Healthcare

• [New] Security will trump trade in the first months of Biden's presidency, although Washington's return to the Paris climate agreement and World Health Organization will boost the impression of a multilateralist reset and improve the US image in developing regions.
• [New] Demand, supply growth for naphtha likely to be moderate until at least second quarter of the year; demand as petchems feedstock expected to benefit from healthy sectors in Europe, Asia.
• [New] Digital transformation - Shaping the future of European healthcare, Europe is expected to be short of 4.1 million healthcare workers by 2030.
• [New] eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is participating in the COVAX global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization and hopes to receive enough vaccines for 20% of its population via the facility free of charge.
• [New] Hundreds of millions of people will continue to work, shop, receive an education, and socialize from home in 2021 as the world waits on vaccines to change the public health outlook.
• [New] Climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030-2050, at a cost of two to four billion dollars a year.
• [New] The global capacity of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines is between two to four billion by the end of 2021: The world's largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute in India, predicts that there will not be enough doses for everyone in the world, until the end of 2024, at the earliest.
• [New] National health spending in the U.S. is expected to rise to 19.4% of GDP by 2027, or $6 trillion a year, representing a generational shift in spending.
• [New] The rate of GDP growth in Mozambique was in negative territory in 2020, with an annual contraction of 0.5% expected.
• [New] Calculating how many of the 900,000 undocumented migrants could die without healthcare is impossible to calculate, especially because the UNHCR expects the number of immigration to increase 20% before the end of 2021.
• [New] Worldwide, COVID-19 could push up to 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, the first increase in global extreme poverty in over two decades - and advocates warn the world's poorest may be among the last to receive a vaccine.
• [New] With the use of solar poles, The Trust for Public Land will avoid 30 metric tons of carbon dioxide and save $71,000 in electricity costs over the next 20 years.
• [New] Even if Biden wants to work more with allies and embrace international institutions like the World Health Organization, leaders in other countries, including China, know there's no guarantee he will not be replaced by a more Trump-like leader - or even Trump - in the 2024 election.
• [New] India's vaccine rollout will begin in first quarter of 2021 (January to March), with frontline healthcare workers and individuals over the age of 50 years gaining priority.
• The COVAX pact aims to deliver some 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021, covering 20% of people in ninety-one countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• The rate of GDP growth in Samoa was in negative territory in 2020, with an annual contraction of 5.0% expected.
• The economy of New Zealand is in a very tough patch, with GDP contracting by a projected 6.1% in 2020, which is due to a large extent to COVID-19 related factors.
• Oil demand growth in the Americas is projected to be well supported in 2021, led by a healthy petrochemicals sector, with ethane-cracking capacity in the US estimated to provide solid support for demand growth.
• In 30 years, Africa's health systems will come under pressure as they need to respond to needs of an ageing population and other segments of society.
• Twenty billion dollars will go toward procurement and distribution of vaccines, $9 billion to the CDC and states for vaccine distribution and $3 billion to create a national stockpile.
• Over the next three years, 25 new dementia support groups will be set up across Great Britain and 30 existing groups will be able to offer additional activities and support to members.

Last updated: 10 January 2021