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In the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that African countries have been largely spared from the devastating effects observed elsewhere. Working and living in Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest and most fragile countries in the world located in West Africa, we wonder: How can the world know that there are only few Covid-19 cases in a country where the health system is weak and access to Covid-19 tests very limited? How can the world know that there is a low Covid-19 mortality in a country without a reliable civil registration and vital statistic system? In this article, we explore the (too) many unknowns of Covid-19 in Guinea-Bissau. The article was chosen as the 1st place winner of the 2020 Eye on Global Health Writing Competition.

An extended brief overviewing a bread swath of responses from higher educational institutions worldwide, to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are writing this openly-published letter to express deep concerns regarding the paper recently published in JAMA Network Open: Estimation of US Children’s Educational Attainment and Years of Life Lost Associated With Primary School Closures During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.28786The paper by Christakis, Van Cleve, and Zimmerman(2020,abbrev. CVZ) is built upon multiple critically flawed assumptions, obvious misuse of the standard analytical tools, and clear mistakes in study design. Additionally, the analysis presented contains crucial mathematical and statistical errors that completely revert the main results, sufficient that if the estimates had been calculated according to the declared methodology, the results would completely contradict the stated conclusions and policy recommendations. These are not idle criticisms. This study has received enormous public attention, and its results immediately appeared in discussions of public health policies around schools worldwide. The central question is resolving an evidence base for the inevitable tradeoff between (a) the very real harms of missed education provoked by policies that decrease viral spread vs. (b) the resumption of education as a social good which increases viral spread. This is an incredibly important public health question, and it demands careful cost-benefit analysis. To that end, this paper adds no usable evidence whatsoever.

Aim: Use of tele-health programs and wearable sensors that allow patients to monitor their own vital signs have been expanded in response to COVID-19. We aimed to explore the utility of patient-held data during presentation as medical emergencies. Methods: We undertook a systematic scoping review of two groups of studies: studies using non-invasive vital sign monitoring in patients with chronic diseases aimed at preventing unscheduled reviews in primary care, hospitalization or emergency department visits and studies using vital sign measurements from wearable sensors for decision making by clinicians on presentation of these patients as emergencies. Only studies that described a comparator or control group were included. Studies limited to inpatient use of devices were excluded. Results: The initial search resulted in 896 references for screening, nine more studies were identified through searches of references. 26 studies fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria and were further analyzed. The majority of studies were from telehealth programs of patients with congestive heart failure or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. There was limited evidence that patient held data is currently used to risk-stratify the admission or discharge process for medical emergencies. Studies that showed impact on mortality or hospital admission rates measured vital signs at least daily. We identified no interventional study using commercially available sensors in watches or smart phones. Conclusions: Further research is needed to determine utility of patient held monitoring devices to guide management of acute medical emergencies at the patients' home, on presentation to hospital and after discharge back to the community.

A mysterious virus, classified by WHO (World Health Organization) as COVID-19, wrecks global health and potentially endangers the global social, political and economic order[i]. In countering the risks and protecting their populations, nations across the world adopt drastic national restrictions. Authorities temporarily suspend national as well as transnational encounters and connections. The virus, as well as how authorities and societies respond to, might have greater long-term impact. However, If the virus spreads transnationally, why then nation-states favour national protectionism instead of exploring common multilateral solutions? Could the application of national tools solve a seemingly transnational pandemic?Almost worldwide reverberations of state-decrees take effect- unleashing cancellations of public and private gatherings and events. So far, most of the alert and ensuing explanations and justifications mainly concentrate on the affluent world. In parts of the developing world, the ruling elites often ignore pre-consultations. Millions (already suffering from traditional curable malaises and inequalities) confront additional virus-related existential threats. Among the most disadvantaged include the internally and externally displaced refugees in the world. Many of them live in derelict encampments scattered across the Middle East and Africa.

It is clear that the pandemic has had a dramatic impact on tourism regions in the short term. Europe has seen a drop of 77% in international visitor numbers in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic, and the UNWTO estimates that 100-120 million jobs are at risk globally. But what will the longer-term impacts be? This blog considers whether tourism regions will bounce back to old development paths after the pandemic or whether it will prove to be a transformative moment, triggering the establishment of new development trajectories. It draws on research, funded by the Regional Studies Association ‘Pandemics, Cities, Regions & Industry Small Grant Scheme’, which has investigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism regions and how destination organisations have reacted.

Compilations of video clips of Italian mayors berating citizens breaking quarantine to walk dogs, jog, or play ping pong have become something of a ‘viral’ sensation both in Italy and globally. The clips are often amusing, featuring politicians accusing their constituents of vanity, incontinence, and other assorted sins. As anthropologists interested in the politics of accusation , these small-scale disputes allow us to think through the sorts of political horizons that the novel coronavirus is bringing into being. As the virus spreads, we seek to track the sorts of accusations that spread with it as they provoke what we call virological witch hunts. Unlike the episodes of public blaming and shaming some political figures have promoted through national media, virological witch hunts are small-scale, bottom-up, intimate, and usually amplified through local social networks. We link them to the phenomenon of the untori in XVI- XVII century Lombardy, another bottom-up surge of accusations against those believed to be spreading disease that authorities had to deal with. Relying on social media, we have been reaching out to quarantined residents of the province of Bergamo, in the Lombardy region who have been publicly shamed for perceived transgressions in the midst of the quarantine. The responses offer insight into how the pandemic has precipitated what Massimo, one of our interlocutors, has termed a “collective, hysterical version of preexisting individual patterns of blaming and shaming”.