Technology plays a huge role in fighting pandemics and helps prevent the spread of infection. This has been proven time and again, which you can see by looking at several pandemics the world faced over the past few decades from SARS to H1N1 to Ebola and now, novel coronavirus. Technology can save millions of lives and help people stay protected and safe while empowering governments to fight the disease effectively. Although technology cannot prevent the onset of a pandemic, it can successfully contain and prevent the spread of disease, warn, educate and create awareness for it among those on the ground. This helps noticeably lessen the impact according to expert Adam K. Veron. The rapid progress of digital technology and information technology has provided technologies like cloud, mobiles, 4G/5G, analytics, robotics, AI, and high-speed internet has helped in testing different innovative approaches when responding to a pandemic.
The vital role technology plays to help people cope with the pandemic will become clear in this article.
How does Adam K. Veron view the fight against misinformation?
Panic and anxiety are the greatest enemies when fighting pandemic because they lead to wrong choices and decisions that can aggravate problems. However, a lot of misinformation is out there when it comes to government policies, diagnosis, fatalities, treatment options, vaccines, etc. Misinformation cause panic and anxiety among people. This can result in widespread chaos, hoarding of essential commodities, panic buying, price rice, street violence, conspiracy theories, discrimination and more. Social media companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are working tirelessly to enable people to get the right information from authentic sources like WHO or governments or local bodies. The availability of accurate information to everybody creates a transparent environment, and people can use the information to take the right steps.
Finding medicines and vaccines
When the novel coronavirus struck, the first question that everyone wanted an answer to was whether there were any drugs or vaccines available to prevent and cure COVID-19. Researchers are still searching for viable ways to harness the virus and find a cure for it. Now technology enables people to speed up the research process. AI plays a vital role in repurposing drugs to fight the menace while people search for appropriate treatment methods. AI helps scientists understand viral protein structures to suggest components of a vaccine and assist medical researchers by scouring heaps of research papers at an extraordinary pace. AI can help scientists to find a vaccine within the shortest time period possible. It seems that AI will help scientists reach a solution in 1 year, whereas if they didn’t use technology, finding a cure could take around 15 years.
Contactless movement and deliveries
The pandemic has brought about a complete change in how people move and interact and how the world makes deliveries by using drones, robots, and self-driving cars that can avoid human contact. Transporting affected people to and from healthcare facilities in the self-driven car is a viable option to avoid risking the lives of healthy people. Drones and robots can be useful for delivering medicines, medical supplies, and other essentials to quarantine centers. Drones are effective in sanitizing open public spaces by spraying disinfectants, and robots are helpful in thermal screening.
Wireless thermometer guns and other infra-red body temperature measuring devices are also important tools in the fight against COVID-19.
Adam Veron is a Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the investment management industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Budgeting, Business Planning, Operations Management, and Sales. Strong business development professional with over 20 years of Marketing and Networking experience. https://adamkverongrant.com/
