Table of Contents
COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS KILL 9 MILLION WORLDWIDE
9 MILLION KILLED – Many Directly Due To The Economic Impact Of Travel Restrictions Of First World Countries
THAT’S THREE TIMES MORE – And In Addition – To The Actual Worldwide COVID-19 Deaths In 2020
But – Oh, wait – only in third world countries…Phew! No big deal then.
( Forgive the obvious sarcasm. )
Covid-19 – the disease itself – has killed ~ 6 million worldwide in the last 2 years, – but they are the IMPORTANT – vote giving people of First World Countries. Real people, not the forgettable ones…
(This original article was written Jun 2021 with Lockdowns and global travel restrictions still in place…)
So where do those rubbery figures come from you ask?
Well, the U.N. World Food program, & OXFAM for starters – but – wait – they now say even more may die – with greater than 343 million people on death row – many as a DIRECT RESULT of the economic impact of Covid-19 restrictions. [Ref https://www.usglc.org/coronavirus/global-hunger/]
If a moderately bad case scenario comes to fruition, and ~ 10% actually die, that will make it ~ 36 million deaths or FOUR times the average daily death in 2019 before Covid-19 hit. [Ref.https://www.voanews.com/africa/report-millions-likely-die-acute-hunger-without-help]
Globally, Covid-19 restrictions have severely reduced incomes and disrupted food supply chains. As a result, right now (conservatively) it is estimated up to double the 2019 figures (- they were already at 25000 /day or 9mill /year [Ref. International relief agency Mercy Corps.]) are dying due to Covid-19-measures- induced-starvation worldwide. [Ref. U.N. Warns Number Of People Starving To Death Could Double Amid Pandemic]
That means over 9 million a year can be attributed directly to the economic impact of Covid-19 restrictions. Lockdowns and travel restrictions – including those of the First World – are killing those in the developing world. An unintentional consequence no doubt, but very very real.
Yes – 9 MILLION additional deaths due to starvation at the conservative least. Three times more than have actually died of Covid-19 disease – in the entire world in the last year -2020. (Total 6 million in 2 years )
The dramatic slowdown in the global economy, coupled with severe restrictions on movement, has resulted in massive job losses globally.
From the bemo drivers in Bali to the postcard peddlers on the beaches of Mogadishu, the local food stall merchants that serve them and their families, on and on the economic pain travels through the far-reaching interconnected veins of societies very poor.
Travel & Tourism is a key driver for investment and economic growth globally. The sector contributed US$8.8 trillion or 10.4% of global GDP in 2019, accounting for 319 million jobs or one in ten of all jobs on the planet. The most important economic feature of activities related to the tourism sector is that they contribute to three high-priority goals of developing countries: the generation of income, employment, and foreign-exchange earnings.
Tourism has been devastated by lockdowns and border closures worldwide. 90% of the tourism dollars flowing into developing – Third World – countries comes from First World countries. About US$ 7 trillion has disappeared from the equation since the world essentially stopped traveling.
But How Do Travel Restrictions In the UK, Australia, Or Other Rich Nations Cause Starvation In The Third World?
Tourism and Travel are vital to the world economy. Right now remember 7 TRILLION fewer dollars are flowing into the world economy annually because of current travel restrictions worldwide.
At the most simplistic level – restricting travel in the first world cuts off huge sums of these tourism and travel dollars to third world countries. As an example, UK Tourism alone contributed over 500 million USD to African nations alone in 2019. (The poor there survive on less than a dollar a day.) UK tourism accounts for 3.8% of global tourist $ dollars, Australia around 1.4% conservatively. [Ref.] (UK Tourism Statistics 2020-2021: Latest Data – Condor Ferries Australia 1.4%)
Those dollars are literally life and death for the extremely poor of developing nations.
The millions of already very poor who live from hand to mouth and worked in the tourism and travel industry now have no source of income. Think also cleaners, drivers, small food-store operators, souvenir makers and sellers, along with those who sold their goods and services to these people. All of them – without a tourism industry – simply don’t have enough to pay for basic meals. Starvation…death.
To make things worse, those not directly involved in travel have ALSO been pushed into starvation due to Covid-19. Lockdowns and quarantine measures in the third world have caused supply chains there to be broken. – Farmers can’t sell food from crops – because they can’t transport it to market properly. Food prices have risen sharply as a result. There is now no money for the farmers, the food goes to waste, and no food at reasonable prices for those at the end of the supply chain. Millions more very poor simply can’t afford the high-priced food, and the problem is hugely exacerbated.
READ: World on the brink of a ‘hunger pandemic’: coronavirus threatens to push millions into starvation
.
[NOTE – More recent updated versions are now available on google READ https://www.wfpusa.org/drivers-of-hunger/covid-19/]
.
Unintended Consequences
‘As COVID-19 pushed countries everywhere to lockdown, the equivalent of 500 million full-time jobs have been destroyed, and remittances have collapsed. The impact has been felt hardest by the 2 billion people who work in the informal economy around the world – mainly in middle and low-income countries. Already only one day’s work away from going hungry, in other words living hand to mouth. You and I have food in the pantry in a lockdown. We have enough food for two or three weeks. These people don’t have that luxury. If they miss a day’s wages, they miss a day’s worth of food and their children suffer. They don’t have the money to buy their daily bread in those circumstances. This inevitably creates a risk of rising social tensions and instability.’ (UN World Food Program)
‘For another example of unintended consequences, the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine has analyzed the closure of vaccination clinics in Africa during lockdown. It calculated that, for every COVID-19 death prevented, as many as 80 children may die due to a lack of routine immunizations.’
‘There is a grave danger that many more people will die from the broader economic and social consequences of COVID-19 than from the virus itself, especially in Africa. And the last thing we need is to have the cure be worse than the disease itself.’ (UN World Food Program)
It appears we may already be there, ( even with any underreporting of Covid-19 disease deaths ) – and delaying First World travel will only make it worse.
This article is not intended to solve the problems of the Third World. Its intention is to point out that the restrictions First World countries are putting in place to ‘Protect their World’ from COVID-19 – are in turn KILLING many more elsewhere – probably more so than they will ever save at home now even with modest levels of vaccination in place.
Some risk – not huge – but at least SOME – must be considered acceptable to open up borders and reinstate travel and get the $$ flowing through to the Third World economies. The current fearful – irrational – close to ‘ZERO RISK’ policy many governments are adopting has very real, far-reaching, and dire consequences in the world of which we are ALL a part.
In the already heavily vaccinated UK today, there were 7500 Covid-19 cases, & around 8 deaths, down from in excess of 1400 daily at its peak. STILL, today the UK extended the lockdowns and is preventing widespread travel and thus more vital $$ dollars ultimately flowing to the Third World. Every day it is delayed, it will contribute directly to the around 25000 daily deaths due to starvation. ( 9 mill. – conservative figure /365.) To be absurdly conservative, let’s say the enormous – US$7 Trillion – lack of tourism dollars is causing just 10% of the global deaths due to starvation. So about 2500/ day.
UK tourism accounts for 3.8% of global tourist $ dollars. [Ref.] (UK Tourism Statistics 2020-2021: Latest Data – Condor Ferries Australia 1.4%)
That means every day the travel restrictions are in place,
3.8% ( U.K. ) of 2500 deaths/day due to lack of tourism globally,
So AT LEAST 95 deaths per day can be attributed DIRECTLY to the UK travel restrictions
Even the much smaller economy of Australia is killing at least 35 people per day by closing its international borders.
But don’t forget – those are rubbery, ( well and truly watered-down figures by now,) – and it’s only unimportant – non-voting people right? – And mainly children at that…
Even if the UK’s travel restrictions only contributed to a quarter of that unlikely- already ridiculously lowball figure – it’s still killing 3 times more people elsewhere than at home, right now, every single day.
Just because you can’t count it though – like the exact number of ‘cases’ today in your city (it’s more sensational to report large numbers of cases than small numbers of deaths) – doesn’t mean these other deaths – in the third world aren’t occurring.
They are – and it IS sensational in number.
Governments of the World ( AUSTRALIA, UK ) – The flow-on economic damage caused by lockdowns and travel restrictions now – ARE KILLING WAY MORE PEOPLE than you will ever save at home. Once the vulnerable are vaccinated – most of them are already – don’t dilly dally – OPEN UP!
All products bought through EnrichLife.co come with a 30-day MONEY BACK GUARANTEE 
