Science - USA (2020-06-05)

sciencemag.org SCIENCE

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Yemen faces COVID-19 disaster

HUMANITARIAN AID | Yemen, already reel-
ing from 5 years of civil war and a massive
cholera outbreak, faces a catastrophic
prognosis for deaths from COVID-
unless international donors contribute to a
depleted assistance fund for public health,
the United Nations says. Based on modeling
by a group at Imperial College London, the
World Health Organization is bracing for
the novel coronavirus to infect about half of
Yemen’s population of about 30 million and
kill an estimated 30,000 to 40,000. Official
case numbers remain low: As of 1 June,
the country had reported 358 cases and
85 deaths. But there are unofficial reports
of hundreds more cases; rival health minis-
tries in Aden and Sana’a have accused each
other of intentionally underreporting the

NEWS

“

We need to get it down to simmer before we

take the lid off, and it’s too early.

”

Respiratory scientist Calum Semple, to BBC, joining others on a scientific advisory panel who voiced

worries about easing U.K. lockdowns for COVID-19 this week before testing and case tracing are fully in place.

IN BRIEF

Edited by Jeffrey Brainard

DISPATCHES FROM THE PANDEMIC

As protesters demonstrated on 1 June in New York City’s Times Square and other U.S. cities against the killing of an unarmed black man by Minneapolis police,

public health specialists worried that the large crowds, in which many people did not wear masks, would quicken the spread of COVID-19.

105,

U.S. deaths from COVID-19,

as of 2 June. The total, the world’s

highest, surpassed 100,000 on

28 May. Worldwide, deaths

have reached more than 377,

(Johns Hopkins University).

BY THE NUMBERS

extent of COVID-19 in the areas they con-

trol. Even after raising $1.35 billion from

donors on 2 June, the United Nations is still

short nearly $1 billion in funding needed to

sustain humanitarian programs in Yemen

for the rest of 2020.

Trump confirms WHO exit

POLICY | President Donald Trump on

29 May said he would follow through on his

threat to withdraw the United States from

the World Health Organization (WHO),

which he says has mishandled the corona-

virus pandemic. He vowed to redistribute

some of its allocated funding directly to

groups it supports. Public health advocates

blasted the decision, saying it could hamper

a broad range of disease-fighting efforts, and

noting it came just 11 days after Trump gave

WHO 30 days to respond to a U.S. request for

reforms. Legal experts say the United States

is still obligated to pay WHO some $60 mil-

lion in 2020 membership dues, and they note

that an exit cannot be finalized for at least

1 year. If Trump loses the November election,

the next president could reverse the decision.

1036 5 JUNE 2020 • VOL 368 ISSUE 6495

Published by AAAS