Global Journal of Engineering Sciences (GJES)
Engineering
Way of Stopping the Pandemic A Realistic Path Forward With Help From Artificial
Intelligence
Authored by Bahman Zohuri
Abstract
Since
March of 2020 CORONA virus that is known as COVID-19, has had a devasting tow
not only on our daily economy globally and nationally, but also has the
tremendous psychological adverse on individual’s due isolation from lockdown
and stay home order from authorities in charge. Crisis from the impact of
COVID-19, must lead to a different economy recovery, even though, we now have
at least two claiming discovery of new vaccines by two different pharmaceutical
manufactures. Comes with the discovery of these two types of vaccines is now
going from manufactures to the arms of people through shipping and then
delivery and administration of the vaccine in form of two doses. Then with that
we need to have means of inventory to be able to have enough vaccine for such
distribution and delivery/administration of it.
Now
that the world is facing an unprecedented test, in particular with a new
version of virus known as UK Corona, we need to find a need realistic path
going forward to deal with all the side effects of this virus. Thus, we need to
find a way out of this crisis not only to use all of our medical knowledge, but
combined without innovative engineering and technologies, which have at our
disposal such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). With help from AI and its
sub-components such as Machine Learning (ML) that learns from vast data that we
are collecting through Deep Learning (DL), we will find that path going
forward. And this is the moment of truth.
Keywords:Artificial intelligence; Machine learning;
Deep learning; Pandemic COVID-19; Vaccination; Delivery and distribution;
Racial minorities and effective of vaccination
Introduction
The
fight against the pandemic is not going well—but not for the reasons many
people with political ideologies believe. A pandemic occurs when each infected
person, on average, infects more than one other person. It stops when each
infected person infects less than one person. The end of a pandemic does not
imply that the disease disappears - only that there are small local outbreaks
and no large outbreaks. One starts with three observations about this pandemic.
First,
we have built an environmental niche for airborne viruses such as the flu and
Covid-19 to move from one person to the next efficiently. We breathe each
other’s air in mass transit, crowded bars, energy-efficient buildings with high
internal air circulation rates, and other locations. These locations are the
airborne equivalents of sewage running down the street center that resulted in
water-born pandemics in the Middle Ages. It was not a question of if but when a
nasty virus would find these locations as a home where it could move easily from
person to person. We have had plenty of warning that would happen—on average,
per year, 40,000 Americans die of the airborne flu despite a yearly flu
vaccination program that has gone on for decades.
Second,
this virus has qualities perfectly suited for a pandemic that bypasses most
western public-health methods used to stop pandemics. With most diseases,
people become infectious near the time they become sick. If one isolates people
when they become sick and isolates people who have been in recent contact with
that person, the pandemic is stopped. With COVID-19, many people become
infected but do not become sick, thus invisibly spreading the disease. Second,
people are infectious many days before they become sick. We created an
environment for efficient transfer of the virus between strangers in mass
transit and many other locations— people do not know who they have been in
contact with, so those persons cannot be isolated. Third, contract tracing does
not work well in the U.S. because less than half the population is willing to
cooperate, and 80% of the population does not answer phone calls from unknown
numbers [1]. Last, Covid-19 is in the animal population that may make it
impossible to eliminate and where we have limited control of the disease.
Third,
culture has a significant impact on whether a pandemic can be stopped. The
progression and COVID-19 disease rates in the U.S. and Europe as a whole have
been about the same [1] - despite different government leaders and very
different health systems. The Covid-19 rates in Europe by country are partly
reflected in the U.S. by which groups settled different parts of the U.S. In
contrast, China, Japan, and South Korea have been able to control the pandemic
even though those three countries have very different governments. Western
culture emphasizes the rights of the individual where rule-breaking is the
norm, while the eastern Confucian cultures emphasize the society over the
individual. In Confucian societies, there is massive social pressure to follow
the rules, accept government surveillance, and a willingness to use the
government’s power to follow the rules. Who is President of the U.S. or whether
we have a national health care system is secondary to culture in determining
the outcome of this pandemic? Culture changes over centuries, not
administrations.
In
response to the pandemic, the medical-scientific elites’ recommendations have
been to protect yourself with masks and social distancing until our “heroic”
medical scientific community finds a vaccine. That is excellent advice for the
Chinese government with a Confucian society and a government capable and
willing to use the state’s full force to enforce such mandates. It is poor
advice to a western democratic government. Their advice partly reflects self-interest
but also reflects a socially isolated community that does not understand U.S.
culture. That is not surprising—we have many elites that went to elite high
schools and universities and had little contact or understanding of the broader
American culture. It places this elite at the center of power and money with a
set of non-workable policies that blame bad outcomes on individuals. The
question is then, what would be the advice if we are serious about stopping a
pandemic in a western democratic country—beyond social distancing and masks
Vaccines
The
need is to develop multiple vaccines because many of the vaccines may
ultimately fail. The failures of 50 years of flu vaccines are a warning [1].
Flu
viruses mutate, and so will this virus. Perhaps of equal importance, COVID-19
is in the animal population. Denmark is in the process of destroying 17 million
mink. Some of the mink caught COVID-19, the virus mutated with a change in the
virus spike, and the mink infected animal handlers. The animals are being destroyed
because such mutations may make many human COVID-19 vaccines ineffective [2].
Multiple
repeated vaccinations with multiple types of vaccines may require no assurance
in advance that the vaccination strategy will do more than provide time. We
have many diseases where we have not found effective long-term vaccines.
Engineering Solution
Almost
all pandemics have been stopped by engineering. Waterborne pandemics were
stopped by sewer systems and clean water, where we destroyed the environmental
niche where these viruses grew and spread to the man. For all we know, some new
super virus has shown up in sewage or untreated water, but it does not affect
us because clean water and sewers stop all viruses. Malaria is controlled by
draining the swamps and other methods to kill mosquitoes that transmit the
disease to man.
We can
stop this virus by filtering air or killing the viruses in the air with proper
ventilation systems where there are large crowds [3].
It is
unnecessary to clean all air - just where many people are crowded together each
day to get the disease transmission rate below one new infection for each
person with the virus. The big industrial companies, some schools, and my
dentist have adopted this workable strategy. This solution works against all
airborne viruses and is compatible with western culture that values the
individual with rule breaking. It is the equivalent of providing clean water
rather than asking everyone to boil their water
In
many offices, store, and factory environments, this implies the following
points that put it in perspective of:
(1)
Upgrading filters in the main ventilation systems and,
(2)
Installing local cheap filter-fan systems that filter the air to remove the
viruses.
(2)
Installing local cheap filter-fan systems that filter the air to remove the
viruses.
The
fastest and most straightforward way to implement such changes is to pass
legislation that makes the insurance industry liable for the cost consequences
of the spread of COVID-19 in congested indoor spaces unless appropriate
engineering changes are made to the buildings. Insurance is required to obtain
loans on commercial property. Such legislation would bring to bear all the
resources of banks and financial institutions that back commercial mortgages to
fix the problem immediately.
Engineering
solutions are the standard will-work option to reduce risk. In the 1800s,
Chicago, Boston, and many other cities burnt down because the cities were built
of wood—the fire equivalent of a pandemic. Fire departments, the equivalent of
the medical profession to diseases, could not stop these fires. The solutions were
building codes that required using brick, concrete, stone, and cement in new
buildings. The engineering fix stopped city-wide fires. The engineering
solutions did not stop an occasional building from burning to the ground but no
city-wide fires. The same will be true if we use engineering to stop this
airborne pandemic.
Sensors to Warn of Danger
We use
smoke detectors to set off fire alarms. We use carbon monoxide sensors to warn
us of faulty furnaces that heat our homes. Industry uses many other sensors to
warn workers of danger. The loud horn warning of disaster is a staple of action
movies. We need the same for the virus in the air.
Particles
transmit Covid-19 in the air from the lungs of one person to the lungs of
another person. We do not have sensors to detect virus particles in the air;
but we do have cheap technologies to measure how much air we inhale that has
been recently in another person’s lungs. People breathe in oxygen and breathe
out carbon dioxide. If the carbon dioxide content of the room or subway car you
are in is much above average, you are breathing other people’s air and getting
their viruses unless outfitted with a carefully fitted N-95 mask or equivalent.
Cheap
carbon dioxide detectors can set off alarms or tied to cell phones to give
people warnings enabling them to leave the area. Some organizations have
adopted such systems for workplace environments to warn people to open windows
or leave the area; but none exist for public spaces such as mass transit and
stores. They should be required for all public spaces.
Rate Location Based on Hazard
We can
rate locations in terms of danger of transmitting an airborne virus and require
large lettering at entrance points to warn the public. An existing subway car
would have a ten painted on the side—indicating a great location to get
Covid-19. A private car would be given a rating of one. If the subway car
ventilation or subway platform had a modified ventilation system to lower the
risk, a lower number would be assigned. Rating locations will force out the
business for those businesses that do not clean up their act and reward
businesses that create safer locations. It favors stores, cruise lines, and
airlines that have modified their ventilation systems to protect the public.
The current policy of shutting down particular types of establishments such as
bars based on the sign on the front door is insane—if we shut down businesses,
it should be on the risk to the public of each specific location.
Engineering
solutions, sensors, and warning labels are opposed by big-city mayors,
governors, building owners, and others because it places much of the blame and
burden for stopping the pandemic on organizations rather than individuals. When
shortcuts in Flint, Michigan, resulted in dangerous-to-drink water, officials
were held accountable. We need the same attitude if an airborne disease
outbreak because no clean air in public spaces.
Operational Responses
COVID-19
is unusual in terms of who becomes ill and dies. With most infectious diseases,
the very young and very old are most at risk. With COVID-19, the risks for
those under 40 are low [4].
The
damage being inflicted upon the younger generation by the current approach is
massive. It is the older population that must be protected. That has practical
implications. School for younger students without elderly parents or relatives
at home. Have younger teachers do double shifts at school while older teachers
do remote teaching. We need honesty about risks to different age groups
followed by age-appropriate recommendations for a virus that hundreds of times
more dangerous for a person in their 80s compared to a young person.
In
this context, the Swedish strategy is noteworthy. They worked to isolate the
old but not the young. They recognized that the pandemic would be a
long-drawn-out affair and that social isolation would collapse with time, as is
now seen in Europe and the U.S. Given the low risks of Covid-19 to the young,
the spread of Covid-19 and the buildup of herd immunity by those with the
lowest risk of illness would reduce disease transmission over time. Equally
important, those most likely to catch Covid-19 were those in contact with most
people. Building up immunity in this group minimizes the future spread of
Covid-19. While there is the general assumption that one needs 70% to stop a
pandemic— that is not true. If those in close contact with many people catch
the disease or are vaccinated, this drastically slows the disease’s spread. One
wants politicians and prostitutes to be the first with immunity. Whether
hermits have immunity by caching the disease or being vaccinated has no effect
on the pandemic. It is too early to determine whether the Swedish strategy will
succeed or fail, but as the pandemic goes on, it is beginning to look like the
right decision.
The
failure to stop the pandemic reflects the medical-scientific elite’s poor
advice that failed to account for western culture as much as the politicization
of that advice. It was advice for an imaginary culture that does not exist in
the west. The parallel pandemic failures of the U.S. and Europe with a common
culture combined with 50 years of failures in fighting the airborne flu suggest
we need better advice—a diverse set of experts with different backgrounds to
find multiple solutions be implemented quickly. Where would a panel of such
experts come from to stop this and future airborne pandemics?
Medical Science Elite
The
followings are the medical experts in human viruses:
Agriculture
All
the experience in fighting global pandemics is in the agricultural
sector—fighting off viruses killing cattle, hogs, birds, dogs, cats, mink and
other animals. They are the only ones with front-line experience in fighting
global pandemics and the only ones who understand the virus as it moves through
and mutates in the animal community.
Military
Unlike
most other elites, military officers have real-world experience about most of
society. Military officers in their first command lead soldiers mostly with
high-school educations from across the country with different backgrounds. To a
military officer, it would be obvious that many of the isolation and mask
strategies would have high failure rates and that alternative strategies are
required. Second, military officers understand you go to war with the weapons
you have. If you suggested to a military commander a strategy of a holding
action for a year or two while develop a weapon (such as a vaccine), you would
be considered crazy. Last, they are in the world of hard choices where people
die. To use one example, in developing vaccines one way to accelerate
development is challenge testing. Give the vaccines to volunteers and then
expose them to the virus—unlike vaccinating lots of people and seeing how many get
Corona versus the rest of the population as the disease spreads through the
population. Challenge testing provides much more definitive results in how good
the vaccine really is. For a military commander, putting 1000 or 10,000
volunteers at risk that could save a 100,000 people is the right decision. The
scientific elites rejected this option on moral and ethical grounds; but they
do not have any special moral or ethical talents. Furthermore, in a democracy
is undemocratic and unacceptable that an unelected elite make such decisions,
the military understands this.
Engineering and Industry
Some
industries are installing ventilation systems to protect workers on the job
against air-borne viruses. This is no different than the ventilation systems
used in industrial plants to protect workers against hazardous gases from
welding and other activities—both are 1960s technologies. Some of the airlines
are beginning to make ventilation and other changes aboard aircraft to reduce
risks of transmission because pandemics are bad for business—as are many dental
offices to protect dentists and many offices of engineering professors given
that such changes are fast and quick for an office environment. That competence
and capability is needed.
Special People
The
example in this case is Bill Gates where his foundation has been on a campaign
to wipe out diseases. He has the knowledge and skills. More important, he will
tell hard truths, something one will not necessarily receive from a panel
expert that run large institutions and what to protect those institutions.
One
aspect of defeating viruses such as COVID-19 and now UK version of it, is
collection of right and trusted data as director of National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony S. Fauci all alone was
relying on scientifically to predict, where we are going with this devasting
virus and how and what is the best path to stop it on its track rather than
spreading it further.
As he
put it:
““We
believe things will get worse as we get into January,” Fauci, the director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR in an
interview [5]. He called for an acceleration in public-health measures during
this time”.
The
winter season and cold weather forcing people to socialize and work indoors, as
well as travel and family gatherings associated with the holiday season, will
likely amount to a “terrible” situation in January, the veteran immunologist
said as the global COVID-19 death toll exceeded 1.9 million.
As we
stated in above that data collection and Data Analytics (DA) would empower us
with a tool, namely the Data Predictive (DP) to help us to find a scientific
way of stopping the speared of this deadly virus or for that matter any other
pandemic virus of future, particularly at the global level, where the data
collection is overwhelming, thus we need innovative tool such as Artificial
Intelligence (AI), along with its sub-components of Machine Learning (ML) and
Deep Learning (DL) to come to our aid to be able to filter these data for the
right information for the right knowledge for a trusted and powerful decision
making.
Considering
that integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a complement and supportive
element to its human partner is invadable in order to operate these new
generation and rare diseases. As we stated at the beginning of this paragraph,
the operation complexity of these new generation of viruses requires
manipulation of many data and analytics that implementation of AI with its
subsets such as Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) becomes a
mandatory factor to their human partner [8].
The
basic idea is to apply AI integrated with ML and DL techniques would go through
the mountains of data that come from public domain at worldwide level that
would allow us to spot patterns in behavior of these viruses. The information
that we collect from these data will make the human operators informed and it
is not invadable.
Artificial
Intelligence (AI) systems can help us not only bring these deadly viruses to dead
stop on their track and prevent them to speared out, it also helps us to
understand how to deal with sideeffects and impacts such as economy, etc.
These
are a few benefits that can be mentioned as a result of AI technology
augmentation to the nuclear industry. In next section, we provide a holistic
description of AI infrastructure and foundation.
What is Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning And Deep
Learning
The
past decade up to now has encountered a new revolutionary technology that seems
to have many applications across the entire industry (Figure 1). Intelligence
to a different level, considering any business operation with a magnitude of
incoming data to be analyzed. Day-to-day of these business operations with a
share volume of data (i.e., Big Data) requires augmentation of AI in
conjunction with High-Performance Computing (HPC).
Even the medical
sector, at all levels, from the discovery of new vaccines to the manufacturing
of it and nanotechnology of its delivery and administration of it to the human
body, all need AI, ML, and DL combination as an integrated system. The
functionality and capability of their data analytics and data predictive [8],
respectfully in real-time, is a mandatory augmentation in the path to stop and
prevent further speared COVID-19 or now the UK version of it as recently.
This section briefly
defines what AI is and what other components are involved with the AI system to
make a business operational in a resilience model. A right Business Resilience
System (BRS) [8].
In a very holistic
way, Artificial Intelligence (AI), by today’s definition, is known as narrow AI
(or weak AI) [9].
This kind of AI
(Figure 2) is designed to perform narrow/ simple tasks such as facial
recognition, internet searches, or driving a car in an autonomous mode.
To recap, Artificial
Intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, unlike the natural
intelligence displayed by humans and animals.
In other words, AI
that is the new buzzword of the market of technology, is the science of making
machines as smart and intelligent as a human as an ultimate goal, to the point
that we go from a weak AI to Super-AI.
Such progression
within the domain of AI by definition is the ability of a computer algorithm or
program, particularly in the case of High-Power Computing (HPC) or machine, to
think and learn very similar to the human being. Two distinguished points about
us as a human is that we can think logically and fabricate physically (i.e.,
Homo Sapiens or “Wise Man” in Latin and Homo Fabian or “Man the Maker.”
With this basic
understanding of AI, there are certain key factors one should know about AI:
• It is essential to
distinguish different types of Artificial Intelligence and different phases of
the evolution of AI when it comes to developing application programs
• Without recognizing
the different types of AI and the scope of the related applications, confusion
may arise, and expectations may be far from reality
• In fact, the “broad”
definition of Artificial Intelligence is “vague” and can cause a
misrepresentation of the type of AI that we discuss and develop today.
One of the significant
advantages of Artificial Intelligence is the capabilities that make it possible
for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform
human-like tasks. Most AI examples you hear about today – from chess-playing
computers to self-driving cars – rely heavily on deep learning and Natural
Language Processing (NLP) [7,9]. Using these technologies, computers can be
trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and
recognizing patterns in the data.
Artificial
intelligence will play in our fast-paced life, and modern technology that we
encounter in our day-to-day life is essential.
Furthermore,
integrating AI within technology as a wide range of smart tools these days,
while partnering with humans, enables people to rethink and gather information,
analyze the data, and finally, utilize the resulting insight to have a
better-informed decision. These days, AI is essential since the amount of data
generated by humans and machines far outpaces humans’ ability to absorb and
interpret the data and make complex decisions based on that data.
To understand how
Artificial Intelligence works, one needs to deep dive into the various
sub-domains of Artificial Intelligence (Figure 3) and understand how those
domains could be applied to the industry’s various fields.
Machine learning is the
branch of artificial intelligence that Holistically addresses to build
computers that automatically improve through experience. Indeed, machine
learning is all about the knowledge from the data. It is a research field at
the intersection of statistics, artificial intelligence, and computer science
and is also known as predictive analytics or statistical learning. Indeed,
machine learning’s main idea is that it is possible to create algorithms that
learn from data and make predictions based on them. Recent progress in machine
learning has been driven by developing new learning algorithms and theory and
the ongoing explosion in online data availability and low-cost computation.
With big data growth, machine
learning has become a significant and key technique in solving problems.
Machine learning finds the natural pattern in data that generates insight to
help make better decisions and predictions. It is an integral part of many
commercial applications ranging from medical diagnosis, stock trading, energy
forecasting, and many more.
Consider the situation when we
have a complicated task or problem involving a large amount of data with lots
of variables but with no existing formula or equation. Machine learning is part
of a new employment dynamic, creating jobs that center around analytical work
augmented by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Machine Learning provides
smart alternatives to analyze vast volumes of data. Machine Learning can
produce accurate results and analysis by developing fast and efficient
algorithms and datadriven models for real-time data processing.
Deep learning is the subset of
machine learning that, on the other hand, is the subset of artificial
intelligence. Deep learning is inspired by the structure of the human’s brain.
Deep learning algorithms attempt to draw similar conclusions as humans would by
continually analyzing data with a given logical structure. To achieve this,
deep learning uses a multi-layered structure of algorithms called neural
networks. Just as humans use their brains to identify the patterns and classify
the different types of information, neural networks can be taught to perform
the same data tasks.
Deep learning is the subset of
machine learning that, on the other hand, is the subset of artificial
intelligence. Deep learning is inspired by the structure of the human’s brain.
Deep learning algorithms attempt to draw similar conclusions as humans would by
continually analyzing data with a given logical structure. To achieve this,
deep learning uses a multi-layered structure of algorithms called neural
networks. Just as humans use their brains to identify the patterns and classify
the different types of information, neural networks can be taught to perform
the same data tasks.
One of the main advantages of
deep learning lies in solving complex problems that require discovering hidden
patterns in the data and/or a deep understanding of intricate relationships
between a large number of independent variables. When there is a lack of domain
understanding for feature introspection, Deep Learning techniques outshine
others, as you have to worry less about feature engineering. Deep Learning
shines when it comes to complex problems such as image classification, natural
language processing, and speech recognition.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
in Vaccination Process
AI Shows COVID-19 Vaccines May
Be Less Effective in Racial Minorities.
Using Artificial Intelligence
(AI) tools, researchers found that a form of vaccine similar to new COVID-19
vaccines is more likely to be ineffective in minority populations, as sort of
illustrated in Figure 4
Artificial intelligence tools
examined a kind of vaccine similar to new COVID-19 vaccines and revealed that
it could be less effective in people of black or Asian ancestry, according to a
study conducted by researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
Application of Artificial Intelligence Driving Nano- Based Drug
Delivery, Administration Systems
Today’s technologies, no
matter which one, have some means of interoperability among each other. This is
due to the sheer volume of data at the big data level that provides information
and allows us to make a decisive road map to improve and enhance that
particular technology. With nanoscience and nanotechnology comes the new world
of size and scaling, which is as small as molecules and atom size. With small comes
to the power that contains much information from its collective data, thus for
us to be able to perform some means of data analytics and data mining, we need
assistant from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and two of its subsystems mainly,
Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL).
These data are a combination
of structured and unstructured type, such as ASCII flat file in the form of
comma delimited format or Comma Separated Values (CSV), such as Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet or image processing form for unstructured type data. With the power
of AI in today’s world and nanoscience that has been thriving in the past few
decades, these two technologies are converging to a focal point so rapidly. The
convergence of AI into other technologies is invadable, no matter which
technology we are considering or interested in. Given the fact that AI has such
a profound influence in the field of medicine these days; as a result, our need
to augment AI, a nano-based drug, and its delivery process is also invadable
when we are dealing with nanomedicine such as cancer cell, biomedicine, and
nanobiology fields. This chapter explicitly concentrates on the description of
artificial intelligence to show what AI is all about and how it works. It then
describes the world of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Finally, it connects them to
deliver a nano-based drug delivery system throughout different nanoscience
techniques. These techniques are presentation of how the emerging AI/ML and DL
platforms are demonstrating the assistant of these systems, and how we truly
can optimize treatment outcomes to be able to realize when drug selection and
dosage identification are simultaneously achieved.
All these capabilities
combined are essential for the field of nanomedicine, where combinations of
different therapies are being integrated with a nanocarrier, of different
classes of nanocarriers are being simultaneously administered to different
patients with different medical conditions.
COVID-19 vaccine, the way
behaves and the way the newly found vaccine works for the treatment of a
patient, falls in this category when it comes to inject of vaccine into people
arms.
If you look at a cartoon of
the virus, it looks like a ball or a donut with some nucleic acid in the middle
and spikes sticking out, and these spikes have little rounded ends (Figure 5).
And indeed, that protein is called the “spike protein”.
At the end of this
piece that called the receptor-binding domain. That is the part that docks with
the receptor in human tissue called the ACE-2 receptor, allowing the virus to
gain entry into the heart, the lungs, the vasculature, and other tissues.
Thus, by making an immune
response against the spike protein in some capacity, you have a very good
vaccine strategy Corona” is the Latin word for “crown.” (Alissa Eckert, Dan
Higgins/CDC) and illustration in Figure 5 is released by the CDC shows the
spikes on its surface for which it is named.
Conclusion
We do not know how this
pandemic will end. The vaccines may be a success, or the virus may mutate around
the vaccines, and we may be back where we are today in a year from now. Viruses
exchange genetic material with other viruses, and one of these other viruses
may learn how to take advantage of this airborne niche to create a new pandemic
where neither our tests nor existing vaccines are of any value. COVID-19
provides a starting point to anyone wanting to modify the virus to start a new
pandemic - an option that may be attractive to some terrorist groups and
certain nations. They now know we are incapable of stopping such an attack, and
if you come from a society of young people, the damage will be primarily in the
west.
We could be sure that sooner
or later, another virus will find the environmental niche that Covid-19 found
and start a new global pandemic unless we chose to destroy this environmental
niche. Because moving today to such solutions will shorten this pandemic, it is
also the short-term no-regrets policy. The question is how many dead bodies it
takes to educate the political class, national press, and others to move to
clean up the air in crowded places - the 21st-century version of building
sewers, clean water systems, and fire-resistant cities.
In conclusion, as we have
stated throughout this article, the world faces an unprecedented test. And this
is the moment of truth.
Hundreds of thousands of
people are falling seriously ill from COVID-19, and the disease is spreading
exponentially in many places and societies are in turmoil and economies are in
a nosedive.
The International Monetary Fund
has reassessed the prospect for growth for 2020 and 2021, declaring that we
have entered a recession – as bad as or worse than in 2009.
We must respond decisively,
innovatively and together to suppress the spread of the virus and address the
socio-economic devastation that COVID-19 is causing in all regions.
The magnitude of the response
must match the scale of the crisis -- large-scale, coordinated and
comprehensive, with country and international responses being guided by the
World Health Organization.
And it must be multilateral,
with countries showing solidarity to the most vulnerable communities and
nations.
The message of the report we
are issuing today is clear: shared responsibility and global solidarity in
response to the impacts of COVID-19.
Appreciation: The authors
would like to express their appreciation to Dr. Charles Forsberg of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Nuclear Engineer,
with a lot of his clever ideas and input to this article.
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