The COVID-19 Pandemic
A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions
- 1st Edition - March 1, 2022
- Author: Klaus Rose
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 9 1 4 9 - 0
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 9 3 8 7 - 6
The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions discusses COVID-19 as the first pandemic in the Internet era and our curre… Read more
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Request a sales quoteThe COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions discusses COVID-19 as the first pandemic in the Internet era and our current reality of continuous reports, news, and updates. Since its beginning, we were daily bombarded with news of what was happening around the world. There was no global political leadership. The United States was politically partially paralyzed. Russia and China hoped to gain diplomatic profile worldwide, but their vaccines are of limited efficacy, and trust in their clinical data is rightly low. The European Union did not order enough vaccines in time, but sued a large manufacturer for delivery delays. Now it is setting up yet another bureaucratic institution. At least the pharmaceutical or life science industry paved the way out, but is not enthusiastically praised for it. It would be too easy and superficial to blame mistakes of governments and leaders on stupidity. Idiocy exists, but we have to go deeper to understand how illusions and blind spots in today’s common perception and science, inertia, arrogance, conflicts of interest, competition of individuals, and states and institutions for public recognition have contributed to a multitude of flawed assessments and direct mistakes. Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in an in-depth understanding of humankind’s response to the COVID-19 challenge will not get around the key conclusions of this book.
- Outlines key elements of modern civilization, public health, and drug and vaccine development on the background of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Discusses the historical roots of separate drug approval of vaccines and drugs in administratively classified "children" (of whom many are bodily mature long before their 16th or 18th birthday), and why the belated approval of vaccines against COVID-19 in minors is not based on science, but on blurs and conflicts of interest
- Outlines key elements we need to address to become better prepared for future global health challenges. In the first place, we do not need new institutions, but to overcome intellectual barriers and blind spots
Members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), ethics committees (ECs), journalists, lawyers, patient advocacy groups, and politicians
- Cover
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- References
- Chapter 2: We are no longer hunters and gatherers. Societies, states, values, and healthcare today
- Abstract
- References
- Chapter 3: Development of drugs and vaccines
- Abstract
- References
- Chapter 4: COVID-19—The disease
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: DNA and RNA
- 3: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19 disease
- 4: Modern society and public health
- 5: Traditional avenues of prevention
- 6: Vaccines
- 7: Diagnostics
- 8: Treatment
- 9: COVID-19, children, and “children”
- 10: COVID-19 variants
- 11: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 5: Russian and Chinese vaccines
- Abstract
- 1: Russian vaccines
- 2: Chinese vaccines
- 3: Assessment
- References
- Chapter 6: The European Union (EU) response to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Abstract
- 1: The original course of the pandemic in Europe
- 2: Details of the EU response
- 3: Future EU plans
- 4: A preliminary assessment of the EU response to the COVID-19 pandemic
- References
- Chapter 7: COVID-19 vaccines global access (COVAX) and more
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Key international organizations
- 3: COVID-19 vaccines global access (COVAX)
- 4: The discussion about booster shots
- 5: Preliminary COVAX assessment
- References
- Chapter 8: International healthcare structures and COVID-19
- Abstract
- 1: WHO basics and “Public Health Emergencies of International Concern” (PHEICs)
- 2: International Health regulations (IHR) and PHEICs
- 3: The WHO’s life of its own
- 4: The WHO and progress in healthcare
- 5: The WHO in the COVID-19 pandemic
- 6: The independent panel for pandemic preparedness and response (IPPR) report
- 7: Assessment of the WHO IPPR recommendations
- 8: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 9: Low-tech and high-tech challenges. Accidents and disasters. Technical and scientific progress and its perception by science and the public
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Groupthink
- 3: US space shuttle disasters
- 4: Boeing 737 MAX crashes
- 5: Nuclear plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, after a tsunami
- 6: Lead poisoning
- 7: Love Canal/Blackcreek village
- 8: Mercury poisoning
- 9: Bhopal
- 10: Tobacco smoking
- 11: BSE and Jacob-Creutzfeld-disease
- 12: Intermediate summary
- 13: Discussion and conclusions
- References
- Chapter 10: Basic research, applied research, and the real world
- Abstract
- References
- Chapter 11: Conflicts of interest and the self-picture of medicine and scientists
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Science is part of society
- 3: The special edition on 150 years “Nature” in 2019
- 4: The “Nature” coverage of the European Union (EU) science budget deliberations in 2019
- 5: The term “medical-industrial complex” and its ramifications
- 6: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 12: Vaccination hesitancy
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Discussion
- 3: Additional dimensions
- 4: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 13: Social inequality, developing countries, and COVID-19
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Social framework and the responsibility for one’s fate and health
- 3: Social inequality: The sociology approach
- 4: Ideologies and politics that promise(d) to abolish poverty
- 5: Developing countries and the COVID-10 pandemic
- 6: The misconception of a weakening of intellectual property as a way out of the pandemic
- 7: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 14: Politics, illusions, websites, and the real world
- Abstract
- 1: Humanity and communication
- 2: Fairy tales, oral tradition, the worlds of radio and television, and the internet
- 3: Politics, websites, and the real world
- 4: The COVID-19 pandemic and the internet
- 5: Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 15: Global warming, Armageddon warnings, and the COVID-19 pandemic
- Abstract
- 1: Climate change and global warming: The basics
- 2: The predicted effect of climate change on humans
- 3: Global warming and the COVID-19 pandemic
- 4: The mixing of geoscience, social, and medical challenges
- 5: Scientific warnings in the past
- 6: The privileges of youth
- 7: COVID-19 is a high-tech challenge
- References
- Chapter 16: China and Russia are giants on feet of clay
- Abstract
- References
- Chapter 17: Conclusions and outlook
- Abstract
- 1: Conclusions
- References
- Index
- No. of pages: 248
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: March 1, 2022
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Paperback ISBN: 9780323991490
- eBook ISBN: 9780323993876
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