Image by cromaconceptovisual from Pixabay Coronavirus has succeeded in exposing inadequacies and shortcomings in our daily lives. As a result of the inadequacies, billions of people worldwide were under lockdown, thousands have died, and more are still dying. Governments, businesses, and individuals have been thrown into confusion, facing an uncertain economic future. The world, whether developing or developed, was completely unprepared for COVID-19 despite our technological advancements in the areas of AI and machine learning, hence, we are suffering the consequences direly. The coronavirus pandemic also exposed our ill-preparedness in how we have been handling our supply chains as well as security and privacy. A rundown of the following three very important sectors will bring to light where we failed and also a pointer as to what needs to be done since this may not be the last time we will be facing viral diseases. Technological advancement BlueDot, an artificial intelligence company, was able to notice that something ominous was in the offing and, therefore, went ahead to alert the world of a cluster of “unusual pneumonia” cases occurring around a market in Wuhan, China, about the midnight of December 30, 2019. The company likened the symptoms to those of the SARS, an…
Tag: WHO
CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency): A Possible Revolution in Money
Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay CBDC may eventually turn out to become a revolution in money in the post-COVID-19 world. Before the idea of a central bank digital money started gaining ground, the cryptos have been around as virtual or digital currencies. Taking into consideration that the global mobile payment market is presently estimated at US$816.50B and with the projections that it will reach over US$5.5T by 2025, the way we carry on transactions with money is set to undergo a mammoth revolution with the intended introduction of digital currencies by governments around the world. However, unlike the cryptos that encountered very stiff opposition from governments and some large corporate bodies, it seems the CBDC will enjoy their patronage. The main reason governments around the world were very equivocal in the opposition cryptos encountered is the fact that cryptocurrencies were not meant to be regulated. The seriousness governments are attaching to CBDC is the reason why about 80% of the world’s central banks are exploring the possibility of adopting the digital currency. It’s on record, however, that China has gone very far on the project, having been working on it since 2014, when Xiaochuan Zhou, who was the Governor of the People’s Bank…
Was The World Short-changed by AI For COVID-19?
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay COVID-19 came hitting hard at the very fabric of our culture, we were ill-prepared for it. Billions of people worldwide are under lockdown, thousands have died, and more are still dying. Globally, governments, businesses, and individuals are confused, facing an uncertain economic future. Without mincing words, the world was completely unprepared for COVID-19 despite our technological advancements in the areas of AI and machine learning, hence, we are suffering the consequences and direly so. It is on record that an artificial intelligence company called BlueDot was the first to notice that something weird was going on and, therefore, went ahead to alert the world of a cluster of “unusual pneumonia” cases occurring around a market in Wuhan, China, about the midnight of December 30, 2019. The company likened the symptoms to those of the SARS, an outbreak that was experienced in 2003. Incidentally, before the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Chinese authorities eventually got around to informing us nearly a week after the emergence of COVID-19, it was late and the harm had been done. The question is, how did we get it wrong? It would have been expected that since we have progressed so much…
Exploiting Telemedicine’s Full Potentials in Battling COVID-19 Pandemic
Image by Alexey Hulsov from Pixabay Hospitals, medical and health centers ideally should be the places the sick and ill alike visit for succor and treatment but with the ravaging COVID-19, shouldn’t we start considering telemedicine? The World Health Organization (WHO), governments, medical practitioners, and health workers around the globe have all been calling for remote working and far-reaching social distancing among other measures as a way of trying to contain COVID-19 surge. A visit to a hospital clearly depicts the reason why you should totally avoid it now unless it’s absolutely impossible to do otherwise. Usually, our hospitals are filled up with patients and caregivers who are not medical practitioners but have simply come to help them in revitalizing the patients, all these people are usually in proximity with the patients, where bacteria and viruses can easily be transmitted. Since it has become imperative that a visit to the hospital these days can be a sure way of contracting COVID-19, the most obvious measure to turn to urgently is telemedicine. Telemedicine which is also known as telehealth or e-medicine is all about digitally and remotely delivering healthcare services, which include examinations and consultations by the use of telecommunications infrastructure. With telemedicine, patients…