeing a new serge in Covid-19 infections. With this serge the continued interruptions in health and food services will continue to cause an increase in deaths in the region.
This report sickens me. Here we sit in the “wealthiest county in the United States” and we are giving out free food to students who don’t need it. I understand that for those attending school in person all meals are free. I can go to the corner to pick up a lunch when the bus comes past, but do we need the food? Here in Southwest Asia, the neediest children on the planet lost their access to food because the Covid pandemic closed down the only access to food and the neediest children died. While, yes, no one knew how to handle the start of the pandemic, we needed to protect these children and mothers. A person doesn’t ask to be born into a place in the world, either here in Loudoun County or in the mountains of Nepal, but the people here in the world have the responsibility to care for each other and feed the hungry helpless mouths. I know people here are suffering, but the suffering in this region is incomprehensible. While we hear the news of how celebrities have suffered, are they not aware of people who cannot feed themselves? The world, especially those who have, need to take a good look at themselves and ask how can they help those who have nothing.
The world needs to be concerned about children not being fed. While yes, we were deep in a pandemic and still are, we need to work together as a global community to find a way to feed those in need. We have effective vaccinations so the workers can now go into these areas and restart the programs, but we need to question why these programs stopped in the first place. We also need to question the information on the possibility that Covid was developed in a lab as a weapon. China does not get along well with this region. Two-hundred-twenty-eight thousand fewer people in this region may make China very happy.