Evaluating A Pandemic


Book Description

Written by an international group of experts and endorsed by leading scientists, this multi-author book answers two of today's most pressing questions: the origin of the virus and the consequences of lockdown. Aimed at the general reader as well as at researchers and medical doctors, its span includes previously suppressed data on the origin of the virus, the development of novel mRNA vaccines, the case for a Swedish type of mild lockdown, and analyses of social and political issues thrown up by the pandemic. Evaluating a Pandemic is an incisive account of how civilisation grappled with the greatest world crisis since WWII. Join Charles Pasternak and his authors as they sketch a future of health, equity, and hope.




Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response


Book Description

This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).




Evaluating a Pandemic


Book Description




Ethical Implications of COVID-19 Management


Book Description

After this period of living with COVID-19, we have reached the point where we can start evaluating its management. This edited collection focuses on the exploration of the ethical implications of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. It looks into how the decisions on lockdowns, vaccination, masks and QR codes have impacted our lives, our societies and our future. The contributions examine our work habits, our human relationships, our trust in governments and health expertise, resource distribution, the prosperity and leadership of businesses, and the prospective traumas of our children. This is a companion book to The COVID-19 Pandemic: Ethical Challenges and Considerations, also published by Ethics International Press.




Assessing COVID-19 and Other Pandemics and Epidemics using Computational Modelling and Data Analysis


Book Description

This book comprehensively covers the topic of COVID-19 and other pandemics and epidemics data analytics using computational modelling. Biomedical and Health Informatics is an emerging field of research at the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. The new era of pandemics and epidemics bring tremendous opportunities and challenges due to the plentiful and easily available medical data allowing for further analysis. The aim of pandemics and epidemics research is to ensure high-quality, efficient healthcare, better treatment and quality of life by efficiently analyzing the abundant medical, and healthcare data including patient’s data, electronic health records (EHRs) and lifestyle. In the past, it was a common requirement to have domain experts for developing models for biomedical or healthcare. However, recent advances in representation learning algorithms allow us to automatically learn the pattern and representation of the given data for the development of such models. Medical Image Mining, a novel research area (due to its large amount of medical images) are increasingly generated and stored digitally. These images are mainly in the form of: computed tomography (CT), X-ray, nuclear medicine imaging (PET, SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. Patients’ biomedical images can be digitized using data mining techniques and may help in answering several important and critical questions related to health care. Image mining in medicine can help to uncover new relationships between data and reveal new and useful information that can be helpful for scientists and biomedical practitioners. Assessing COVID-19 and Other Pandemics and Epidemics using Computational Modelling and Data Analysis will play a vital role in improving human life in response to pandemics and epidemics. The state-of-the-art approaches for data mining-based medical and health related applications will be of great value to researchers and practitioners working in biomedical, health informatics, and artificial intelligence..




A Post-Pandemic Assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic hit countries’ development agendas hard. The ensuing recession has pushed millions into extreme poverty and has shrunk government resources available for spending on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Staff Discussion Note assesses the current state of play on funding SDGs in five key development areas: education, health, roads, electricity, and water and sanitation, using a newly developed dynamic macroeconomic framework.







Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response


Book Description

When communities face complex public health emergencies, state local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies must make difficult decisions regarding how to effectively respond. The public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) system, with its multifaceted mission to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, is inherently complex and encompasses policies, organizations, and programs. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has invested billions of dollars and immeasurable amounts of human capital to develop and enhance public health emergency preparedness and infrastructure to respond to a wide range of public health threats, including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. Despite the investments in research and the growing body of empirical literature on a range of preparedness and response capabilities and functions, there has been no national-level, comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those utilized in medicine and other public health fields. Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reviews the state of the evidence on PHEPR practices and the improvements necessary to move the field forward and to strengthen the PHEPR system. This publication evaluates PHEPR evidence to understand the balance of benefits and harms of PHEPR practices, with a focus on four main areas of PHEPR: engagement with and training of community-based partners to improve the outcomes of at-risk populations after public health emergencies; activation of a public health emergency operations center; communication of public health alerts and guidance to technical audiences during a public health emergency; and implementation of quarantine to reduce the spread of contagious illness.







Evaluating and Mitigating the Effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic


Book Description

The exact dates of the first COVID-19 outbreaks may remain an unresolved mystery. Unless reliable sources and records can be traced and retained, efforts to trace when initial infections took place, may even constitute a greater task than the other question relating to how it was instigated - the latter having (it appears) to have been partially resolved.The uncertainty and lack of knowledge about the nature of the transmitting organism, as well as the manner of transmission, still constitutes a puzzle and it is even possible that many patients might have died long before the prominence of infections became known to authorities. It is also now acknowledged that humans may have contracted the virus unknowingly without manifesting the usual symptoms. How is it then possible to verify whether many deaths prior to the official reporting outbreak timing of the 12th December 2019, were not linked to asymptomatic patients?Furthermore, does the transmitting agent bear similarities to the flu virus - in which case, it becomes a seasonal problem? This underlines how vital it is to secure vaccines and antibodies which can combat its spread.Amongst several other objectives, this paper not only aims to highlight why global coordination and certainty of information is so vital, but also highlight measures which have been, and could be undertaken, to address and mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak.