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In Future Planet we close 2020, our seventh adventure, loaded with news with a common denominator: the coronavirus.
You, our readers, have accompanied us in these 366 days by reading, commenting and sharing the more than 1,500 articles, 150 videos and many other photo galleries that we have produced from the most varied and interesting corners of the world, despite the pandemic and despite that the place of residence and resistance for our journalists and collaborators has been our own home for longer than usual, since everything exploded in spring.
More information
The saddest news and the other nine most read in 2019
The mysterious coma of children in Sweden and 17 other stories from 2018
The most read stories of Future Planet in 2017
The tree man and the other 10 most read stories of Future Planet in 2016
The 15 most read reports in the first year of Planeta Futuro
This has been a year in which global health has gained special importance, the impact of covid-19 in our lives and in the developing world in particular, which we have tried to deal with as much as possible, always from science, vaccines and the impact in Africa (for many weeks we published a special direct thread from the continent).
But issues such as progress in gender equality or gaps in education have also risen and grown.
And there have been surprise protagonists such as the conspiracy theories against Bill Gates and the thread of hope with the arrival of the vaccine in record time as the final touch to this fateful 2020.
But also evidence that will have to be followed and analyzed: the lack of precise information on Africa, the urgent need for data and records and impacts, country by country;
the growing role and strength of its women and youth, and the political power of social networks on the continent ... And again, also, the systematic omission of its existence (and that of its 1.3 billion inhabitants, neighbors of Spain and Europe) in the international context, as if it were a ghost land.
The lack of attention of the media, in particular, and of the citizen of the Western world, in general, for Africa and what happens there, already shows a syndrome of aporaphobia and systemic discrimination that should be carefully analyzed since it fuels rejections that can become dangerous hand in hand with racism and supremacism.
Covid-19 has made it even more evident.
Africa will give surprises, in good and in bad.
Thus, in the latter case, the increase in poverty, extreme hunger and internal displacement in the continent (which already housed the 12 most impoverished countries most affected by climate change in the world before the crisis) as a consequence of the Measures adopted by countries to stop the coronavirus are already looming as a generalized and bleak landscape for 2021. Also discrimination in access to the vaccine against covid-19.
As much as you want to ignore, reality is what it is.
We will tell you about it in the coming months, always from the ground, if possible, looking face to face with the protagonists of the stories, adding the proper context and never forgetting the impact and pain of the other silenced pandemics that kill together in developing countries more than anything known so far: malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and pneumonia.
Only a more equitable and sustainable planet will help to get out of this crisis and those to come, and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda are the perfect roadmap (although also obviated in 2020).
In the meantime, and wishing everyone a generous 2021, here is the proof of your curiosity: the annual ranking of the most read news from Planet Future.
One more year, thank you for staying with us.
1. The prediction of the pandemic
If an outbreak of a new and aggressive type of flu were to break out tomorrow, the world would have no tools to avoid the devastation.
Between 50 and 80 million people would die and 5% of the global economy would be wiped out.
We do not have sufficient structures to face the next deadly pandemic.
This is what we told in October 2019 in the report entitled:
The world must prepare for the next great lethal pandemic
.
What was a report on a meeting of a group of experts from the WHO and the World Bank, gathered in a newly created board called The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), who were commissioned by the UN to evaluate after the last epidemic of Ebola in sub-Saharan Africa, with the aim of learning from the mistakes of the past, became the prophecy of one of the toughest health and global crises in history.
Read more.
2. “Dying is a relief”: 33 ex-narcos explain why the war on drugs fails
At the beginning of January 2020, a story like that of these 33 ex-narcos from Mexico and their vision of why the war on drugs fails became one of the most read, the result of our alliance with The Conversation.
Karina García Reyes, professor at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Relations and the Department of Latin American Studies, at the University of Bristol, interviewed 33 men who worked in drug trafficking between October 2014 and January 2015 for her doctoral thesis, which focused on studying drug violence through the analysis of life stories.
In it he addressed issues such as his childhood and adolescence, alcoholism, drugs, vandalism, his incursion and role in drug trafficking.
In order to understand the impact of these personal experiences on the incursion of the participants in drug trafficking, he studied their narratives from a discursive point of view.
These were their conclusions.
Read more.
3. Uganda's powerful weapon against covid-19
Africa's ability to cope with the pandemic and its low mortality rate from covid-19 has been one of the constants in the reports and news about the continent of this 2020. Last July we counted that Uganda, with only 33 cases detected, acted quickly: when the disease landed in this nation, the authorities closed air traffic to prevent the entry of more infected passengers and banned internal movements, among other drastic measures.
This report tells how the peoples of East Africa have overcome numerous infectious diseases, but these experiences and knowledge have often been ignored by the elites.
Now, this ancestral and local knowledge offers some useful elements to face new challenges, such as the spread of the coronavirus.
Read more.
4. The second largest donor to the WHO announces more money for the coronavirus after Trump's slamming door
In April 2020 we said that when a door closes, a window opens, also in the global fight against the pandemic.
The United States, the largest financier of the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that it was withdrawing its budget contributions to the entity that is at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus.
A day later, the organization's second largest donor in the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, reported that it was increasing its contribution to the battle against the pandemic, up to $ 250 million for the development of diagnostics, therapies and vaccines with a focus on Africa and Asia.
Read more.
5. Pedro Alonso: "That of 'here it will not arrive' and 'we will know how to control it' was of remarkable arrogance"
Last April 25, World Malaria Day or Malaria, we spoke with Pedro Alonso, (Madrid, 1959, doctor and epidemiologist) who directs the World Malaria Program of the World Health Organization (WHO).
And he painted us two scenarios in the fight against malaria, which kills more than 400,000 people in the world every year.
The most optimistic one leaves the numbers as they are.
The most pessimistic, predicts that humanity will go back 20 years in just a few months and Africa will go from 360,000 annual deaths to 768,000 and from 215 to 260 million diagnosed cases.
On the pandemic, the doctor and epidemiologist affirmed that no country, including the rich ones, prepared properly for the threat, defends the management of the WHO and assures that any political use of this tragedy is "unacceptable".
Read more.
6. Bill Gates answers questions about his prophetic video and the coronavirus
A TED talk given in 2015 by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates went viral in late March 2020. In it, he warned that the greatest threat facing humanity was not a missile or a nuclear bomb, but a microbe that could cause an infectious disease.
Gates decided to connect to the social network Reddit to respond to Internet users about what he then predicted.
In just two hours, Gates received thousands of questions, of which he selected 31. And we were there.
He was accompanied by Dr. Trevor Mundel, who heads the Gates Foundation's global health work, and Dr. Niranjan Bose, his chief scientific advisor.
Read more.
7. Humans who eat wild animals uncontrollably: a tinderbox for global health
Bats, Ebola;
civets, SARS;
dogs, rabies;
monkeys, AIDS;
chickens, bird flu.
They are some of the animals that have been in the spotlight when outbreaks of new diseases have broken out.
The last victim has been the pangolin, a suspect already ruled out of having acted as a transmitter of the coronavirus to humans.
In this report from March 2020, we told how experts warn that controlling the consumption and trade of wild products in the world is practically impossible and that the key is to improve the way of dealing with crises.
Read more.
8. India's controversial response to the coronavirus
The case of India - the second country with the most inhabitants on the planet (about 1,300 million) - during the pandemic has been lauded and criticized.
The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted at the end of March 2020 its "spectacular" response against the virus that had barely infected 425 people, causing only seven deaths.
The initial closure of borders and the control of travelers moderated the transmission.
As soon as the WHO insisted on diagnostics and quarantine as the only ways to deal with the virus, India changed its strategy.
Sunday's symbolic curfew was followed by the complete lockdown of several cities, including the capital New Delhi.
But there was fear that measures could be late for a poor and unequal healthcare system.
And then everything got worse ...
9. Bill Gates responds to conspiracy theories: “I have nothing to do with a microchip.
It is very stupid to have to deny this "
One of the protagonists of this pandemic has been Bill Gates.
The computer mogul turned the largest global health philanthropist is at the center of the bullseye of a multitude of conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 crisis and vaccines.
Most of them boast of uncovering an alleged plot by Gates to control the world through microchips or digital tattoos.
In this virtual talk held in June 2020, on the eve of Gavi's donor conference, a coalition aimed at facilitating access to immunization for the most vulnerable populations wanted to respond to all these speculations.
Read more.
10. The pandemic through the eyes of adolescent girls
"People here are scared because covid-19 has no known cure," says Madhu, from Nepal.
"I miss my friends a lot," replies Antsa, in Madagascar.
In 2020, the lives of the two of them and of the more than 1.1 billion women under the age of 18 who populate this world have been affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
For girls around the world, this has meant facing increasing threats to their safety and well-being, including harmful practices such as violence, exploitation, abuse, social exclusion, and separation from their guardians, parents and friends.
This documentary series collected in five chapters, by the hand of Unicef, the testimony of 16 of them in nine countries.
Read more.
11. The twilight of the last kingdom of women
For more than 20 years, Choo Waihong worked as a corporate attorney at a couple of prestigious law firms, mainly in Singapore and Los Angeles, leading a hectic life that left her very little time to see the world.
In 2006, he grew tired of that life and decided to retire early to travel in search of his Chinese roots, exploring the big cities and later arriving as a tourist at Lake Lugu, the home of the Mosuo tribe in the southeast of the country.
She was so fascinated by their customs that she chose to settle in to live with them for much of the year.
Her book
The tribe of women: Life, love and death in the remote mountains of China
(Editorial Península, 2018) was the perfect excuse to talk with her and unravel how a matriarchal society works.
Read more.
12. The coronavirus creeps into Africa
Already on March 17, when Spain was just confining itself to hell, we turned our gaze to Africa.
What was happening on the neighboring continent?
The coronavirus had begun to spread with 372 declared cases, the figures were still far from China or Europe, but already then there were 30 affected countries.
The fear was clear: despite the efforts made, most of these nations have the weakest public health systems in the world and do not have the human and material resources to cope with an explosive increase in patients.
Over time, we saw that most of the countries in Africa endured the health challenge, although their economies were heavily affected by mobility restrictions, among other reasons.
Read more.
13. The 50 measures to stop pollution
This report from 2017 slipped into the ranking of the 15 most read of 2020. Tens of thousands of readers were interested in the fight against one of the evils afflicting humanity: pollution, mainly in cities.
During periods of confinement this problem has been reduced, but the threat posed by lara to global health continues.
The article included the fifty proposals of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to deal with the problem.
Read more.
14. The unwanted 'baby boom' caused by the pandemic
In crises, they always lose.
At least, in greater intensity.
This pandemic 2020 we have not forgotten about women and their rights systematically undermined and, if possible, even more due to the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of covid-19.
In April, following the publication of a report by the UN Population Fund, we highlighted how some measures, such as confinement and the closure of clinics due to lack of material and personnel, would leave 47 million women without access to contraceptives and would have seven million unwanted pregnancies in the next six months in 114 low- and middle-income countries.
Only future studies on the question will determine if the worst omens were fulfilled.
Read more.
15. The three evils of the most polluted country in the world
Closes the list this report from Bangladesh, published on January 17 when the covid had not yet become the main global concern.
This Asian country is a good example of everything that should not be done for a healthy life: its atmosphere and its rivers are toxic.
And in addition, there is a third, invisible and serious pollution: acoustics.
When the pandemic passes, these challenges will still be there to be fought.
And counted.
But that will be already in 2021. Read more.
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