scholarly journals What Cost Scientific Illiteracy in Time of Global Pandemic?

In medias res ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 2987-3008
Author(s):  
Marko Grba

This paper traces the course of the ongoing pandemic as it was reported in some of the established world media as well as in scientific journals. The author has been following the various sources since practically the begining of the pandemic in Europe and here will try to assess the role and the actual practice of scientists, politicians and other actors throughout the pandemic, from its begining in China at the close of 2019 till end of February 2021. The key questions addressed in this paper are: Why the events of the ongoing pandemic unfolded as they did, with so many misguided decisions by politicians (as well as experts at times), with so much misinformation and fake news and so many missed opportunities for decisive and life-changing action? What is the reason behind prolonged intervals of silence in the communication chain? And what cost the insufficient familiarity with science – its facts, methods or means of communication – in the time of global pandemic? The main thesis is that the insufficient level of scientific knowledge – and at times of basic scientific litteracy – as witnessed from the highest places of political power to the so called conspiracy theorists, costed us all too many lives lost and an unforseeable suffering to come. The responsibility is shared between virtually all actors and it must be given due consideration, in some cases even at the courts of justice, if we are to learn all the valuable lessons for the future of public health, world economy and, indeed, the survival of humanity.

2014 ◽  
Vol 155 (22) ◽  
pp. 876-879
Author(s):  
András Schubert

The role of networks is swiftly increasing in the production and communication of scientific knowledge. Network aspects have, therefore, an ever growing importance in the analysis of the scientific enterprise, as well. The present paper demonstrates some techniques of studying the network of scientific journals on the subject of seeking the position of Orvosi Hetilap (Hungarian Medical Journal) in the international journal network. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(22), 876–879.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meagan Marie Daoust

The healthcare trend of parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccinations will be investigated through a complex Cynefin Framework component in an economic and educational context, allowing patterns to emerge that suggest recommendations of change for the RN role and healthcare system. As a major contributing factor adding complexity to this trend, social media is heavily used for health related knowledge, making it is difficult to determine which information is most trustworthy. Missed opportunities for immunization can result, leading to economic and health consequences for the healthcare system and population. Through analysis of the powerful impact social media has on this evolving trend and public health, an upstream recommendation for RNs to respond with is to utilize reliable social media to the parents’ advantage within practice. The healthcare system should focus on incorporating vaccine-related education into existing programs and classes offered to parents, and implementing new vaccine classes for the public.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. e241485
Author(s):  
Priyal Taribagil ◽  
Dean Creer ◽  
Hasan Tahir

SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a global pandemic and an unprecedented public health crisis. Recent literature suggests the emergence of a novel syndrome known as ‘long COVID’, a term used to describe a diverse set of symptoms that persist after a minimum of 4 weeks from the onset of a diagnosed COVID-19 infection. Common symptoms include persistent breathlessness, fatigue and cough. Other symptoms reported include chest pain, palpitations, neurological and cognitive deficits, rashes, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. We present a complex case of a previously well 28-year-old woman who was diagnosed with COVID-19. After resolution of her acute symptoms, she continued to experience retrosternal discomfort, shortness of breath, poor memory and severe myalgia. Investigations yielded no significant findings. Given no alternative diagnosis, she was diagnosed with ‘long COVID’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-303
Author(s):  
Stela Rutovic ◽  
Ekaterina Volevach ◽  
Hana Maršálková ◽  
Ana Isabel Fumagalli ◽  
Francesco Corea

The emergence of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov2 virus has had a widespread public health impact, thus causing a significant socioeconomic burden [...]


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 497-502
Author(s):  
O. Rejnuš

The paper discusses the importance of commodity exchange trading while placing a special emphasis on the increasingly close interconnection between commodity markets and financial instruments markets. The aim of the paper is to prove that at present, commodity markets cannot be seen as strictly separate from markets trading in financial instruments, as there are increasingly close links between the two, which effectively lead to the transfer of financial resources invested in the financial market into the real economy. The paper analyses the most significant ties that already exist between the commodities and financial investment instruments in the financial and capital market, as well as the links that are very likely to come into existence in the near future. In the concluding part, there is a summary of the reasons that will necessarily lead to a further world-wide development of commodity exchange trading and a prediction of the lines along which this development is likely to take place.


Author(s):  
Darlington E Obaseki ◽  
Iriagbonse I Osaigbovo ◽  
Esohe O Ogboghodo ◽  
Omokhoa Adeleye ◽  
Obehi A Akoria ◽  
...  

Abstract Africa was the last continent to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the discourse on Africa's response captured in scientific journals revolves around nations, public health agencies and organizations, but little is documented about how individual healthcare facilities have fared. This article reports the challenges faced in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria, including space constraints, diagnostic challenges, shortages in personal protective equipment and health worker infections. The opportunities and strengths that aided the response are also highlighted. The lessons learned will be useful to similar facilities. More information about health facility response at various levels is needed to comprehensively assess Africa's response to the pandemic.


2002 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Hilary M. Carey

Time, according to medieval theologians and philosophers, was experienced in radically different ways by God and by his creation. Indeed, the obligation to dwell in time, and therefore to have no sure knowledge of what was to come, was seen as one of the primary qualities which marked the post-lapsarian state. When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of delights, they entered a world afflicted with the changing of the seasons, in which they were obliged to work and consume themselves with the needs of the present day and the still unknown dangers of the next. Medieval concerns about the use and abuse of time were not merely confined to anxiety about the present, or awareness of seized or missed opportunities in the past. The future was equally worrying, in particular the extent to which this part of time was set aside for God alone, or whether it was permissible to seek to know the future, either through revelation and prophecy, or through science. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the scientific claims of astrology to provide a means to explain the outcome of past and future events, circumventing God’s distant authority, became more and more insistent. This paper begins by examining one skirmish in this larger battle over the control of the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (S2) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Polly J. Price

These teaching materials explore the specific powers of governments to implement control measures in response to communicable disease, in two different contexts:The first context concerns global pandemic diseases. Relevant legal authority includes international law, World Health Organization governance and the International Health Regulations, and regulatory authority of nations.The second context is centered on U.S. law and concerns control measures for drug-resistant disease, using tuberculosis as an example. In both contexts, international and domestic, the point is to understand legal authority to address public health emergencies.


Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110606
Author(s):  
Sam Gregory

Frontline witnessing and civic journalism are impacted by the rhetoric and the reality of misinformation and disinformation. This essay highlights key insights from activities of the human rights and civic journalism network WITNESS, as they seek to prepare for new forms of media manipulation, such as deepfakes, and to ensure that an emergent “authenticity infrastructure” is in place to respond to global needs for reliable information without creating additional harms. Based on global consultations on perceived threats and prioritized solutions, their efforts are primarily targeted towards synthetic media and deepfakes, which not only facilitate audiovisual falsification (including non-consensual sexual images) but also, by being embedded in societal dynamics of surveillance and civil society suppression, they challenge real footage and so undermine the credibility of civic media and frontline witnessing (also known as “liar’s dividend”). They do this within a global context where journalists and some distant witness investigators self-identify as lacking relevant skills and capacity, and face inequity in access to detection technologies. Within this context, “authenticity infrastructure” tracks media provenance, integrity, and manipulation from camera to edit to distribution, and so comes to provide “verification subsidies” that enable distant witnesses to properly interpret eye-witness footage. This “authenticity infrastructure” and related tools are rapidly moving from niche to mainstream in the form of initiatives the Content Authenticity Initiative and Coalition for Content Authenticity and Provenance, raising key questions about who participates in the production and dissemination of audiovisual information, under what circumstances and to which effect for whom. Provenance risks being weaponized unless key concerns are integrated into infrastructure proposals and implementation. Data may be used against vulnerable witnesses, or the absence of a trail, for legitimate privacy and technological access reasons, used to undermine credibility. Regulatory and extra-legal co-option are also a fear as securitized “fake news” laws proliferate. The investigation of both phenomena, deepfakes and emergent authenticity infrastructure(s), this paper argues, is important as it highlights the risks related  both to the “information disorder” of deepfakes as they challenge the credibility and safety of frontline witnesses  and to responses to such “disorder,” as they risk worsening inequities in access to tools for mitigation or increasing exposure to harms from technology infrastructure.


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