Monday, March 2, 2020 Rajab 7, 1441 AH Doha today 170 - 250 COVER Coronavirus STORY Epidemics expert Jonathan Quick says the worst-case scenario increasingly likely. P4-5 BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD Recall of separation from hubby Did The Simpsons really predict still scares me: Bhagyashree. the coronavirus outbreak? Page 14 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Monday, March 2, 2020 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.39am Shorooq (sunrise) 5.57am Zuhr (noon) 11.47am Asr (afternoon) 3.08pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.38pm Isha (night) 7.08pm USEFUL NUMBERS A Million Little Pieces plane to fi nd his front teeth knocked out and his nose broken. CAST: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Odessa He has no idea where the plane is headed nor any recollection Young of the past two weeks. DIRECTION: Sam Taylor-Johnson Emergency 999 SYNOPSIS: At the age of 23, James Frey wakes up on a THEATRE: Royal Plaza Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 After Midnight suddenly, leaving a cryptic note as her only explanation, Qatar Airways 40253374 DIRECTION: Jeremy Gardner, Christian Stella Hank’s comfortable life and his sanity begin to crack. Then, CAST: Julia Benson, Jeremy Gardner, Brea Grant, Justin from the woods surrounding his house, something terrible Benson starts trying to break in. SYNOPSIS: When his long suff ering friend disappears THEATRE: The Mall te Unqu uo ot Q “Accept e the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.” – George S Patton Community Editor For movie timings and Kamran Rehmat further details please scan e-mail: [email protected] the QR code above with your Telephone: 44466405 mobile phone camera or visit qatarcinemas.com Fax: 44350474 Monday, March 2, 2020 GULF TIMES 3 ROUND & ABOUT COMMUNITY Ballet Lessons information, 66053485, 33232490 or visit WHERE: Music and Arts Atelier www.SmedleyToastmasters.org WHEN: Ongoing TIME: 4pm – 8pm For more info e-mail at registration@ atelierqatar.com or call on 33003839. Whiskers & Purrs WHERE: Tennis Courts, The Pearl-Qatar WHEN: March 7 Time: 1pm – 6pm A fun-fi lled event for the family which will promote responsible pet ownership. The objective is to raise community awareness MIA Park Bazaar 2020 Street Food is the ideal venue for a leisure about animal welfare and highlight the plight WHERE: MIA Park experience for the whole family off ering over of pets that have been abandoned by families. WHEN: Ongoing till April 25 20 dine-in options and 18-hole World Mini- HEC Paris International Executive TIME: 2pm — 8pm Golf setup. MBA Information Session MIA Park Bazaar is a modern version of WHERE: 15th Floor, Tornado Tower, West the Old Souq tradition with vibrant mix of Hobby Classes Bay around 120 stalls. You can browse and buy WHERE: Mamangam Performing Art WHEN: March 4 handicrafts, accessories, paintings, clothing, Centre TIME: 5:30pm — 7pm food, jewellery, photography and art. WHEN:Wednesday – Monday Learn more about this world-class Mamangam is an art and performance executive programme. Discover the centre started with a vision of spreading international diversity of participants, our knowledge, interests and experience in blended learning and international mobility various disciplines in arts across different options. Find out how it will help you countries for children and adults. transform yourself and your career. We offer regular classes in disciplines like traditional classical dance, art and craft, Public Speaking Classes for Adults Bollywood and hip-hop styles, Carnatic WHERE: Sharq Capital, C-Ring Road music, robotics, percussion instruments, WHEN:Ongoing till July 1 keyboard, yoga, zumba and martial arts TIME: 6:30pm – 9pm like Karate, Shaolin Kung Fu and Kalari. Get trained by experts to be a good speaker. For those who wish to register e-mail Smedley Toastmasters is conducting a at [email protected] or call on six-month speech-craft programme that 33897609/44723680 teaches new members to speak confi dently and develop leadership skills. For more 2020 Grand Prix – Test and Race WHERE: Losail International Circuit WHEN: March 6–8 2020 Grand Prix is set to take place from March 6 till March 8 at the Losail International Circuit. Built-in just under a year, the circuit has been a regular venue of the MotoGP STEM Event calendar ever since. You can watch the races with friends or family in an open-air setting WHERE: Qatar Academy for Science and where you will be surrounded by the uproar of larger crowds. Technology WHEN: Tomorrow TIME: 2pm — 4pm This is a free event open to QF and non-QF families. Activities are tailored to appeal to ages 11-16. Spaces are limited so please book ahead. Metro Street Food WHERE: DECC Metro Station WHEN: Ongoing TIME: 12:30pm Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Monday, March 2, 2020 COMMUNITY COVER STORY “There is plenty we can do to protect ourselves” — Jonathan D Quick The former chair of the Global Health Council talks about the mentality that left the world vulnerable to the Covid-19 epidemic and what can be done to minimise its eff ects We can mobilise more health officials and keep engaging the public, implementing sensible travel controls and ensuring that frontline health workers have ready access to diagnostic tests ‘and are vigilant — Jonathan Quick By Laura Spinney n 2018 global health expert Jonathan D Quick, of Duke University in North Carolina, published a book titled The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It. In it he prescribed measures by which the world could protect itself against devastating disease outbreaks of the Ilikes of the 1918 fl u, which killed millions and set humanity back decades. He is the former chair of the Global Health Council and a long-term collaborator of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Covid-19 epidemic looks like it’s edging towards becoming a pandemic — that is, as the WHO defi’ nes it, “the worldwide spread of a new disease” — but the WHO hasn’t declared a pandemic yet. What are the best-case and worst- case scenarios? The best case is that the Chinese confl agration is brought under control, the smaller “fl ames” we’ve seen fl are up in other countries are extinguished, there’s little or no spread to new countries or continents, and the epidemic dies out. The worst case is that the FIRST LESSON: “It’s critical to disseminate dispassionate, evidence-based information, and not to try to mislead the outbreak goes global and the disease eventually becomes endemic, population,” says Jonathan Quick. meaning it circulates permanently in the human population. Monday, March 2, 2020 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY Your feeling as to which is Evidence suggests that vaccine more likely, as of today? hesitancy diminishes when lots The worst-case scenario is of people are dying. Once an looking increasingly likely. We’ve outbreak is over, however, levels of now seen cases on six continents, vaccine uptake may depend on how apparently “silent” — that is, fresh that outbreak is in people’s at least partly asymptomatic minds — even though the risk of — chains of human-to-human another one is real. I’ve written transmission both inside and about a hypothetical situation outside China, with additional in which a new and dangerous countries reporting cases within pathogen emerges, a vaccine is the last week — bringing the total developed, and you still get a to 47 — and new, accelerating pandemic, because large numbers outbreaks in Iran, Italy and South of millennials refuse the vaccine. In Korea. If it becomes a pandemic, the US, 20% of millennials believe the questions are, how bad will it that vaccines cause autism. The get and how long will it last? The problem is bad information. As my case fatality rate — the proportion students often remind me, news of cases that are fatal — has been tends to be behind paywalls, while just over 2%, much less than it fake news is free. was for Sars, but 20 times that of seasonal fl u. There are still Is it plausible that the Chinese many unknowns — we may have have already created a Covid-19 underestimated the period during vaccine? which a person is contagious, for The US drug company Moderna instance, and the variety of ways in is the only one I’m aware of that has which the virus spreads. a Covid-19 vaccine ready for human trials. Those are due to start in If the worst-case scenario April. Chinese fi rms are new to the comes true, are there still things global vaccine market, but at least we can do to minimise the one, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, pandemic’s impact? is working to develop a Covid-19 Absolutely. We can mobilise more vaccine. health offi cials and keep engaging the public, implementing sensible It appears that the Covid-19 travel controls and ensuring that virus originated in a “wet” or frontline health workers have live animal market. Should such ready access to diagnostic tests markets be banned? and are vigilant — that they don’t No. The Chinese government send anyone who may have been tried that after Sars.