scholarly journals The Ethics of Speculative Anticipation and the Covid-19 Pandemic

Hypatia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-236
Author(s):  
Catherine Kendig ◽  
Wenda K. Bauchspies
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Ethical Frameworks ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ethical Thinking ◽  
To Come ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone, a statement that is true by definition, yet woefully unhelpful in our understanding of it and its effects today and in the future. Thus we find ourselves in a moment unprepared for the fast-approaching, unanticipated future. Under stable conditions, we might operate with a “good working model of an anticipated ‘future’” to speculate on our preparedness for the possible (Adams, Murphy, and Clarke 2009, 247). Or we may speculate in order to reimagine social relations within new ethical frameworks (Jones 2015). We anticipate what we imagine and envision as possible (Adams, Murphy, and Clarke 2009). We are writing and thinking about this not under stable conditions, but in the early moments of the COVID-19 pandemic when anticipation of and speculation about what is to come is being challenged and contradicted daily in the news cycle by government officials, experts, and everyday citizens. Our thinking, as well as this contribution to the scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis, is defined by an ineluctable tension about what is and what might be. In this musing, we attempt to flesh out just one aspect of the COVID-19 crisis: the anticipatory and speculative nature of COVID-19 thinking. We direct our attention during this time of crisis to how different forms of ethical thinking are joining up, interweaving, and braiding. By framing ethics in the context of anticipation, our aim is to capture threads of anticipation and speculation that may be used to tether attempts to create the future with, after, or beyond the novel coronavirus and/or the next crisis.

scholarly journals Belonging in the Coronaverse: Will There Be Time?

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-115
Author(s):  
Kate Fischer ◽  
Malika Rakhmonova ◽  
Mike Tran
Keyword(s):  
College Experience ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Residential University ◽  
To Come ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
University Experience ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Older Siblings

Abstract Since the spring of 2020 SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus, has upended lives and caused a rethinking of nearly all social behaviors in the United States. This paper examines the ways in which the pandemic, shutdown, and gradual move towards “normal” have laid bare and obfuscated societal pressures regarding running out of time as it pertains to the residential university experience. Promised by movies, television, and older siblings and friends as a limited-time offer, the “typical” college experience is baked into the U.S. imaginary, reinforcing a host of notions of who “belongs” on campus along lines of race, class, and age. Fed a vision of what their whole lives “should be”, students who enter a residential four-year college are already imbued with a nostalgia for what is yet to come, hailed, in Althusser’s (2006[1977]) sense, as university subjects even before their first class. The upheaval of that subjecthood during the pandemic has raised important questions about the purpose of the college experience as well as how to belong to a place that is no longer there.

scholarly journals Working in the world of the pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-102
Author(s):  
Luke Tredinnick ◽  
Claire Laybats
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Information Professionals ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Way

This paper compiles a series of responses from key information professionals to the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Respondents were invited to answer the questions how the pandemic has impacted on their work, and how it might change the way of working in the future. Contributors to the article include Scott Brown, Steve Dale, Denise Carter, Alison Day, Hal Kirkwood and Emily Hopkins.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the future of microfinance: evidence and insights from Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S138-S168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kashif Malik ◽  
Muhammad Meki ◽  
Jonathan Morduch ◽  
Timothy Ogden ◽  
Simon Quinn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Commercial Banks ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Rapid Response ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Loan Officers ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods, and, with that, has created immediate challenges for institutions that serve affected communities. We focus on implications for local microfinance institutions in Pakistan, a country with a mature microfinance sector, serving a large number of households. The institutions serve populations poorly-served by traditional commercial banks, helping customers invest in microenterprises, save, and maintain liquidity. We report results from ‘rapid response’ phone surveys of about 1,000 microenterprise owners, a survey of about 200 microfinance loan officers, and interviews with regulators and senior representatives of microfinance institutions. We ran these surveys starting about a week after the country went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. We find that, on average, week-on-week sales and household income both fell by about 90 per cent. Households’ primary immediate concern in early April became how to secure food. As a result, 70 per cent of the sample of current microfinance borrowers reported that they could not repay their loans; loan officers anticipated a repayment rate of just 34 per cent in April 2020. We build from the results to argue that COVID-19 represents a crisis for microfinance in low-income communities. It is also a chance to consider the future of microfinance, and we suggest insights for policy reform.

scholarly journals Preparation for Quarantine on the Cruise Ship Diamond Princess in Japan due to COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Yamahata ◽  
Ayako Shibata
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cruise Ship ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Ventilator Support ◽  
Cruise Ships ◽  
Asymptomatic Patients ◽  
The Future ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

BACKGROUND Japan implemented a large-scale quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in an attempt to control the spread of the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in February 2020. OBJECTIVE We aim to describe the medical activities initiated and difficulties in implementing quarantine on a cruise ship. METHODS Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for SARS-CoV-2 were performed for all 3711 people (2666 passengers and 1045 crew) on board. RESULTS Of those tested, 696 (18.8%) tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), of which 410 (58.9%) were asymptomatic. We also confirmed that 54% of the asymptomatic patients with a positive RT-PCR result had lung opacities on chest computed tomography. There were many difficulties in implementing quarantine, such as creating a dividing traffic line between infectious and noninfectious passengers, finding hospitals and transportation providers willing to accept these patients, transporting individuals, language barriers, and supporting daily life. As of March 8, 2020, 31 patients (4.5% of patients with positive RT-PCR results) were hospitalized and required ventilator support or intensive care, and 7 patients (1.0% of patients with positive RT-PCR results) had died. CONCLUSIONS There were several difficulties in implementing large-scale quarantine and obtaining medical support on the cruise ship. In the future, we need to prepare for patients’ transfer and the admitting hospitals when disembarking the passengers. We recommend treating the crew the same way as the passengers to control the infection. We must also draw a plan for the future, to protect travelers and passengers from emerging infectious diseases on cruise ships.

scholarly journals Predicting a Pandemic: testing crowd wisdom and expert forecasting amidst the novel COVID-19 outbreak

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil O. W. Kirkegaard ◽  
Wael Taji ◽  
Arjen Gerritsen
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Crowd Wisdom ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Individual

Taking countermeasures to protect against future events requires predicting what the future will be like. In late 2019, a novel coronavirus known as NCov-2019 emerged in Wuhan, China, and has since spread to most countries in the world. Anticipatory responses by civilians facing the crisis have included self-isolation measures, extreme stockpiling of food or medical supplies, and other forms of preparation to meet the expected crisis. However, no consensus exists as to the accuracy of civilian expectations, nor toward the relative value of different informational sources used by citizens to build these expectations (e.g. mainstream news as opposed to an educational background in virology). In the present study, we used an online survey (n = 333 in final sample) to collect individual characteristics and general knowledge regarding viruses and the novel coronavirus, in addition to their forecasts for the various outcomes expected to result from it in the near future. This will allow for the individual correlates of accurate forecasting to be known by 2021, which could prove important for assigning relative weights to forecasts for other events in the future.

scholarly journals Patient and Provider Experience With Cystic Fibrosis Telemedicine Clinic

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalen Hendra ◽  
Fatima Neemuchwala ◽  
Marilynn Chan ◽  
Ngoc P. Ly ◽  
Elizabeth R. Gibb
Keyword(s):  
Cystic Fibrosis ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Telemedicine Technology ◽  
The Future ◽  
Provider Experience ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Question Survey

In response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, all in-person cystic fibrosis (CF) appointments were converted to telemedicine visits at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. The purpose of our study was to learn about the experiences that patients, families, and providers had with telemedicine visits and to assess their interest in using telemedicine in the future. Our hypothesis was that most patients, families, and providers want to continue telemedicine visits in the future. An anonymous 11-question survey was distributed to patients, families, and providers in November and December 2020. The survey was completed by 46 of 72 families (64% response rate) and 24 of 25 providers (96% response rate). Thirty-seven families (80%) and 21 providers (88%) were satisfied with their telemedicine experience. Thirty-three families (72%) want to have telemedicine visits in the future. Thirty-five families (76%) and 22 providers (92%) were satisfied with their experience using Zoom. Forty families (87%) and 19 providers (90%) want 2 or more visits each year to be via telemedicine. Our study showed that most families and providers were satisfied with telemedicine, would like to continue using telemedicine, and prefer to have at least 2 of the 4 recommended annual CF visits via telemedicine. Our survey identified the following benefits to telemedicine: decreased travel time, decreased cost, and avoiding exposure to COVID. However, we need to ensure that we do not exacerbate existing health disparities for families that do not speak English and/or do not have the internet capabilities to support telemedicine technology.

scholarly journals Covid-19, Fourth industrial revolution and the future of elections in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Joseph Olusegun Adebayo ◽  
Blessing Makwambeni ◽  
Colin Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
The Future ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Initial Focus ◽  
The Way

The initial focus of this study was on exploring the potential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) on future elections in Africa. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and relate to one another. In its scale and complexity, 4IR could change humanity and human existence as we presently know it. The suddenness with which the novel coronavirus pandemic has shut down life across the globe, including the cancellation and postponement of scheduled elections, led to a realignment of the research goals. The study thus includes ways in which 4IR and unforeseen global emergencies like pandemics can impact future elections, with specific reference to Africa.

scholarly journals Making Sense of Pandemic COVID-19 and its Affect(abilities) in the Indian Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Abhisek Ghosal
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
The Third ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The Government ◽  
To Come ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Restrictive Measures

This article seeks to reflect on pandemic COVID-19 and its diverse affect(abilities) in the context of India. After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in India, the government resorted to a number of restrictive measures including quarantine, lockdown, self-isolation, and self-monitoring in order to contain the rapid spread of the new virus. This article argues that the pandemic has rendered “historical ruptures” to the world at large, and seeks to examine how it has affected the ‘usual’ ways of living of marginalised people in India, including how migrant labourers have had to strive to come to terms with the dreadful consequences of the pandemic. Furthermore, this article puts into focus how certain governmental measures are brought into effect to check the affect(abilities) of COVID-19. In order to elaborate on these affect(abilities) certain critical philosophical standpoints are drawn. In the opening section, bio-philosophical nuances of illness are expounded. These are followed, in the second section, by a discussion of neuroeconomical aspects of these affect(abilities). In the third section, theoretical notions of potentiality, singularity, and transpolitical becomings are examined through Continental philosophies. Finally, particularities of the Indian context are critically elucidated in the context of affect(abilities) of pandemic COVID-19.

scholarly journals ANALISIS SENTIMEN PANDEMI COVID19 PADA STREAMING TWITTER DENGAN TEXT MINING PYTHON

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Anni Karimatul Fauziyyah
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Data Streaming ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Community Behavior ◽  
N Gram ◽  
To Come ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is widespread and will likely shape community behavior for months to come. And while the humanitarian and safety-related aspects of this outbreak are top of mind globally, it’s unquestionable that social distancing, quarantining, and staying home will have a significant effect on media consumption, which could rise up to 60%, according to recent research from Nielsen’s U.S. media team.  Social media, now a part of everyday life for most consumers engaged with the world digitally, became the primary source for buzz about all things COVID-19 as worries and news intensified. Sentiment analysis is applied in this study to analyze the opinions, feelings, and interests of individuals in the COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to analyze sentiment based on an opinion by classifying individual feelings such as sadness, happiness, or panic in facing a COVID-19 into sentiment level that is negative, positive or, neutral. In this paper, an open-source approach is presented where we have collected tweets from the Twitter API and then reprocessing, analyzing and, visualizing these tweets using python. Furthermore, Twitter data streaming will be processed and cleaned to parse data that can be classified based on opinion with a text mining algorithm using text blob Python. Feature extraction is done for the relationship between words by the Bigram and N-gram methods.

Unsafe at home: the increased trend of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Jahid
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Purpose The pandemic situation has increased the domestic violence rate against women and children significantly around the world. However, it is difficult to measure the accurate rate of increased domestic violence because of restrictions and limited mobility in accessing help and reporting. This paper aims to highlight the current situation of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and domestic violence in Bangladesh. It also states the challenges of the unprecedented situation and how to encounter increasing domestic violence cases. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a viewpoint of the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic violence situation in Bangladesh. Accordingly, this paper includes a comprehensive literature review that summarises related articles and newspapers on domestic violence. Findings Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to COVID-19 because of its most dense population. Currently, the COVID-19 virus is spreading rapidly in all parts of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing domestic violence for women and girls. Because of the lockdown, financial stress and livelihood scarcity, domestic violence rates show an increasing tendency that should not be overlooked to ensure the safety and security of women and girls in Bangladesh. Originality/value This paper delivers information about the current situation of COVID-19 in Bangladesh and the challenges of domestic violence that have risen. This paper will be helpful to policymakers, government and non-government officials for developing effective social safety net interventions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document