COVID Responses: The Global Response 

The COVID-19 pandemic is something that took the world by surprise, a virus that took control of the world. The World Health Organization was called in to Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019 about a few unknown pneumonia-type cases, on January 4 they opened an investigation on three levels (country office, regional office and Headquarters) to analyze risk assessment and status of the patients. On January 10, the virus was labeled novel coronavirus and WHO issued a review tool for countries to identify and respond to any patients showing symptoms. The identified virus spread quickly, the first case outside of China was identified in Thailand, South Korea, and Japan on January 20. The next day, a case was found in Washington, United States. With the total cases worldwide nearing 18 million, each country has different trends in the number of cases as they have taken their own approach through the advice of individual research groups and institutions such as WHO and CDC. 

It’s not only health care institutions who are doing their part to raise awareness for the virus to stop spread or “flatten the curve”, a phrase commonly used to stop the spread of new cases. Many big name companies, such as Amazon and Google, are using their large net worths  towards campaigns, funding, and other solutions. Amazon has created 100,000 new jobs to support those who lost their jobs during the pandemic, as well as increasing the hour;y pay of its employees to $15/hour. Jeff Bezos also gave $100 million dollars to food banks to support those facing shortages. Many other companies have provided substantial funding to assist in the fight against COVID-19. Chevron announced a 7 million dollar commitment to stopping the outbreak. Coca Cola Philippines took $3 million from the advertising budget and redirected it to help those on the front lines. Moreover, Coca Cola and McDonald’s partnered together to provide over 260,000 meals through McDonald’s Kindness Kitchen to those suffering in the Manila area. Some companies took a direct approach and directly invested money into research or assisted with the research themselves. The company Cisco, a tech company, invested $225 million into research towards a cure for COVID-19. Meanwhile, IBM is working with White House Office of Science and Technology to better calculate the moceular models for the virus for a cure. Also, the company Honeywell teamed up with the US government to create N95 masks for better safety. The companies of the world have been putting in efforts to make the world safer for their customers worldwide.