The Covid 19 Disaster

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest science policy failure in a generation. We knew this was coming. Warnings about the threat of a new pandemic have been made repeatedly since the 1980s and it was clear in January that a dangerous new virus was causing a devastating human tragedy in China. And yet the world ignored the warnings. Why? In this short and hard-hitting book, Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet, scrutinizes the actions that governments around the world took – and failed to take – as the virus spread from its origins in Wuhan to the global pandemic that it is today. He shows that many Western governments and their scientific advisors made assumptions about the virus and its lethality that turned out to be mistaken. Valuable time was lost while the virus spread unchecked, leaving health systems unprepared for the avalanche of infections that followed. Drawing on his own scientific and medical expertise, Horton outlines the measures that need to be put in place, at both national and international levels, to prevent this kind of catastrophe from happening again. Were supposed to be living in an era where human beings have become the dominant influence on the environment, but COVID-19 has revealed the fragility of our societies and the speed with which our systems can come crashing down. We need to learn the lessons of this pandemic and we need to learn them fast because the next pandemic may arrive sooner than we think.

This book, The COVID-19 Disaster. Volume 1: The Historic Lessons Learned and Benefits of Human Collaboration, is an intentionally apolitical treatment of the many experiences at the heart of the disaster. It collects hands-on experience from government preparedness and response work, including the impact on state IT systems, the heroic healthcare workers who directly faced the consequences of the disease each day, and the medical and insurance industries' impact and response, and then builds recommendations for the solution-approach book entitled The COVID-19 Disaster Volume II: Pandemic Prevention and Response Using Artificial Intelligence.

Highlighting American cultural and political contexts, this book provides an in-depth assessment of the breadth and magnitude of the United States' errors in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An Unmitigated Disaster chronicles and explains the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency management expert Robert O. Schneider considers the quality of U.S. pandemic planning and preparedness; the quality and effectiveness of national, state, and local response efforts; and the performance of national leaders during this historic public health crisis. The book culminates in an assessment of how a predictable public health threat became an unprecedented health, economic, and security disaster. Schneider convincingly shows that conscious decisions were made by governmental authorities, beginning with the president, to ignore expert information and security intelligence in pursuit of other objectives. In other words, Schneider argues, if the U.S. was ill-prepared for or slow to respond to the crisis, it was because its leaders consciously chose to be ill-prepared or slow to respond. Readers will be fascinated by this behind-the-scenes exposé of a pandemic year.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Governor Andrew Cuomo tells the riveting story of how he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, offering hard-won lessons in leadership and his vision for the path forward. “An impressive road map to dealing with a crisis as serious as any we have faced.”—The Washington Post When COVID-19 besieged the United States, New York State emerged as the global “ground zero” for a deadly contagion that threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions. Quickly, Governor Andrew Cuomo provided the leadership to address the threat, becoming the standard-bearer of the organized response the country desperately needed. With infection rates spiking and more people dying every day, the systems and functions necessary to combat the pandemic in New York—and America—did not exist. So Cuomo undertook the impossible. He unified people to rise to the challenge and was relentless in his pursuit of scientific facts and data. He quelled fear while implementing an extraordinary plan for flattening the curve of infection. He and his team worked day and night to protect the people of New York, despite roadblocks presented by a president incapable of leadership and addicted to transactional politics. Taking readers beyond the candid daily briefings that became must-see TV across the globe, and providing a dramatic, day-by-day account of the catastrophe as it unfolded, American Crisis presents the intimate and inspiring thoughts of a leader at an unprecedented historical moment. In his own voice, Andrew Cuomo chronicles the ingenuity and sacrifice required of so many to fight the pandemic, sharing the decision-making that shaped his policy as well as his frank accounting and assessment of his interactions with the federal government, the White House, and other state and local political and health officials. Real leadership, he shows, requires clear communication, compassion for others, and a commitment to truth-telling—no matter how frightening the facts may be. Including a game plan for what we as individuals—and as a nation—need to do to protect ourselves against this disaster and those to come, American Crisis is a remarkable portrait of selfless leadership and a gritty story of difficult choices that points the way to a safer future for all of us.

With recent studies using genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular and neurochemical approaches, a new era has begun in understanding pathophysiology of suicide. Emerging evidence suggests that neurobiological factors are not only critical in providing potential risk factors but also provide a promising approach to develop more effective treatment and prevention strategies. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide discusses the most recent findings in suicide neurobiology. Psychological, psychosocial, and cultural factors are important in determining the risk factors for suicide; however, they offer weak prediction and can be of little clinical use. Interestingly, cognitive characteristics are different among depressed suicidal and depressed nonsuicidal subjects, and could be involved in the development of suicidal behavior. The characterization of the neurobiological basis of suicide is in delineating the risk factors associated with suicide. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide focuses on how and why these neurobiological factors are crucial in the pathogenic mechanisms of suicidal behavior and how these findings can be transformed into potential therapeutic applications.

This book describes the work to be done in building an automated pandemic prevention and response capability for the US with international extensions and extendibility using artificial intelligence. The complexity of operational decisions, information sharing, situational awareness, and planned/ongoing actions by thousands of actors in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is far too great for anyone to manage effectively. The deaths and economic devastation caused by COVID-19 yet again proved this fact, much like all other major disasters we have endured. There are too many organizations, too many differing plans and agendas, too many different people of varying experience in positions of responsibility, and too much information as well as critical need for optimal decisions and actions, to avoid calamity during the inevitable next pandemic. We need automated planning, information vetting/sharing and rapid action to optimize prevention and, if not prevented, response to minimize spread. Volume I laid out the case for a better approach than exists in the U.S. today, and our nation's military - touted as the best in the world - employs methodologies with precision and fidelity that optimize rapid decision making for human-sized enemies. It turns out these same methodologies and associated technologies work just as well with our microscopic enemies, like COVID-19. This book provides an overview of how it should be developed, implemented and evolved nationwide before the next pandemic. Seems like we finally should get our "act" together, otherwise the toll for passage of the next virus could be far higher as we remain unprepared. It will be hard and extensive work, which some have referenced the "Manhattan Project" or the Apollo Program, but the COVID-19 death count mandates we apply our best effort to prevent another pandemic disaster. We are better equipped now than ever to do so.

Collects first-hand experiences from around the world of people creating their own networks of solidarity and mutual aid in the time of Covid-19.

In light of the novel corona virus outbreak in December 2019 and its subsequent impact on entire world as a global pandemic, the book attempts to provide integrated risk assessment on Covid -19 like pandemics, as well as to understand the societal, environment and economic impact of the outbreak in various sectors of development. It covers fundamental factors of global disease outbreaks and its coverage as major disaster through the complexity and severity of consequences, illustrating the dimensions of low frequency high intensity disasters. It brings together broad range of topics including basic concepts, isolation measure, role of governance and key technical advancements for containing the diseases. In addition, it also covers resilience analysis towards the impacts such outbreaks have on bio-diversity, ecosystem services and agricultural food production. It defines key exit strategies from the lessons learned and success stories of historical disease outbreaks. The book is presented in four parts, where part 1 familiarizes with fundamentals; part 2 focuses on integrated risk assessments; part 3 focuses on various measures and strategies of resilience; and part 4 suggests key lessons and recommendations. The book is a useful reading reference for scientific community, policy makers and professionals across the domains of health, environment, disasters and sustainable development. Book is specifically beneficial for postgraduate students, researchers, planners and field professionals.

Since its emergence in early 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has affected every part of the world. Well beyond its health effects, the pandemic has wrought major changes in people’s everyday lives as they confront restrictions imposed by physical distancing and consequences such as loss of work, working or learning from home and reduced contact with family and friends. This edited collection covers a diverse range of experiences, practices and representations across international contexts and cultures (UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand). Together, these contributions offer a rich account of COVID society. They provide snapshots of what life was like for people in a variety of situations and locations living through the first months of the novel coronavirus crisis, including discussion not only of health-related experiences but also the impact on family, work, social life and leisure activities. The socio-material dimensions of quotidian practices are highlighted: death rituals, dating apps, online musical performances, fitness and exercise practices, the role of windows, healthcare work, parenting children learning at home, moving in public space as a blind person and many more diverse topics are explored. In doing so, the authors surface the feelings of strangeness and challenges to norms of practice that were part of many people’s experiences, highlighting the profound affective responses that accompanied the disruption to usual cultural forms of sociality and ritual in the wake of the COVID outbreak and restrictions on movement. The authors show how social relationships and social institutions were suspended, re-invented or transformed while social differences were brought to the fore. At the macro level, the book includes localised and comparative analyses of political, health system and policy responses to the pandemic, and highlights the differences in representations and experiences of very different social groups, including people with disabilities, LGBTQI people, Dutch Muslim parents, healthcare workers in France and Australia, young adults living in northern Italy, performing artists and their audiences, exercisers in Australia and New Zealand, the Latin cultures of Spain and Italy, Asian-Americans and older people in Australia. This volume will appeal to undergraduates and postgraduates in sociology, cultural and media studies, medical humanities, anthropology, political science and cultural geography.

This book describes the work to be done in building an automated pandemic prevention and response capability for the US with international extensions and extendibility using artificial intelligence. The complexity of operational decisions, information sharing, situational awareness, and planned/ongoing actions by thousands of actors in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is far too great for anyone to manage effectively. The deaths and economic devastation caused by COVID-19 yet again proved this fact, much like all other major disasters we have endured. There are too many organizations, too many differing plans and agendas, too many different people of varying experience in positions of responsibility, and too much information as well as critical need for optimal decisions and actions, to avoid calamity during the inevitable next pandemic. We need automated planning, information vetting/sharing and rapid action to optimize prevention and, if not prevented, response to minimize spread. Volume I laid out the case for a better approach than exists in the U.S. today, and our nation's military - touted as the best in the world - employs methodologies with precision and fidelity that optimize rapid decision making for human-sized enemies. It turns out these same methodologies and associated technologies work just as well with our microscopic enemies, like COVID-19. This book provides an overview of how it should be developed, implemented and evolved nationwide before the next pandemic. Seems like we finally should get our "act" together, otherwise the toll for passage of the next virus could be far higher as we remain unprepared. It will be hard and extensive work, which some have referenced the "Manhattan Project" or the Apollo Program, but the COVID-19 death count mandates we apply our best effort to prevent another pandemic disaster. We are better equipped now than ever to do so.