Answer Happy

This World Population Day, let us highlight the role of
demography and appreciate how population studies can shape
efforts to address and understand this public health crisis ,
starting with the trinity of fertility, mortality and migration and
their implications.
On mortality first. The pandemic will alter mortality
trends just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic has in many countries, if not
more so. But estimating COVID-19 mortality is not a simple
enterprise, although it has become easier with better
testing.
In the early days, when testing was rationed, it was difficult to
ascertain cause of death—was it the coronavirus or something else?
So data scientists focused on calculating excess mortality,
that is, a month-on-month comparison of the number of deaths
compared to the previous year.
But this only works in countries with robust vital registration
systems, or where every death is registered. At the World Bank, we
work in too many countries where that’s not the case. So, we rely
on demographers to devise alternative ways, whether it is by
deriving data from cremations and burials or from verbal
autopsies.
A second important aspect of population science is age
structure. Countries and regions with older
populations have seen higher case fatality rates, and this
raises huge issues for the manner in which elderly people are
treated. In Europe and some parts of the United States, triage
plans have focused on those who are healthy and most likely to
recover, putting older patients at the bottom of the treatment
hierarchy.
Third, migration is a big part of the pandemic and
lockdown story. Migrants who work in precarious, informal, manual
jobs, usually in urban areas, have suffered disproportionately due
to business closures. Their aggregate welfare has been overlooked
in almost every region of the world and especially in countries and
cities that rely heavily on migrant labor. And too often countries
and cities do not have a count of migrants or an understanding of
their needs.Fourth, population scientists spend a lot of time and
energy analyzing marriage and cohabitation, including, but not
only, because they have to do with fertility. These patterns are
upended as many of us join the bittersweet Zoom weddings or cancel
wedding plans. In some countries, the progress in addressing child
marriage will likely be stalled, as families come under pressure to
marry off young daughters to stave off the effects of the pandemic.
Further, COVID-19 has curtailed women’s access to
contraception and other sexual and reproductive health
services and put them and their children at greater risk
of violence. The UNFPA and other national and international
actors have highlighted these substantial risks.
Fifth, living arrangements and residential
patterns matter for many reasons. The study of population
dwells on and draws inferences from who lives where, with whom, and
in what conditions. This has been stood on its head as well, as
recently unemployed young adults come back to live with parents,
and as families work from home and in close proximity. Quarantines
and social distancing can also keep older and immunosuppressed
people in solitary living conditions, with adverse effects on
mental and physical health. Plus, as the pandemic has until
recently been largely urban, there is increasing focus on slums and
other crowded spaces that can serve as hotspots of contagion,
if they are not managed well.
Sixth, the study of race ethnicity and gender, and their
intersections, are part and parcel of demography. During the
pandemic, some groups are at greater risk of falling ill because
they are unable to stay distanced from others,unable to access
healthcare, or because they work in essential jobs that put them at
higher risk. In the United States for instance, Black and Hispanic
groups are at higher risk of being infected and of
death.
Therefore, this day when we commemorate the importance of
population, let us pause to think about the many ways in which
COVID-19 can be better understood if we pay attention to population
trends and patterns. This is only possible if we invest in data and
analysis, which is itself in jeopardy as 2020 is census year for
many countries and most will not be able to conduct it due to the
constraints posed by the pandemic.
Several existing platforms and dashboards have refined their
offerings to include better demographic data and analysis. Of
these, the World Bank’s curated and harmonized
databases, Our World in Data, the Johns Hopkins
Coronavirus Resource Center, and many country-level dashboards and
trackers are a few excellent examples. Therefore, despite the
challenges,there are many ways we can invest in the understanding
of population dynamics. Getting it right is important: it will help
lead to better policies and programs, better support, and better
outcomes for countries and groups that need them most.

.Describe the challenges posed by COVID 19 pandemic by different
countries considering their demographies.