Health Care Development Consultancy, 1650 S Delaware Street Unit 217, San Mateo, CA 94402, USAUnited States
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COVID-19 pandemic emergence announcements began in January 2020. Today, 7-day case count numbers suggest ongoing high actual numbers of cases, but that number as a percentage of a population is much lower than it once was. A once dependable 3% COVID-19 mortality rate has been reduced to a global average of 1.2%.
OpenJournal PUBLISHERS Editorial Unintended Effects of Coronavirus Disease-2019 * James M.Wesson, MPH* Health Care Development Consultancy, 1650 S Delaware Street Unit 217, San Mateo, CA 94402, USA * *Corresponding author James M.Wesson, MPH Principal Consultant, Health Care Development Consultancy, 1650 S Delaware Street Unit 217, San Mateo, CA 94402, USA;Tel. (510) 316-9290; E-mail: wesma31@gmail.com Article information th th th th Received: April 27 , 2022; Revised: May 25 , 2022; Accepted: May 26 , 2022; Published: May 26 , 2022 Cite this article Wesson JM. Unintended effects of coronavirus disease-2019. Epidemiol Open J. 2022; 7(1): e1-e2. doi: 10.17140/EPOJ-7-e003 s of this writing: “Globally, as of 4:22 pm CEST, 25 May the workweek. Hand cleansing devices of all kinds greet us at ev- 2022, there have been 524,339,768 confirmed cases of coronavi- ery open office, retail shop, restaurant, and home. The role of our A rus disease-2019 (COVID-19), including 6,281,260 deaths, reported to cell phones as vectors in spreading disease received little attention World Health Organization (WHO). As of 23 May 2022, a total of before COVID-19. Now they are being researched for their under- 11,752,954,673 vaccine doses have been administered”.1 recognized and possibly unexpected role they could be playing, and not only in healthcare settings. Necessity has proven the mother of COVID-19 pandemic emergence announcements began invention yet again.
in January 2020. Today, 7-day case count numbers suggest ongoing high actual numbers of cases, but that number as a percentage of While some changes come with intent, design, and plan- a population is much lower than it once was. A once dependable ful execution, many are a response to emergent needs or profit 3% COVID-19 mortality rate has been reduced to a global average opportunities or environmental conditions or other unanticipated of 1.2%. Nearly 50% or more of most nations’ populations are forces or circumstances. COVID-19 has revealed the interconnect- eligible for the vaccine, as approved (in most countries, for those edness of our collective existence in many ways and in ways we over 17-years of age), and have received a third “booster” dose of were not prepared for nor understood two years ago. Perhaps CO- the COVID-19 vaccination.
VID-19 has revealed our connections to one another in ways we did not quite understand two-years-ago.
COVID-19 containment and eradication require exten- sive and broad coordination if it they are ever to be achieved. Since With a turn to the positive and potentially permanently January 2020, many frequently unpleasant yet inextricable com- beneficial changes brought by COVID-19 are innovations in so panions: scientists, government policymakers, industry, money, many areas of life: occupational, social, economic, etc. The innova- and geopolitical actors, have been forced to cooperate in a way tions since January 2020 in business, the sciences, and healthcare unknown in the last 100-years. It is a relief to see that many forces access and delivery are the most intriguing and promising unin- affecting early vaccine development, approval, and fair distribu- tended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
tion have been addressed (though not yet resolved) by those same forces. By today, while much remains to be done, much of the Telemedicine became necessary when doctors shut their population has finally reached a recognizable majority of benefit outpatient office doors, leaving anything but acute cases of (mostly from these actors’ efforts.
COVID-19) illness out in the cold. This led to cries for reimburse- ment, further accelerating the evolution of healthcare outside the On the path here, much has happened, new lessons have exam room. This in turn has really excited investment markets for been learned, old lessons re-learned, and some lessons are yet to accelerating new ways of delivering previously underestimated emerge. Societies and economies across the globe have only adapt- mental and medical healthcare service demands. The internet-of- ed, or are in one form of crisis or another, and some have changed things in the healthcare world now is receiving much attention for forever. Employers in the United States have experienced lack of its ability to keep well-understood and manageable chronic illness- employees’ desire to return to the “old job I had before the pandemic”. es out of needed physician office appointment slots and now pro- Many office or clerical or information technology workers may no vides a longitudinal structure for patient outcomes documentation longer be required to be present in person in the office all hours of and pattern tracking over time.
1. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/. Accessed May 19, 2022. cc Copyright 2022 Wesson JM. This is an open-access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which allows Epidemiol Open J. 2022; 7(1): e1-e2. doi: 10.17140/EPOJ-7-e003 Would any among us have thought something as simple our vitality and progress than on most days we will admit and that as a pandemic would have so many domino effects? Hopefully, they deserve great care, planning, cooperation, and going forward some will cease by this publication, but others…may they teach us together, not as isolated groups or institutions or economies or things that may seem unrelated or independent are far from that geographies.
and that perhaps, the health of the planet plays a far larger role in