To combat loneliness, many people have bought pets during the COVID-19 pandemic. That has meant more abandoned pets and a surge in illicit trade. In the veterinary clinic in the Zürcher Tierschutz animal shelter (Photo courtesy of Zürcher Tierschutz) Sales of pets in...
COVID-19 could have brought out the best in humanity. Instead, public health programs have fallen short, exposing us to a resurgence of diseases. A baby is vaccinated against malaria in Malawi. (WHO/Mark Nieuwenhof) COVID-19 has shut down vaccination programs around...
Headlines about COVID-19 understandably tend to focus on the current state of affairs — cases, hospitalizations, deaths, new variants, vaccines. It takes the kind of expertise that Maggie Fox has earned in years of writing about science and health to look beyond today to see what the pandemic means for tomorrow. Citing the latest research, Fox explores how public health services are failing to cope with myriad illnesses that don’t stop in their tracks just because there’s a pandemic. The outlook is not bright.
Exercise: Ask your students to speak to a local epidemiologist to learn how COVID-19 is affecting public health services nearby and the impact the pandemic is having on the fight against other illnesses.
Our responses to COVID-19 have been driven by facts and perceptions of risk. As vaccinations increase, is it time for these perceptions to change? A family travels on a motorbike in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after the government ended a lockdown of the city, 6 May 2021....
The world’s fourth most populous nation, Indonesia is struggling to keep fast-spreading COVID-19 from undermining its economic growth prospects. A man falls to the ground during the burial of a relative who died of COVID-19, Jakarta, Indonesia, 7 July 7 2021....
News Decoder aims to spotlight regions of the world that often don’t make the headlines. With an estimated 270 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country after China, India and the United States. Correspondent Jonathan Thatcher, former Jakarta bureau chief for Reuters, draws our attention to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the island nation and why it matters. His article explains how COVID-19 tore through the country, stalling economic growth, and warns of the potential long-term impact on youth employment — what he calls “an especially frightening prospect.”
Exercise: Ask students how they think the pandemic will impact economic opportunity for young people in their country.
A News Decoder partner has awarded top prizes to news organizations in five countries for innovative reporting on COVID-19 for kids. News organizations in Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore and the United States have won top global reporting prizes for their...
After more than a year of COVID-19 reporting, it can be hard to find a fresh perspective on the pandemic, especially for children. But the gold-medal winners of the Global Youth and News Media Prize for pandemic reporting did just that. In an interview with the prize’s director, Aralynn McMane, News Decoder Board member Nolwazi Mjwara of UNESCO learns more about the innovative strategies taken by the winning news organizations to engage children in the storytelling process and support their mental health. Winning strategies included creating interactive games, dispatching youth correspondents to cover the pandemic and hosting a virtual art exhibition.
Exercise: How might you adopt some of these reporting practices in your own classrooms? Have your students create a game for kids to learn about issues in the news in a fun, positive way.