Pandemics and International Security : The Outlook for NATO
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This publication is the result of the Conference 'Pandemics and international security: The outlook for NATO', organized by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the University of Bologna and Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) of Rome.
Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus
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Global Security in Times of Covid-19 : Brave New World ?
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This book examines the effect of COVID-19 on regional and global security threats in the first 18 months of the crisis. Throughout history, epidemics have disrupted human civilisations, changed the structure of societies, decided the outcome of wars and prompted incredible technological innovation. Despite massive progress in science, institution-building and cooperation over the past 100 years, COVID-10 has revealed the weaknesses of a world under-prepared for a new disease - that has been widely expected and long overdue ! This edited volume brings together leading security experts from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East to share their analysis of the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on major security threats, including the rise of terrorists and criminal networks and global power politics. The book highlights important lessons learnt from all corners of the planet, in particular the need for cross-sectional, regional and international cooperation and solidarity when it comes to facing any transnational security threat that does not respect political boundaries.
How COVID-19 Reshapes New World Order : Political Economy Perspective
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Aftershocks : Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order
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This book is both a riveting journalistic account of one of the strangest years on record and a comprehensive analysis of the pandemic's ongoing impact on the foundational institutions and ideas that have shaped the modern world. This is the first crisis in decades without a glimmer of American leadership and it shows - there has been no international cooperation on a quintessential global challenge. Every country has followed its own path - nationalizing supplies, shutting their borders, and largely ignoring the rest of the world. The international order the United States constructed seven decades ago is in tatters, and the world is adrift. None of this came out of the blue. Public health experts and intelligence analysts had warned for a decade that a pandemic of this sort was inevitable. The crisis broke against a global backdrop of rising nationalism, backsliding democracy, declining public trust in governments, mounting rebellion against the inequalities produced by globalization, resurgent great power competition, and plummeting international cooperation. And yet, there are some signs of hope. The COVID-19 crisis reminds us of our common humanity and shared fate. The public has, for the most part, responded stoically and with kindness. Some democracies - South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, New Zealand, among others - have responded well. America may emerge from the crisis with a new resolve to deal with non-traditional threats, like pandemic disease, and a new demand for effective collective action with other democratic nations. America may also finally be forced to come to grips with our nation's inadequacies, and to make big changes at home and abroad that will set the stage for opportunities the rest of this century holds. But one thing is certain : America and the world will never be the same again.
Geopolitics for the End Time: From the Pandemic to the Climate Crisis
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As we approach catastrophe, everything changes. What are the lessons from the pandemic ? How well have different cultures and societies responded, and could this become a turning point in the flow of history ? Before COVID, a new competition was already arising between alternative geopolitical models - but the context of this clash wasn't yet clear. What if it takes place on neutral ground ? In a state of nature, with few or no political rules, amid quickly evolving chaos ? When the greatest threat to national security is no longer other states, but the environment itself, which countries might rise to the top ? This book explores how COVID-19 has already transformed the global system, and how it serves as a prelude to a planet afflicted by climate change. The author is one of the first to see the pandemic as the dawn of a new strategic era, heralding a profoundly changed world-political landscape.
The Future of Diplomacy after COVID-19 : Multilateralism and the Global Pandemic
This book considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international diplomacy, and the challenges and opportunities it presents for the future of multilateralism. Global cooperation and solidarity are central to responding to and mitigating the health and socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet, to many, this was slow to mobilize and lacking in political leadership. This book takes a practical look at the lessons learned from the period spanning the World Health Organization's first declaration of a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020, to the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations in October 2020. This timespan covers a critical period in which to consider key areas of diplomacy, covering a range of tools of global cooperation : multilateral diplomacy, the rule of law, sustainable development, economics and financing, digital governance, and peace and security. Each chapter in this book introduces readers to the current situation in their respective areas, followed by a constructive consideration of lessons learned from the pandemic's impact on that field, and key recommendations for the future. The practical focus and future orientation is particularly important as the book injects pragmatism and guidance that will facilitate 'building back better' in COVID response plans, while creating space for continued focus on global commitments around sustainable development and the future of the UN.
COVID-19 Pandemic, Crisis Responses and the Changing World : Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences
This book comprehensively analyzes COVID-19 and its impact as well as the response from the perspectives of humanities and social sciences. This book covers topics ranging from geopolitical relations to regional integration, public health governance and even the evolution of professional practices in the time of COVID-19. It constitutes a precious and timely interdisciplinary reference for anyone aspiring not only to grasp the origins and dynamics of the present challenge, but also to identify future opportunities for further growth and holistic progress for humanity.
After the COVID-19 Pandemic : How Does the World Change ? A Series of Perspectives
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This book reflects on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across different parameters. Chapters examine threats to the dominance of the Western liberal world order, democracy and multilateralism; the chorus of calls for green energy, sustainable value chains and the need for businesses to assume more by way of corporate responsibility; digitalization as the new frontier for Great Power competition, and the manner in which the pandemic has posed different challenges and elicited different responses from governments and citizens in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The New Common : How the Covid-19 Pandemic Is Transforming Society
This book presents the scientific views of some fifty experts on how they believe the COVID-19 pandemic is currently affecting society, and how it will continue to do so in the years to come. Using the concept of a common (in the sense of common values, common places, common goods, and common sense), they elaborate on the transition from an Old Common to a New Common. In carefully crafted chapters, the authors address expected shifts in major fields like health, education, finance, business, work, and citizenship, applying concepts from law, psychology, economics, sociology, religious studies, and computer science to do so. Many of the authors anticipate an acceleration of the digital transformation in the forthcoming years, but at the same time, they argue that a successful shift to a new common can only be achieved by re-evaluating life on our planet, strengthening resilience at an individual level, and assuming more responsibility at a societal level.
Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information on COVID-19 : Russian and Chinese Efforts Targeting the United States
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Rand Corporation (US)
The global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a fertile ground for attempts to influence and destabilize different populations and countries. Both Russia and China appear to have employed information manipulation during the COVID-19 pandemic in service to their respective global agendas. This report uses exploratory qualitative analysis to systematically describe the types of COVID-19-related malign and subversive information efforts with which Russia- and China-associated outlets appear to have targeted U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020 and organizes them into a framework. This work lays the foundation for a better understanding of how and whether Russia and China might act and coordinate in the domain of malign and subversive information efforts in the future.
European Foreign Policy in Times of COVID-19
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The book tells the story of the main events of 2020 and how the EU has responded. It traces the main stages of the pandemic and the EU’s actions : from the ‘battle of narratives’ and the work on repatriation, to the development of ‘Team Europe’ and the deal on the recovery fund. It directly addresses key questions for European foreign policy : what does it mean to develop European strategic autonomy ? What is the future of the transatlantic partnership under the new US administration and how to deal with the strategic competition between China and the United States ? How should the EU act in the face of 'new empires' that threaten to destabilise our neighbourhood ? And how can it strengthen its partnerships with Africa, Latin America or the Indo-Pacific ? In tackling these questions, the author addresses the main challenges facing Europe’s global role, focusing on key milestones and choices that have marked this exceptional year.
Populism and the Politicization of the COVID-19 Crisis in Europe
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This edited book provides a first overview of how populist parties responded to the COVID-10 pandemic crisis in Europe. Although populism would normally benefit from crisis situations (e.g., political representation or economic crises), the peculiar nature of this health crisis does not make the benefit obvious. For it to be exploited, a crisis must be politicized. While populists have tried to take advantage of the crisis situation, the impossibility of taking ownership of the COVID-19 issue has made the crisis hard to be exploited. In particular, populists in power have tried to depoliticize the pandemic, whereas radical right-populists in opposition tried to politicize the crisis, though failing to gain the relevant public support. This book considers populist parties in eight European democracies, providing a framework of analysis for their responses to the COVID-19 crisis. It does so by engaging with the literature on crisis and populism form a theoretical perspective and through the lens of the politicization process.
A Sketch of the World after the Covid-19 Crisis : Essays on Political Authority, the Future of Globalization, and the Rise of China
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This book tries to understand the lessons we ought to learn from the Covid-19 crisis as well as the profound transformations this pandemic will bring to the world order. The essays explore the challenge that the pandemic poses to liberalism, the unique potential this crisis offers us to retake control over globalization, and how it foreshadows future conflicts, especially the dynamic between China and the West.
Is It Tomorrow Yet ? : Paradoxes of the Pandemic
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Beneath the panic and bluster, beneath the confusing speeches and the conflicting advice, the Coronavirus pandemic acted, changing our world in the most profound ways. The tragic human cost and the economic devastation will be assessed and calculated for decades to come. But the pandemic also changed things in ways that are less easily expressed and understood. It has made bare the frayed contradictions of modern life. It has distorted things that seemed simple and settled. It has affirmed plain, uncomfortable truths. In this thought-provoking essay, the author explores the pandemic's immediate consequences and conceives of its long-term legacy. Will things be different for the communities most harmed, and for those who escaped the worst ? Where are we now with the US and China, with the UK and Europe ? And how do we think our way through the unthinkable ?
Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Radical Right : Scapegoating, Conspiracy Theories and New Narratives
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Numerous political commentators have noted the rise of the radical right worldwide. How has the radical right responded to the COVID-19 pandemic ? Has the radical right been legitimized in a world of closed borders and greater securitization ? Have radical right regimes in power cracked under the strains of the crisis and thus undermined their own political fortunes ? Have radical right-wing responses to COVID-19 been uniform or diversified ? These are some of the questions tackled in this book. The volume gathers a collection of short pieces, which highlight the multi-faceted ways in which right-wing and radical right-wing political forces have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents research by scholars from all around the world concentrating on the evolution of radical right-wing movements since the COVID-19 crisis began and their influence on mainstream and alternative narratives. The edited volume includes case studies as well as far-reaching reports on the radical right's utilizing of the crisis to re-shape ideas about sovereignty, globalization, democracy, equality, diversity, and political legitimacy. Such studies comprise cases on gender and class, racism, religious hatred, scapegoating, anti-Semitism and Sinophobia, conspiracy theories, and online radicalization, focusing on locations as diverse as the US, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Ukraine, Latvia, Israel, and India. All such studies are compiled in a total of six chapters and an epilogue, organized thematically and by country.
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
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COVID-19 is speeding up history, but how ? What is the shape of the world to come ? Lenin once said, 'There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen'. This is one of those times when history has sped up. The author helps readers to understand the nature of a post-pandemic world : the political, social, technological, and economic consequences that may take years to unfold. Written in the form of ten 'lessons', covering topics from natural and biological risks to the rise of 'digital life' to an emerging bipolar world order, the author helps readers to begin thinking beyond the immediate effects of COVID-19.
Europe Reinvented : How COVID-19 Is Changing the European Union
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The COVID-19 pandemic took the European Union on a rollercoaster ride. In the first months of 2020, the EU reassured itself into inaction : 'We are prepared'. It was taken by surprise when Italy capsized. The lack of solidarity between countries seemed to bring the union - once again - to its knees. After the eurocrisis, the migration crisis and Brexit, this could be one crisis too many. But the EU crawled its way back : during six difficult months, the European Union managed to reinvent itself. This book takes you on a journey through the key moments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the EU and through the maze of European institutions. It provides clear answers to questions like : Could the COVID-19 outbreak have been predicted ? What tools does the EU have to handle an emergency ? How should Europe position itself in a leaderless world ? How will the EU get out of this massive economic crisis ?
How COVID-19 Changed the Future : Geopolitical Implications for Europe
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European Union Institute for Security Studies (FR)
Covid-19 erupted into a landscape of change : even before the pandemic unfolded, the world was already grappling with major challenges and the emergence of new geopolitical fissures and trends. In the face of the economic and societal changes brought by the coronavirus, as well as the structural fragilities that it has exposed, some argue that that the pandemic will merely accentuate pre-existing trends and dynamics, while others believe that the crisis will create a world profoundly different than before. This paper examines both dimensions : it assesses the geopolitical trends the pandemic is perceived as having accelerated, and the scope for innovation and far-reaching change induced by the crisis. In the final section it explores the interplay of trends and uncertainties in three distinct scenarios. It concludes that to proactively shape the future, EU decision-makers have strategic choices to make - with the role that Europe wants to play in a world shaped by Sino-American antagonism being the most important.
The Politics of Pandemics : Evolving Regime-Opposition Dynamics in the MENA Region
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The Wake-Up Call : Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West, and How To Fix It
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The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that governments matter again, that competent leadership is the difference between living and dying. A few governments proved adept at handling the crisis while many others failed. Are Western governments healthy and strong enough to keep their citizens safe from another virulent virus ? And protect their economies from collapse ? Is global leadership passing from the United States to Asia ? And particularly China ? This book addresses these urgent questions. The authors identify the problems Western leaders face, and outline a detailed plan to help them become more vigilant, better prepared, and responsive to disruptive future events. The problems that face us are enormous; as the book makes clear, governments around the world must re-engineer the way they operate to successfully meet the challenges ahead.
The COVID-19 Catastrophe : What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again
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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, the author 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, the author 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. We're 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.
COVID-19 and World Order : The Future of Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of people and infected millions while also devastating the world economy. The consequences of the pandemic, however, go much further : they threaten the fabric of national and international politics around the world. As Henry Kissinger warned, 'The coronavirus epidemic will forever alter the world order'. What will be the consequences of the pandemic, and what will a post-COVID world order look like ?
Geopolitique du Covid-19 : ce que nous revele la crise du coronavirus
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La crise du Covid-19 a suscite un tel choc dans l'opinion publique que beaucoup de commentateurs ont emis l'hypothese que plus rien ne serait comme avant. C'est qu'il s'agit d'un episode sans precedent, revelateur d'evolutions latentes et porteur de modifications structurelles dans les relations internationales. Passe l'effet de sideration, cet ouvrage revient sur ce 'moment' historique et nous eclaire sur les consequences geostrategiques de cette catastrophe sanitaire. Est-ce la fin du monde occidental, atteint dans son modele de reussite ? La Chine a-t-elle gagne dans le duel qui l'oppose plus que jamais aux Etats-Unis ? Cete crise balaye-t-elle definitivement le reve d'une Europe puissante on va-t-elle susciter le sursaut tant attendu et si souvent decu ? Se dirige-t-on vers davantage de multilateralisme ou vers une profusion d'unilateralisme ? Autant de questions de fond que l'auteur analyse avec lucidite pour nous aider a apprehender le 'monde d'apres'.
Global Health Security : Recognizing Vulnerabilitis, Creating Opportunities
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With our highly connected and interdependent world, the growing threat of infectious diseases and public health crisis has shed light on the requirement for global efforts to manage and combat highly pathogenic infectious diseases and other public health crisis on an unprecedented level. Such disease threats transcend borders. Reducing global threats posed by infectious disease outbreaks – whether naturally caused or resulting from a deliberate or accidental release – requires efforts that cross the disaster management pillars: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
This book addresses the issues of global health security along 4 themes: Emerging Threats; Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery; Exploring the Technology Landscape for Solutions; Leadership and Partnership. The authors of this volume highlight many of the challenges that confront our global security environment today. These range from politically induced disasters, to food insecurity, to zoonosis and terrorism. More optimistically, the authors also present some advances in technology that can help us combat these threats.
Charting the Next Pandemic : Modeling Infections Disease Spreading in the Data Science Age
This book provides an introduction to the computational and complex systems modeling of the global spreading of infectious diseases. The first part of the book guides the reader through the sophisticated complex systems modeling techniques with a non-technical and visual approach, explaining and illustrating the construction of the modern framework used to project the spread of pandemics and epidemics. Models can be used to transform date to knowledge that is intuitively communicated by powerful infographics and for this reason, the second part of the book focuses on a set of charts that illustrate possible scenarios of future pandemics. The visual atlas contained allows the reader to identify commonalities and patterns in emerging health treats, as well as explore the wide range of models and data that can be used by policy makers to anticipate trends, evaluate risks and eventually manage future events. The book puts the reader in the position to explore different pandemic scenarios and to understand the potential impact of available containment and preventive strategies; it emphasizes the importance of a global perspective in the assessment of emerging health threats and captures the possible evolution of the next pandemic, while at the same time providing the intelligence needed to fight it.
The Pandemic Century : One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris
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Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet, despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From pneumonic plague in LA and 'parrot fever' in Argentina to the more recent AIDS, SARS and Ebola epidemics, the last 100 years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated outbreaks and scares. Like man-eating sharks, predatory pathogens are always present in nature, waiting to strike; when one is seemingly vanquished, others appear in its place. This book exposes the limits of science against nature, and how these crises are shaped by humans as much as microbes.
Pandemics, Publics, and Politics : Staging Responses to Public Health Crises
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Pandemics are potentially very destructive phenomena, and for that reason, they both fascinate and frighten us. Thanks to vaccines, more reliable provision of medical services, more effective means of communication, and a more educated public, some argue we will not see a new plague - or even Spanish flu - in our time. Today we face new challenges, however, which can both enable diseases to reach pandemic scales and affect our ability to enact an appropriate response. Those include fragmentation of media, tribalization of 'knowledge regimes', the increasingly troubled status of scientific and political expertise, growing cross-continental mobility, as well as the globalization and commercialization fo pandemic response systems. These distinctive complexities make the need to stage public action in response to pandemics and other public health crises a crucial problem on which thousands of human lives hinge. This volume consists of a handful of social science and humanities studies or precisely such complexities, and thus offers a much-need supplement to existing research on pandemics and pandemic response.
Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Handbook
This handbook offers public health workers of all kinds an authoritative and up-to-date guide to current protocols surrounding the identification and control of infectious diseases. It is a practical tool that can be relied upon to explain topics ranging from the basic principles of communicable disease control to recent changes and innovations in health protection practice. Major syndromes and individual infections are insightfully addressed, while the authors also outline the WHO's international health regulations and the organizational arrangements in place in all EU nations.
Pandemics, Pills, and Politics : Governing Global Health Security
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Confronted with pandemics, bioterrorism, and emerging infectious diseases, governments are transforming their security policies to include the proactive development, acquisition, stockpiling, and mass distribution of new pharmaceutical defenses. What happens - politically, economically, and socially - when governments try to protect their populations with pharmaceuticals ? The author explores this complex question in this book about the world's most prominent medical countermeasure, Tamiflu. Taken by millions of people around the planet in the fight against pandemic flu, Tamiflu has provoked suspicions about undue commercial influence in government decision-making about stockpiles. It even found itself at the center of a prolonged political battle over who should have access to the data about the safety and effectiveness of medicines. The book shows that the story of Tamiflu harbors deeper lessons about the vexing political, economic, legal, social, and regulatory tensions that emerge as twenty-first century security policy takes a pharmaceutical turn. At the heart of this issue, the author argues, lies something deeper : the rise of a new molecular vision of life that is reshaping the world we live in.
Global Pandemic Threats : A Reference Handbook
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This book provides all-encompassing coverage that introduces key concepts and traces the history of pandemics, enabling readers to grasp the complexity of the global problem and the difficulties of executing effective solutions. Written in an easy-to-understand manner, it provides a 'go-to' resource that systematically addresses dozens of diseases of the past as well as re-emergent or newly emerging pathogens that have the potential of becoming pandemics.
Prepping for a Pandemic : Livesaving Supplies, Skills and Plans for Surviving an Outbreak
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New pandemics hop around the globe every year. In 2009-2010, it was H1N1 that spread uncontrollably, infecting over 60 million people around the world. In 2014, Ebola virus claimed 11,325 lives with just 28,652 cases - a stunning 40% mortality rate. So, what will happen when a pathogen as easily transmitted as H1N1 and as deadly as Ebola enters a population somewhere - anywhere - in the world ? This book provides all the information needed for the day when the horrible eventuality becomes a reality. It provides readers with a life-saving plan that guides them step by step to a state of medical self-reliance. It covers every important issue including stocking food, storing water, developing contingency plans, learning first aid and nursing skills, as well as establishing quarantines and sick rooms. With checklists, tips, and plans, this book outlines the necessary supplies and skills one will need to stay healthy when doctors, hospitals, and the world's medical infrastructure become overwhelmed and unavailable during a pandemic outbreak.
Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat : Potentially the Biggest Survival Challenge Facing Organisations
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Although nothing can be done to prevent pandemics, their impact can be significantly mitigated. This book explains how. Part I provides a detailed overview of the challenges that pandemic threats can present. It uses historical examples to illustrate how pandemics can have devastating effects not only on the global population but also on critical infrastructure, the global economy, and society. Part II considers the actions that can be taken at global, national, corporate and individual levels to mitigate the risk and limit the damage of pandemic incidents. It provides guidance on creating and validating a pandemic plan and explains how it integrates with a business continuity plan. Comprehensive studies are provided throughout.
A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics : Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830-1920
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Influenza was the great killer of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the so-called 'Russian flu' killed around 1 million people across Europe in 1889-93 - including the second-in-line to the British throne, the Duke of Clarence. The Spanish flu of 1918, meanwhile, would kill 50 million people - nearly 3% of the world's population. In this book, the author outlines the history of influenza in the period, and describes how the fear of disease permeated Victorian culture. These fears were amplified by the invention of the telegraph and the ability of the new mass-market press to whip up public hysteria. The flu was therefore a barometer of wider fin de siècle social and cultural anxieties - playing on fears engendered by economic decline, technology, urbanization, and degeneration. This book is a vital new contribution towards our understanding of European history and the history of the media.
Pandemics : What Everyone Needs to Know
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The author offers here an essential guide to one of the truly life-or-death issues of our age. In concise, question-and-answer format, he explains the causes of pandemics, how they can be counteracted with vaccines and drugs, and how we can better prepare for them in the future. The author notes that the term 'pandemic' refers not to a disease's severity but to its ability to spread rapidly over a wide geographical area. Extremely lethal pathogens are usually quickly identified and confined. Nevertheless, the rise of high-speed transportation networks and the globalization of trade and travel have radically accelerated the spread of diseases. A traveler from Africa arrived in New York in 1999 carrying the West Nile virus; one mosquito bite later, it was loose in the ecosystem. The author explains how the main threat of a pandemic comes from respiratory viruses, such as influenza and SARS, which disseminate with incredible speed through air travel. The climate disruptions of global warming, rising population density, and growing antibiotic resistance all complicate efforts to control pandemics. But the author stresses that pandemics can be fought effectively. Often simple health practices, especially in hospitals, can help enormously. And research into the animal reservoirs of pathogens, from SARS in bats to HIV in chimpanzees, show promise for our prevention efforts.
Handbook for Pandemic and Mass-Casualty Planning and Response
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This handbook offers the disaster medicine professional community the information and tools to better prepare, individually and collaboratively, to mitigate mortality and morbidity when catastrophe occurs. It captures the lectures and teachings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in late 2011 : 'Applying lessons learned and sharing best practices in addressing pandemics and catastrophic health events'. The results of this event are presented in three sections : the context of catastrophic health planning; principles of response to catastrophes with mass casualties; and communication and information sharing. The handbook presents rigorous, standardized cross-disciplinary training, such as medical response to major incidents; the need to guide medical and humanitarian efforts by ethical principles; the importance of risk communication and trustworthy information; treatment guidelines along with medical and surgical practices for amputation, burns, and blast injuries; triage guidelines and treatment algorithms; principles of mass-casualty planning; and the need to identify and correctly position - in advance - the networks and collaborative structures that must work together and share capabilities.
The Great Influenza : The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
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At the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. This book examines the causes of the pandemic, its devastating impact on early twentieth-century society, the researchers who risked their lives to confront the disease, and the lasting implications of the crisis and the scientific discoveries that resulted.