COVID-19 Update
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) has brought a great part of the world to a halt, it has obligated governments across the globe to act in unprecedented measures amidst enormous uncertainty. I wanted to write a post to update our followers on the impact that the virus has had on InAGlobe, and my personal interpretation with the information I have had available. As of the moment that I am writing this text, over 1.9 million people have been reported for testing positive, and more than 118,000 people have sadly passed away as a result [1].
Our main academic partner, Imperial College London has been leading the effort in the UK to warn about the effects of the disease by the hand of Prof. Neil Ferguson [2]. Our closest departmental partner, the Department of Bioengineering has been doubling their efforts to deliver on technologies that may help alleviate the shortage of ventilators and improve our ability for rapid detection. Prof. Jimmy Moore has led a team to design a low-cost, simple ventilator system that can be made with standard production facilities [3]; Dr. Firat Güder is in the process of delivering a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) that has the potential to be far more sensitive than currently available ones [4]; just to mention a couple examples. As alumni of Imperial College we are incredibly proud of the collective response. However, the efforts made globally are immense, Imperial College is just one of the countless academic, public and private players that are uniting and collaborating to try to understand this novel disease, mitigate it’s effects, and fully tackle it. With all the challenges of globalisation, this is the kind of collaboration that InAGlobe has been advocating for since we started, a collaboration without borders.
In that light, despite the importance of our projects, these come secondary to the health and safety of the students and academics involved. Imperial College decided to send everyone home before the end of term and with it pause the design and prototyping phases of the student projects involved. This year we had reduced the number of projects in order to better understand the dynamics that delivered successful projects, and current progress was very impressive, going well beyond expectations. The projects will be picked up on a case by case basis upon the return to normal project work, either as academic projects or summer projects. For the moment our focus will be around ensuring their inheritability and the feedback and opinion of our humanitarian partners.
Western health systems are being stretched passed their limits, and only essential workers are allowed to go into work. There has been little mention of how this virus will have an effect on countries with poorer health infrastructure, and with less digitalised economies. In developing economies, working from home is not an option, not going out may be the difference between having food to put on the table. Spain with 330 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants is already facing an unprecedented tragedy since the last instauration of democracy, how can we ignore that there are countries, such as Mozambique with 3 per 100,000? Not only is it personnel, it is materiel as well: testing, Personal Protective Gear, ventilators and necessary infrastructure. From InAGlobe we advocate for a global coordinated response to the crisis, and we know this is not an easy ask, but it is imperative. The arguments regarding the humanity of this response are clear, however, (even) from a selfish-nationalistic perspective, if we don’t tackle the virus everywhere, countries with less resources committed to the fight against the virus will act as deposits of the pathogen from where it can spread and mutate, and that means the virus will return. And not only does the response need to be global, but also multidimensional: the collapse of the markets, and the incredible recovery that some natural spaces have seen since the reduction of human industrial activity. These are blatant examples of the interconnected nature of all the systems on Earth. Despite the hardships that COVID19 has brought, this is an incredible opportunity to tackle systemic ecological, economic and social problems.
From InAGlobe we want to extend our deepest condolences to all of those affected by the direct and indirect health and human consequences of this virus, whether it is this prolific virus or any other treatment that finds itself addressed. We want to extend our biggest admiration to all the healthcare workers, the staff in supermarkets, transport- and delivery-workers, pharmacists, carers, individuals in the supply chain, police and armed forces, volunteers, and many others that are essential for everyone’s ability to reduce contagion by remaining at home and socially distancing. We all owe you a debt of gratitude.
Written By: Jaime Aguilera Garcia (13/04/2020) - Co-Founder of InAGlobe Education.
References
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 [Accessed on 13-04-2020 at 22:00]
Neil M. Ferguson et al., Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis, The Lancet, 30/3/2020 (https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30243-7.pdf)
https://www.imperial-consultants.co.uk/areasofexpertise/emergency-ventilator/ [Accessed on 13-04-2020 at 22:00]
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.23.002931v1 [Accessed on 13-04-2020 at 22:00]