The Covid-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and it feels like it’s been forever since the first case of the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan. SARS, Ebola, and many other viruses have shown us their teeth in the past years, but with every outbreak, we’ve learned new methods to fight and manage these unexpected diseases that have the potential to harm millions of people.
One thing’s for sure, technology doesn’t have the ability to prevent the onsets of such pandemics, but it can always help in preventing its spread through educating, warning, and empowering people. We all cannot deny the role technology has played in this entire pandemic to keep us sane and well-informed.
The rate at which technology is evolving these days, it has changed the way we are dealing with the pandemic.. Let’s take a look at some of the areas in which technology is playing an important role.
The Fight Against Misinformation
Ever heard of the term ‘fake news’? Misinformation about statistics relating to the number of diagnosis fatalities, government policies, vaccines, etc., has the ability to create a sense of anxiety and panic among the general public.
The result of this misinformation can have a widespread effect. It can cause people to hoard essential commodities, panic buy, initiate violence on streets, and spread conspiracy theories.
In order to fight the spread of information, companies like Facebook, Google, and YouTube are working extensively to help guide people and bring them the right information, such as statistics and reports published by local government and authorities or WHO.
Hence, by making the right set of information available to everyone, technology is helping create a transparent scenario, where people are well informed about what their next right step should be like.
The Hunt of Drugs
Whenever a pandemic strikes, it’s not uncommon for everyone to frantically search for a drug that could help cure the virus. Coronavirus has changed today’s world. The world is more desperate than ever to find ways that could slow down the spread of this virus and to find a good and effective treatment. This is another area in which technology has played a vital role.
Technology has sped up this process. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also playing an important role in suggesting the components of a vaccine by studying and analyzing its viral protein structure.
Moreover, AI is helping medical researchers in scouring uncountable research papers that are relevant at an unprecedented speed. Google DeepMind has formed AI tools that share date sets and conduct research on the results.
Remote Working and Studying
A lot of times, we don’t see or predict the long-term effects pandemics may have on our personal working lives. The one thing that was most businesses realized during the coronavirus pandemic was that people can work efficiently from home as well.
Sure, a lot of companies were already implementing remote working before the pandemic hit, but most weren’t. As pandemics or any other calamities threaten businesses, working from home has ensured business continuity and also facilitated social distancing.
In such scenarios, technology is playing a great role in allowing people access to important data, conducting virtual meeting, and using enterprise applications. All of this has ensured that there are no hindrances in businesses.
In fact, education systems all over the world decided to conduct classes and even exams through Zoom calls, and for a lot of students, it became a healthy environment. Of course, for both of these scenarios, stable and reliable internet is necessary. You might want to subscribe to one such as AT&T’s new service.
Remote working and studying may just be a blessing in disguise. Thanks to technology, it has become one of the greatest solutions in implementing social distancing.
Temperature Monitoring
Every public outlet now takes your temperature before you’re cleared to go in. With social distancing in place in many countries around the world, how has technology played a part in temperature monitoring?
It’s simple. There are wireless thermometer guns and infrared body temperature sensors that have become vital medical equipment used at immigrations, offices, hospitals, hotels, shops, train stations, and other places.
These gadgets allow authorities to measure body temperature from a distance and hence they have turned out to be effective in identifying individuals who may require further investigation. There are automated thermal monitoring as well as facial recognition that makes the process, not just fast but effective as well.
Tracking People
When it comes to pandemic management, data analytics can assist in quickly identifying individuals who are affected, connect with them, and track those who had come in contact with the affected individual.
Technologies such as facial recognition alongside data can be a big help in identifying people even if they’re wearing masks. Such technologies help in monitoring tracking and movement of people who are in quarantine.
Furthermore, technology can help keep an eye on these people and ascertain if they’ve been in contact with someone who was infected. CCTV cameras and facial recognition technologies also help in identifying people who break their quarantine period or rules in general.
Conclusion
The pandemic is quite a frustrating experience. One year into this chaos and we have learnt so much about life. Initially, we weren’t well equipped to handle such a situation, which resulted in a loss of lives. However, with time we have adapted ourselves and come up with solutions to better deal with it.
We’re better prepared for the next pandemic in case we are hit. This pandemic has shown the importance of technology and it is only a matter of time before we come up with inventions that help us manage future situations in a better way.