scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: A Technologic Tower of Babel and the Gap for International Pandemic Control (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Du ◽  
Vera Lúcia Raposo ◽  
Meng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Legal Barriers ◽  
National Borders

UNSTRUCTURED As the world struggles with the new COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing apps of various types have been adopted in many jurisdictions for combating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, even if they are successful in containing the virus within national borders, these apps are becoming ineffective as international travel is gradually resumed. The problem rests in the plurality of apps and their inability to operate in a synchronized manner, as well as the absence of an international entity with the power to coordinate and analyze the information collected by the disparate apps. The risk of creating a useless Tower of Babel of COVID-19 contact tracing apps is very real, endangering global health. This paper analyzes legal barriers for realizing the interoperability of contact tracing apps and emphasizes the need for developing coordinated solutions to promote safe international travel and global pandemic control.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: A Technologic Tower of Babel and the Gap for International Pandemic Control

10.2196/23194 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. e23194
Author(s):  
Li Du ◽  
Vera Lúcia Raposo ◽  
Meng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Legal Barriers ◽  
National Borders

As the world struggles with the new COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing apps of various types have been adopted in many jurisdictions for combating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, even if they are successful in containing the virus within national borders, these apps are becoming ineffective as international travel is gradually resumed. The problem rests in the plurality of apps and their inability to operate in a synchronized manner, as well as the absence of an international entity with the power to coordinate and analyze the information collected by the disparate apps. The risk of creating a useless Tower of Babel of COVID-19 contact tracing apps is very real, endangering global health. This paper analyzes legal barriers for realizing the interoperability of contact tracing apps and emphasizes the need for developing coordinated solutions to promote safe international travel and global pandemic control.

scholarly journals Uncovering two phases of early intercontinental COVID-19 transmission dynamics

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yang ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Shengjie Lai ◽  
Corrine W Ruktanonchai ◽  
Weijia Xing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Genetic Sequencing ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
The World ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Community Transmission ◽  
Two Phases

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an ongoing global crisis, but how the virus spread across the world remains poorly understood. This is of vital importance for informing current and future pandemic response strategies. Methods We performed two independent analyses, travel network-based epidemiological modelling and Bayesian phylogeographic inference, to investigate the intercontinental spread of COVID-19. Results Both approaches revealed two distinct phases of COVID-19 spread by the end of March 2020. In the first phase, COVID-19 largely circulated in China during mid-to-late January 2020 and was interrupted by containment measures in China. In the second and predominant phase extending from late February to mid-March, unrestricted movements between countries outside of China facilitated intercontinental spread, with Europe as a major source. Phylogenetic analyses also revealed that the dominant strains circulating in the USA were introduced from Europe. However, stringent restrictions on international travel across the world since late March have substantially reduced intercontinental transmission. Conclusions Our analyses highlight that heterogeneities in international travel have shaped the spatiotemporal characteristics of the pandemic. Unrestricted travel caused a large number of COVID-19 exportations from Europe to other continents between late February and mid-March, which facilitated the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted restrictions on international travel from countries with widespread community transmission, together with improved capacity in testing, genetic sequencing and contact tracing, can inform timely strategies for mitigating and containing ongoing and future waves of COVID-19 pandemic.

Public Health Risk Environment for Bulgarian SMEs (Guest Houses and Family Hotels) in the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-102
Author(s):  
Teodora Kiryakova-Dineva ◽  
Ruska Bozhkova
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
The South ◽  
Public Health Risk ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World

At a time of the global health pandemic, the most affected areas are economy and social life. Along with the practical limitations of travel, regarding personal security reasons and the objective risks for the environment, the world of tourism has changed. However, under the circumstances, some small accommodation units have managed to survive, like the Seamen between Scylla and Charybdis – the mythical situation. The purpose of this chapter is to delve into the public health risk environment for Bulgarian SMEs in tourism (guest houses and family hotels) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of the analysis includes hotels and guest houses in the south-western part of Bulgaria that managed to keep operating despite the global pandemic situation.

COVID-19 Exposes Warped Global Health Power: The System Needs a Course Correction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Aruna KASHYAP ◽  
Kyle KNIGHT ◽  
Margaret WURTH
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
World Health ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Just three weeks after the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized COVID-19 as a global pandemic, novelist Arundhati Roy wrote: ‘Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.’1

scholarly journals Global Health and Global Diseases

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Improve Health ◽  
National Borders

Global health is a field of medicine that deals with studies, research and activities whose priority is to improve health and achieve equality of health for all people of the world. Global health can be said to represent a system that aims to improve world health, reduce inequality and protect against global threats that neglect national borders.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps and Technologies as a tool of Mass Surveillance: A Cure Deadlier than the Disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-67
Author(s):  
Arafat Ibnul Bashar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Crime Prevention ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mass Surveillance

“Desperate times call for desperate measures” – COVID-19 contact tracing apps and technology have been operating in the desperate times created by the COVID-19 global pandemic. But the impact of these apps and technology on society is contentious, as the benefit gained from such is said to be largely outweighed by the negative impact it can have during and after the pandemic. Surveillance measures have always been a tricky business. Labeled as the ‘magical solution’ for most horrid problems of our time such as terrorism, crime prevention, it has always failed to live up to its name and has proved to be one of the prominent tools for the authoritarian regimes to oppress people and commit gross human rights violations. Over-reliance on COVID-19 apps and considering them a ‘magical solution’ to containing the spread of Coronavirus can have irreversible consequences. Instead, the pandemic and desperate situation posed by it may have provided the regimes around the world an opportunity to introduce new surveillance infrastructures or strengthen the existing ones, which would have taken years and lots of friction from courts, activists, and civil society, to achieve. The article assesses the legality of COVID-19 contact tracing apps and technology and tries to draw a picture of the society that faces the consequences of surveillance and data collected through such apps and technology and looks at how legal mechanisms can cope with such consequences.

scholarly journals Universal Testing of all Pregnant Women for COVID-19: A Way Forward for Comprehensive Antenatal Care

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (09) ◽  
pp. 373-376
Author(s):  
Hema Divakar ◽  
Poorni Narayanan ◽  
Rita Singh ◽  
Divakar Gubbi Jyothi Girish
Keyword(s):  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Obstetric Outcomes ◽  
Universal Testing ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 global pandemic has placed undue stress on health systems all around the world. However, little is known about the impact of exposure to the virus on growing foetuses or the course of COVID-19 in pregnant women, who are often asymptomatic. To develop effective policies and recommendations, robust data for both asymptomatic and symptomatic pregnant women is crucial. This can only be acquired through universal testing of all pregnant women for COVID-19. The acquired data will not only enhance our ability to answer questions around negative obstetric outcomes, such as miscarriages and preterm labours, but also lead to enhanced contact tracing, which will slow the spread of COVID-19.

Vaccine Credentials in the Developing World

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 2-4
Author(s):  
Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Yellow Fever ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Developed World

Although COVID-19 vaccine credentials for international travel are an unwelcome or dangerous concept to some in the developed world, such measures are an essential component of global public health in some of the poorest countries of the world, in particular to prevent the spread of yellow fever. If one accepts the liceity of vaccine credentials for yellow fever in the developing world, then one has to do the same with similar credentials for COVID-19. A COVID-19 vaccine credential will allow developing countries to reopen their borders and economies long before they can attain herd immunity. It will be a lifeline for economies that have been ravaged by the global pandemic. It will be part of the global common good.

scholarly journals The SARS-CoV-2 ‘perfect storm’: from humble betacoronavirus to global pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Annaleise R Howard-Jones ◽  
Jen Kok
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Critical Threshold ◽  
Viral Loads ◽  
Mild Disease ◽  
Population Immunity ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Perfect Storm

The novel betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a global pandemic unprecedented in modern times. Understanding the key features that have enabled this virus to propagate so widely in the global community is critical to current and future clinical and public health efforts. High proportions of mild disease and peak viral loads at, and likely prior to, symptom onset have hindered efforts to identify and isolate infected persons effectively, facilitating undetected spread of the virus. In countries with limited diagnostic and/or contact tracing capabilities, population-wide transmission escalated beyond a critical threshold, challenging even well-developed healthcare systems. This ‘perfect storm’ for transmissibility has led to widespread outbreaks and deaths in many regions around the world. Extensive testing and contact tracing, together with Australia’s geographic advantage, tightening of international travel restrictions, physical distancing and public health messaging measures, have contributed to limiting the extent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread in the country, but recent case escalation in Victoria highlights the country’s vulnerability to future outbreaks due to low population immunity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document