1
|
Prabhune A, Bhat S, Mallavaram A, Mehar Shagufta A, Srinivasan S. A Situational Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Digital Health Research Initiatives in South Asia. Cureus 2023; 15:e48977. [PMID: 38111408 PMCID: PMC10726017 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.48977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The objective of this paper was to evaluate and compare the quantity and sustainability of digital health initiatives in the South Asia region before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a two-step methodology of (a) descriptive analysis of digital health research articles published from 2016 to 2021 from South Asia in terms of stratification of research articles based on diseases and conditions they were developed, geography, and tasks wherein the initiative was applied and (b) a simple and replicable tool developed by authors to assess the sustainability of digital health initiatives using experimental or observational study designs. The results of the descriptive analysis highlight the following: (a) there was a 40% increase in the number of studies reported in 2020 when compared to 2019; (b) the three most common areas wherein substantive digital health research has been focused are health systems strengthening, ophthalmic disorders, and COVID-19; and (c) remote consultation, health information delivery, and clinical decision support systems are the top three commonly developed tools. We developed and estimated the inter-rater operability of the sustainability assessment tool ascertained with a Kappa value of 0.806 (±0.088). We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a positive impact on digital health research with an improvement in the number of digital health initiatives and an improvement in the sustainability score of studies published during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Akash Prabhune
- Health and Information Technology, Institute of Health Management Research, Bangalore, IND
| | - Sachin Bhat
- Health and Information Technology, Institute of Health Management Research, Bangalore, IND
| | | | | | - Surya Srinivasan
- Health and Information Technology, Institute of Health Management Research, Bangalore, IND
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Shir-Raz Y, Elisha E, Martin B, Ronel N, Guetzkow J. Censorship and Suppression of Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics. MINERVA 2022; 61:1-27. [PMID: 36340971 PMCID: PMC9628345 DOI: 10.1007/s11024-022-09479-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
The emergence of COVID-19 has led to numerous controversies over COVID-related knowledge and policy. To counter the perceived threat from doctors and scientists who challenge the official position of governmental and intergovernmental health authorities, some supporters of this orthodoxy have moved to censor those who promote dissenting views. The aim of the present study is to explore the experiences and responses of highly accomplished doctors and research scientists from different countries who have been targets of suppression and/or censorship following their publications and statements in relation to COVID-19 that challenge official views. Our findings point to the central role played by media organizations, and especially by information technology companies, in attempting to stifle debate over COVID-19 policy and measures. In the effort to silence alternative voices, widespread use was made not only of censorship, but of tactics of suppression that damaged the reputations and careers of dissenting doctors and scientists, regardless of their academic or medical status and regardless of their stature prior to expressing a contrary position. In place of open and fair discussion, censorship and suppression of scientific dissent has deleterious and far-reaching implications for medicine, science, and public health.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yaffa Shir-Raz
- Department of Communication, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- Raphael Recanati International School, IDC, Herzliya, Israel
| | - Ety Elisha
- Department of Criminology, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Jezreel Valley, Israel
| | - Brian Martin
- Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Natti Ronel
- Department of Criminology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Josh Guetzkow
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Institute of Criminology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Deruelle F. The pharmaceutical industry is dangerous to health. Further proof with COVID-19. Surg Neurol Int 2022; 13:475. [PMID: 36324959 PMCID: PMC9610448 DOI: 10.25259/sni_377_2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 period highlights a huge problem that has been developing for decades, the control of science by industry. In the 1950s, the tobacco industry set the example, which the pharmaceutical industry followed. Since then, the latter has been regularly condemned for illegal marketing, misrepresentation of experimental results, dissimulation of information about the dangers of drugs, and considered as criminal. Therefore, this study was conducted to show that knowledge is powerfully manipulated by harmful corporations, whose goals are: 1/financial; 2/to suppress our ability to make choices to acquire global control of public health. Methods: Pharmaceutical industry techniques for manipulating science and COVID-19 reporting were reviewed. Several sources of official documents were used: PubMed; National Institutes of Health resources; pharmaceutical companies; policy documents; national newspapers and news agencies; and books by prominent professionals (scientific and legal). A few studies have not been published in peer-reviewed journals; however, they have been conducted by reputable scientists in their respective fields. Results: Since the beginning of COVID-19, we can list the following methods of information manipulation which have been used: falsified clinical trials and inaccessible data; fake or conflict-of-interest studies; concealment of vaccines’ short-term side effects and total lack of knowledge of the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccination; doubtful composition of vaccines; inadequate testing methods; governments and international organizations under conflicts of interest; bribed physicians; the denigration of renowned scientists; the banning of all alternative effective treatments; unscientific and liberticidal social methods; government use of behavior modification and social engineering techniques to impose confinements, masks, and vaccine acceptance; scientific censorship by the media. Conclusion: By supporting and selecting only the one side of science information while suppressing alternative viewpoints, and with obvious conflicts of interest revealed by this study, governments and the media constantly disinform the public. Consequently, the unscientifically validated vaccination laws, originating from industry-controlled medical science, led to the adoption of social measures for the supposed protection of the public but which became serious threats to the health and freedoms of the population.
Collapse
|
4
|
Guo C, Hu X, Yuan D, Zeng Y, Yang P. The effect of COVID-19 on public confidence in the World Health Organization: a natural experiment among 40 countries. Global Health 2022; 18:77. [PMID: 35987652 PMCID: PMC9392065 DOI: 10.1186/s12992-022-00872-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Accepted: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background At a time when a highly contagious pandemic and global political and economic turmoil are intertwined, worldwide cooperation under the leadership of an international organization has become increasingly important. This study aimed to estimate the effect of COVID-19 on public confidence in the World Health Organization (WHO), which will serve as a reference for other international organizations regarding the maintenance of their credibility in crisis management and ability to play a greater role in global health governance. Methods We obtained individual data from the World Values Survey (WVS). A total of 44,775 participants aged 16 and older from 40 countries in six WHO regions were included in this study. The COVID-19 pandemic was used as a natural experiment. We obtained difference-in-differences (DID) estimates of the pandemic’s effects by exploiting temporal variation in the timing of COVID-19 exposure across participants interviewed from 2017 to 2020 together with the geographical variation in COVID-19 severity at the country level. Public confidence in the WHO was self-reported by the respondents. Results Among the participants, 28,087 (62.73%) reported having confidence in the WHO. The DID estimates showed that the COVID-19 pandemic could significantly decrease the likelihood of people reporting confidence in the WHO after controlling for multiple covariates (adjusted OR 0.54, 95% CI: 0.49–0.61), especially during the global outbreak (0.35, 0.24–0.50). The effect was found in both younger individuals (0.58, 0.51–0.66) and older adults (0.49, 0.38–0.63) and in both males (0.47, 0.40–0.55) and females (0.62, 0.53–0.72), with a vulnerability in males (adjusted P for interaction = 0.008). Conclusion Our findings are relevant regarding the impact of COVID-19 on people’s beliefs about social institutions of global standing, highlighting the need for the WHO and other international organizations to shoulder the responsibility of global development for the establishment and maintenance of public credibility in the face of emergencies, as well as the prevention of confidence crises. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12992-022-00872-y.
Collapse
|
5
|
Huespe I, Carboni Bisso I, Di Stefano S, Terrasa S, Gemelli NA, Las Heras M. COVID-19 Severity Index: A predictive score for hospitalized patients. Med Intensiva 2021; 46:98-101. [PMID: 34896032 PMCID: PMC8629742 DOI: 10.1016/j.medine.2020.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 10/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- I Huespe
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina; Institute of Translational Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, IUHI, CONICET, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina
| | - I Carboni Bisso
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina
| | - S Di Stefano
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina
| | - S Terrasa
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina
| | - N A Gemelli
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina.
| | - M Las Heras
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón, Capital Federal, 4190, Argentina
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Vidal-Tomás D, Caferra R, Tedeschi G. The day after tomorrow: financial repercussions of COVID-19 on systemic risk. REVIEW OF EVOLUTIONARY POLITICAL ECONOMY 2021; 3:169-192. [PMID: 38624888 PMCID: PMC8630197 DOI: 10.1007/s43253-021-00059-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
In this paper, we study the financial repercussions of COVID-19 and the effect of anti-epidemic measures on financial markets. By using a composite dataset containing stock market indices of 10 countries characterized by heterogeneous levels of contagion, the daily COVID-19 cases and the 108 more restrictive measures implemented to limit the virus from 31/12/2019 to 13/03/2020, we examine the emergence of financial systemic risk, its speed of propagation and the effectiveness of the policies implemented to curb it. On the one hand, the spread of contagion and its transmission on financial markets are investigated via a lagged cross-correlation analysis. Our results show the emergence of systemic risk characterized by a high speed of diffusion. On the other hand, an augmented AR(1)-EGARCH(1,1) model is applied to examine the impact of anti-COVID-19 "policies on financial markets. We show that, regardless of the level of contagion, the restrictive measures are not able to contain the virus-induced investors panic in the first months of the epidemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David Vidal-Tomás
- Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I. Department of Economics, Castellón, Spain
| | - Rocco Caferra
- Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I. Department of Economics, Castellón, Spain
- Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Gabriele Tedeschi
- Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Vosko LF, Spring C. COVID-19 Outbreaks in Canada and the Crisis of Migrant Farmworkers' Social Reproduction: Transnational Labour and the Need for Greater Accountability Among Receiving States. JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION 2021; 23:1765-1791. [PMID: 34744516 PMCID: PMC8557264 DOI: 10.1007/s12134-021-00905-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
In 2020, migrant farmworkers in Canada, cast as essential to sustaining the national food supply, experienced relatively high COVID-19 infection rates. Taking Southern Ontario as its focus, this article reveals how the federal government response to COVID-19 in agriculture perpetuated the effects of longstanding laws and policies requiring migrant farmworkers, circumscribed in their ability to politically mobilize on account of their institutionalized deportability, to shoulder disproportionate amounts of economic, social, and health risks. Centering the transnational character of migrant farmworkers' renewal, it identifies meaningful interventions to limit the structural disempowerment of migrant farmworkers and the externalization of their social reproduction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leah F Vosko
- Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in The Political Economy of Gender & Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University, 6th Floor, Kaneff Tower York University 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada
| | - Cynthia Spring
- Department of Politics, York University, Toronto, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
COVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph18041376. [PMID: 33546144 PMCID: PMC7913136 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18041376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2020] [Revised: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
In this article, we aim to develop a political economy of mass hysteria. Using the background of COVID-19, we study past mass hysteria. Negative information which is spread through mass media repetitively can affect public health negatively in the form of nocebo effects and mass hysteria. We argue that mass and digital media in connection with the state may have had adverse consequences during the COVID-19 crisis. The resulting collective hysteria may have contributed to policy errors by governments not in line with health recommendations. While mass hysteria can occur in societies with a minimal state, we show that there exist certain self-corrective mechanisms and limits to the harm inflicted, such as sacrosanct private property rights. However, mass hysteria can be exacerbated and self-reinforcing when the negative information comes from an authoritative source, when the media are politicized, and social networks make the negative information omnipresent. We conclude that the negative long-term effects of mass hysteria are exacerbated by the size of the state.
Collapse
|
9
|
Huespe I, Carboni Bisso I, Di Stefano S, Terrasa S, Gemelli NA, Las Heras M. COVID-19 Severity Index: A predictive score for hospitalized patients. Med Intensiva 2020; 46:S0210-5691(20)30396-X. [PMID: 33478781 PMCID: PMC7832368 DOI: 10.1016/j.medin.2020.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 10/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- I Huespe
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina; Institute of Translational Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, IUHI, CONICET, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina
| | - I Carboni Bisso
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina
| | - S Di Stefano
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina
| | - S Terrasa
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina
| | - N A Gemelli
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina.
| | - M Las Heras
- Adult Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Teniente Perón 4190, Capital Federal, Argentina
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
|
11
|
|