Invisible Virus Research Articles

DRAWING CONTAGION: AN ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 COMICS

When the world was suddenly caught up in the quagmires of Covid-19 pandemic, many attempts at providing awareness happened at personal, local and global levels. The outbreak of the pandemic witnessed an outbreak of narratives to shape a collective understanding about the disease. Along with the verbal narratives visual culture also contributed to the shaping of the culture of contagion. Comics have long been part of the visual culture of medicine. Graphic medicine is a novel field of medical humanities which is an intersection of the discourse of medicine and comics. This paper analyses how comics are used as a cultural artefact to sensitise the public during the Covid-19 pandemic period. It also attempts at analysing how the spatio-temporal tropes of the comics have made visible the invisible virus that spread havoc across the globe. The paper analyses the Covid comics that emerged during the period and how it has influenced the global public in shaping its culture of contagion.

Writing in the time of COVID-19: The threads that bind and tear asunder

Located against my positionality as a woman of colour from the global south, I deal with the micro and macro dynamics — particularly the intersections of these — of COVID-19. My grounded-ness on account of an invisible virus, spreading like wildfire within and across nation-states, wreaking havoc, destruction and death, is used to illuminate the ramifications of lockdowns and physical distancing. Governments are placed in invidious positions as they try to balance the scales between keeping the economy going, sustaining livelihoods and preserving life. While global and community solidarity are threads that bind in dealing with the extremely pernicious consequences of COVID-19, national self-sufficiencies, resources, capacities, and ethical leadership are essential in determining how countries handle and respond to the virus. Given its impact on all countries, some believed COVID-19 to be an equaliser. However, patterns that emerged reflect that COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities based on social criteria like race, gender, class and nationality. COVID-19 might alter our futures in ways that are currently inconceivable, and it is invading the spaces within which people breathe, live, learn, love, marry, work, play, and die. But these personal spaces exist within the spaces of the infra-politics of power that I deal with in this article.

Evolution of automated learning techniques for combating COVID-19: an analysis

It is now more than two years that the world is battling the tiny invisible virus, COVID-19. Since its appearance, it showered humankind with shock, fear, and death. In small words, this pandemic has paused human life in all its aspects and beauties. Governments, health industry researchers and laboratories have put all their efforts to achieve a universal goal that is, overcoming the crisis and putting an end to the pandemic. However, this goal was never achievable without the smart use of automated learning, artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning algorithms. This review paper presents a collection of the experimental research articles tackled using real-time official datasets from hospitals and governments. These datasets are processed using automated learning (AL) algorithms in order to find suitable solutions to most of the COVID-19 related problems. This paper presents the AL applications in a story telling manner, starting from the first phases of COVID-19, when doctors had no experience dealing with the disease and had difficulty in diagnosing it, then moving to the other phases like suggesting a medicine, drug repurposing, facial mask detection, fake news detection, vaccine development, pandemic management, post vaccine statistics and lastly post COVID-19 analysis.

System Dynamics Modeling to Understand the Impact of Covid-19 on Indian Economy

COVID-19 has led to a severe health crisis. This sudden and wide impact of corona virus has brought the global economy to its knees. The virus has spread across the world through the chain of transmission. In India, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the month of February 2020 and has spread drastically within past four months. As a preventive measure, the government announced complete lockdown in the month of March 2020 to stop this pandemic situation in India (Suri, April 30, 2020). This invisible virus has compelled many business organizations to shutdown their respective activities and to follow social distancing norms. The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted the Chinese economy first and then it led to affect global economy. This paper models the impact of COVID-19 on Indian economy (Sansa, 2020). The researcher shows the impact using System Dynamics modeling approach. The causal loop diagram was used to explain the causality of series of events. The results show that the strategy of shutdown/lockdown tends to increases the unemployment and ultimately causes negative impact on Indian Economy. In order to revive economy, we recommends, that the focus to be shifted on the factors such as new startups, Government relief funds, development of COVID-19 vaccine, generating employment and better health care facilities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and strengthen Indian economy.

Museum and Pandemics a Cautionary Tale from History: Impact, Innovations, Learning from Crises

The invisible virus created a terror among the most survived ‘Wise Man’ (human) who survived millions of year and seen uncountable epidemic challenges and now packed in a home with less facility. The question is now where we go from here and does this trauma will leave a permanent epidemic marks on our civilization like happened in history? The world don’t want to visit those dark areas happened in early. But now this Novel COVID-19 created a whole new ball game where the entire world came into the pitch and ultimately the entire community leading to psychiatric illness. The potential of museum personals is now has been challenged to create meaningful experiences for the civilizations to overcome from this pandemic situation which is central to their service as a champion tool to identify the social values of the communities. As agents of trusted institutions the museum personals specifically the museum anthropologists are facing challenges to overcome from these challenges of inclusion and diversity and the difficulty of navigating complex social issues in this isolation situation. The healing process of our societies after the COVID-19 crisis will be long and complex for many museums as places of meeting and learning for societies. Museums have important role to play now to repair and strengthening the social fabric of communities which are affected due to this pandemic. “Governments all over the world have taken necessary measures to stop the virus from spreading, by closing schools and public spaces, and especially Museums. Billions of people have been confined to their homes, and the number keeps growing. During this period many museums and museum personals are finding ways to keep engage the people with the museums and ICOM as representing the international museum community, calls on policy and decisionmakers to urgently allocate relief funds to salvage museums and their professionals, so they can survive the lockdowns and continue their vital public service mission once it is over, for the generations to come out from the situation,” the council announced in an statement on April 2. As Museum Anthropologist we used to study history, archeology and anthropology as Humanity and with this Humanity we study what makes us humans. Anthropology and history like a source has reminded us that humanity has faced lot of similar challenges in past and that this pandemic is really not unprecedented. Though these thing has been a part of culture since millennia and even only a hundred years ago similar challenges has been faced by our ancestors. Museums and Museum anthropologists needs support to make the humanity understand what collections means to you and what the collections may represent to the future anthropologists during such pandemic situations.

Women widowed in the COVID-19 – The victims of invisible virus

Women widowed in the COVID-19 – The victims of invisible virus

Editor's Note: Interdisciplinarity Reimagined

Editor's Note:Interdisciplinarity Reimagined1 Vilsoni Hereniko Once there was a tree called "niu."2 Every part of the tree was useful for sustaining physical and spiritual life: the Islanders used the leaves to weave beautiful baskets, fans, hats, floor coverings, and thatch, and they used the trunks for house posts, drums, and wooden vessels. The Islanders drank the sweet nectar of the tree's coconuts and snacked on the firm flesh all day long; they made cooking sauces from the fermented flesh, wove strong rope from the husks, and made coconut milk to cook all kinds of delicious food dishes, desserts, and more. This was a tree that gave in all kinds of ways; every single part of the tree had a use. It was the most generous of trees, so the people called it "the tree of life." And the people were happy. Many years later, strangers came to this island with their money and seduced them with what money could buy: good-paying jobs, better houses, more material or foreign things to own, fancy cars and clothes, and so on. Their lawmakers also told them that if they wanted the foreigners from outside to keep coming with their dollars, they had to remove all the coconuts from the trees in case they fell on the heads of strangers who did not know anything about the tree. And the people believed. Suddenly, an invisible virus attacked all the people on the island, including the foreigners. So the strangers fled back to where they came from. The people lost their jobs. Without money, they could not afford to buy food from the supermarkets. Instead, they had to stay at home, wear masks around their faces, and protect themselves from the virus or they would die. While everyone and everything was on lockdown, the coconut trees started to bear fruit again. There being no people available to abort the emerging coconuts, the fruit of the trees grew to full maturity. When the pandemic was over and the Islanders reappeared, they saw the coconuts on the trees again! It was then that they REMEMBERED what the tree had meant to them before the strangers appeared. They said to themselves, "Never again!" And they resumed planting groves of coconut trees to [End Page ix] prepare for a future that is not dependent on the money the strangers brought with them. And niu, the coconut tree, the tree of life, smiled upon the Islanders and became its generous and giving self once again. And the people not only survived, but thrived.3 ________ We are the sea, we are the ocean, we must wake up to this ancient truth and together use it to overturn all hegemonic views that aim ultimately to confine us again, physically and psychologically, in the tiny spaces that we have resisted accepting as our sole appointed places and from which we have recently liberated ourselves. We must not allow anyone to belittle us again, and take away our freedom.4 Written in 1993, these powerful words by the Tongan academic and sage Epeli Hau'ofa concluded his famous essay "Our Sea of Islands," which inspired and challenged a whole generation of scholars and students in Pacific studies to remain free—in their thinking and in their pursuit of knowledge and creativity. The ripple effect of those words can still be felt today in Oceania and beyond. Even though Hau'ofa has passed away, his words still remain the most inspirational lines ever written by a Pacific Islander about our beloved region we call Oceania. These words could help us navigate our way within the colonial institution of the university where publication is necessary for survival. What has happened to the coconut tree around Waikīkī and urban Honolulu especially, and increasingly so around hotels and urban spaces around Oceania, is a visual representation of Hau'ofa's concern: that we will be forced to remain "in tiny spaces," confined, controlled, coerced in invisible ways to conform to hegemonic views or ways of representing ourselves and ideas (in "academic" writing as well) that are not unique to us. To each of us. What happens then is that we...

Post Covid-19 Era: Higher Education Transformation from Offline to Online

During the past few months, with somewhere to coronavirus everywhere, the invisible virus has taught us lesson. Post COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the entire scenario of higher education and the educational Institutes in India has undergone massive reformed transformation. We have started to look into new openings to educate ourselves to find the solutions to paradigm shift in learning from traditional teaching method of chalk, talk and board to virtual teaching by means of innovations in technology. However, structural imbalances exist even in this digital era. The major issues with the rural learning is the problem of internet access, electricity and ICT tools like laptops and smart phones. The Government of India should take steps, consider the ground reality, work to bring poor, lower stratum of society, underprivileged students in the forefront of main stream quality education. Our country’s policies should ensure a strong foundation in this difficult time of crisis to innovate, ensure quality education to all for few critical months and future as well with sustainable inclusive development.

Pharmacy practice in COVID-19 from a Middle Eastern and African perspective: A narrative review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a worldwide impact on all aspects of life and primarily on clinical practice involving all health-care professionals. Pharmacists are at the forefront of all clinical facilities in hospitals and the community. We aimed to provide a narrative overview of the global literature on the impact of COVID-19 changing roles and pharmacists' contribution to the overall clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a narrative, nonsystematic review of the international literature from a single major medical online database, PubMed, between February 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. The relevant articles were narrated in a concise thematic account. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacists had to serve their responsibilities alongside other activities while the entire world was fighting an invisible virus. However, it was much more complicated than before because the novel coronavirus is intractable. There was no vaccine or established therapeutic guidelines when it manifested suddenly. As part of an interdisciplinary team, community pharmacists may carry out their responsibilities and play an essential role in disease control and management. However, they may need to be appropriately prepared, trained, and equipped to deal with pandemic and postpandemic situations.

Edmund Husserl’s Critique of European Science: A Philosophical Evaluation of Covid-19 Pandemic

The whole world today is dumped deeply and hopelessly into the scourge of COVID-19 Pandemic. That the invisible virus has kept the entire world both developed and developing countries standstill has busted contemporary man’s bravado in his scientific and technological achievements. This pandemic has called man to look inward into his very existence. The pandemic inasmuch it has brought untold sufferings, is not without some positive influences. It is a time like this, that philosophical reflection on history is of paramount importance. Lest we forget, COVID-19 is not the first pandemic in the human history. There were Black Death of 1346-1353, Spanish Flu of 1918, HIV/AIDS pandemic (at peak 2002-2005), and others. The novel COVID-19 is the child of our time and so we are compelled to live with its challenges both now and after. Nevertheless, in this philosophical reflection, we are going to look into the work of Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology and extract what its contributions signify to our time. Husserl wrote during the postwar years in Europe and so like most of philosophers argued that Europe was not suffering political crisis but crisis of civilization. Naturalism and positivism were the ideologies that were reigning, thus denigrating the status of philosophy in searching into ultimate and highest questions that bother on the vital need of man that is the question of meaning or meaninglessness of human existence (Heffernan; 2015). It is in this frame of thought that we are going to survey the history of Covid19 pandemic, the conspiracy theories on its origin and evaluate the implications of the pandemic in the post-Covid19 society. This essay attempts to inspire a critical reflection on the reader to look at the condition of our time with a critical and philosophical hope and faith.

COVID-19 and its Impact of Sri Lanka Economy

The corona virus, an invisible virus, have caused almost all of world badly more than World War III. On December 2019, WHO was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan City, China and it was the starting of spreading this COVID 19 virus in word wide. Most of our daily activities are affected. This pandemic has meant no job and no unemployment benefits or other protection for the workers specially who is earning day today revenues. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work.COVID-19 has effects adversely for Sri Lankan economic income earning sector such as tourism, food and agriculture, exports of apparels and textiles and small and medium scale enterprises as well as there is massive drop in educational system and many other socio-economic setbacks.The COVID-19 pandemic has affected school education island wide. Governments have temporarily closed schools in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. School closures impact not only students, teachers, and families, but carry high social and economic costs for people across communities. Unexpected turns in students' educational activities such as zoom educational activities, online exams, etc. are mainly caused to increase day today living expenses. Sudden price rises of goods in the market such as turmeric powder, sugar, gas, bakery items are unbearable for the most of Sri Lankan people. This is evidence which says that people are facing serious problems such as unemployment and economic recession. In the midst of it all, undoubtedly Sri Lanka will face severe economic repercussions in the long term. With the economy frozen during lockdown, the entire economic mechanism involving agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors were drastically affected. Additionally, with big-player global economies struggling, the demand for imported luxury goods from Sri Lanka such as tea and cinnamon has reduced significantly. The unprecedented cost of the pandemic management will take Sri Lanka’s focus away from much-needed development in infrastructure and strengthening of the economy. The sudden economic down turn means that Sri Lanka is likely to face high unemployment, inflation and poverty rates in the future.

CHALLENGES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR ONLINE EDUCATION

The entire world is plagued by an invisible virus outbreak. Humanity is trialing. Its effects are being reflected in all walks of life. There is no area social, cultural, educational, economic, religious that has not been affected by corona. Meanwhile, all the progress of the world, the whole development values have been stopped.

An Invisible Virus Has Made Visible Many Underestimated Problems in Medical Education and Research

An Invisible Virus Has Made Visible Many Underestimated Problems in Medical Education and Research

An Invisible Virus Has Made Visible Many Underestimated Problems in Medical Education and Research

In days of Global and national stress-tragedies, when what we considered to be a stable value is shaken, our eyes turn to a critical rethinking of the past. Today’s reality needs more than ever not only urgent practical procedures, restrictions, etc., but a very deep and unified concept and strategy based on sound philosophy and analyses. Evidence-based practical action is the philosophy of our behavior today. But do we have enough evidence and what are they? This is the question that still has no definite answers. Medicine is rightly proud of many of its achievements. But today, her pride is overshadowed by her inability to defeat a microscopic invisible enemy of human health. We must be honest: it turned out that medicine is strong in new modern technologies, but it is powerless to manage an invisible enemy, massively threatening the health of the Planet. It turned out that medicine is poorly prepared for surprises – not only to meet them, but also to anticipate them. Medicine is an art of probability and it must permanently prove the most probable predictions and the most effective actions. Now, by accident, the means used are mainly from the middle of the twentieth Century, from this classic epidemiology that we had forgotten. But now we are not the twentieth Century, and the media constantly suggests to us as fateful paths “social distance” and “social isolation”.

An Invisible Virus Has Made Visible Many Underestimated Problems in Medical Education and Research

An Invisible Virus Has Made Visible Many Underestimated Problems in Medical Education and Research

COVID-19: Tribute to the Frontliners and its Impact to Malaysia Political Security

The zoonotic disease called COVID-19 has been the world’s number one enemy for nearly a year now. The first quarter of 2020 were kicked start with death exceeding 1 million people from early March to date, and, the number are expected to increase rapidly especially with the newly cases arising in the Americas and South East Asia region as reported in World Health Organisation (WHO) daily dashboard. In this trying time, leadership, competency, and communication have been the epicentre of all government in combating the spread of Covid-19. Malaysia is no exception in embarking into the war against the deadly invisible virus. A study on the dynamics of public service vis-à-vis political leadership is conducted to generate behavioural pattern of governance in handling pandemic crisis. This article explains in Malaysian context, how leadership of the public service has shaped the pandemic to become a better situation with excellent leadership, proper competency, and effective communication strategy in ensuring the curve for new cases are flatten in a shorter period. It goes further to re-examine political security taking into aspect of political actors’ with civil servants. The unique value of the paper stems from the fact that a new government establishment in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. Given at the severity of the pandemic and unprecedented government’s establishment (through political turmoil), contribute new perspectives for handling crisis in Malaysia. In doing so, existing framework and actors of disaster management are also examined, to search for a better synergy in the nation’s effort undermining COVID-19. The discussion contributes as an added value to Malaysia’s preparedness in weathering crisis in the near future. Contrary to perception on the less-ability of the government to weather the crisis, the article highlighted on coordination strategy of all actors and institutions involved, which received international and local recognition. However in the long term, loopholes need to be identified in constructing a better framework for the future. Whether the public service in general is still rigidly structured for the new normal or vice versa, is to be discussed in this article.

OPERATING IN A COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT FROM SHUT DOWN TO REOPENING: INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

OPERATING IN A COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT FROM SHUT DOWN TO REOPENING: INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS CoV 2). COVID-19 needs to be seen beyond just the number of cases or deaths, especially in the context of its impact on air pollution, decline in road traffic accidents, improvement in air and water quality, decline in respiratory infection, nosocomial infections and pediatric chest infections, though some negative effect can be seen on the physical activity and hospital related transmission of COVID-19 to healthcare workers. An invisible virus has shown that it is possible that tangible policies can make world a better place to live in.

Preliminary Assessment of Air During COVID-19 Lockdown: An Unintended Benefit to Environment

The death rate of people is increasing globally during the current outbreak of coronavirus. To combat with COVID-19 havoc, the world has adopted lockdown policy including Pakistan. Ironically, the invisible virus is suffocating humans at a fast rate but on the other side, there is another visible monster in the world gobbling up human’s health i.e. air pollution. Therefore, the main rationale of the present research is to visualize the air quality by mapping via online tools and techniques using geospatial system during the ‘Lockdown’ period in Lahore, Pakistan. According to the present findings, the fluctuation in the concentration of air pollution is visualized all over the city under Punjab Environmental Quality standards (PEQs). The findings of the present study also revealed that due to suspended human activities during COVID-19 disaster, the air quality level is satisfactory for public health in Lahore. So, in the light of results once this COVID-19 crisis will be over, government should speed up measures to lessen air pollution to achieve targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Moreover, the present results of air assessment during COVID-19 would serve as a useful reminder for the government of Punjab to cut down air emissions level after pandemic.

Learning Trend Methodologies from BC Greek Sophists to 2000s’ Blended Open Source Schooling: A Comparative Analytic Study

The period of recorded history extends to 5,000 years BC, where Sumerian-Akkadian script confirmed the fact of being the oldest discovered record of coherent writing from the preliterate period around the 3000 BC (SE Alcock, 2001; Woods, 2010). Since that date of early basic literacy of human history, B.C pioneers, philosophers, leaderships and professionals exerted every efforts to advance their local environments in politics, state identity, public administration, urban centers, culture and faith, education, innovative thoughts and arts, and civic daily life. Consequently, B.C significant ancient states and civilizations arose and flourished into world sovereign empires, exceeding in several fields their contemporary counterparts the so-called “Big Powers” in the 21st century A.C. Even these “Big Powers” proved helpless in resisting the invisible virus “Corona”, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of persons, and is threatening millions of others in facing health problems or termination later. The status of world states (powerful or marginal) is determined by the quality of its educational systems. Further, the future of civic and productive students as adults is dependent upon the rigor of schooling methodologies, which encompass: learners who are dedicated to learn; teachers who guide and teach; peers who are collaborative learning partners; curricula, which are served by textbooks and material in the classrooms; methods, techniques and technologies as communicative tools of education and management messages; and school environments, which physically host most education factors, processes and services. Hence, this research article examined the educational methodologies cumulative from BC Sophists to the ICTs revolution at 2000+ A.C. a Comparative analytic review was conducted to specify the advances and setbacks accrued during the extended 500B.C-2000+A.C years in the lives of generations as future crucial professional, leaderships and pioneer assets of society.