Even though SARS-CoV-2 is still around, the Australian government has stopped use of the COVIDSafe app. Was it an abject failure, and what lessons can we learn from this exercise?
Students with disability continue to face dire exclusion in education and there is an urgent need to provide inclusive education for them.
Predictions about the death of globalization were, in hindsight, grossly exaggerated. Recovery efforts took hold early compared to two other major economic crises of the past 100 years, suggesting global trade is much more resilient than anticipated.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 could be used as a building block in the future to reinforce international co-operation and strengthen the pillars of globalization.
How do you prove that people have been vaccinated without putting their privacy at risk? The technology and best practices to make it happen exist. It’s far from clear, however, if they’re being used.
Grief is inevitable, and its effects on individuals, communities and populations need to be recognized and addressed.
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The Canadian government needs to develop a national grief strategy to address the needs of its citizens during and after the pandemic.
Exposure notification systems alert people when they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus but don’t record the information.
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Bluetooth wireless communication makes it possible to track when people have been exposed to people infected with the coronavirus. The right cryptography scheme keeps alerts about exposures private.
New Zealand has joined a long list of countries using Google and Apple’s mobile contact tracing framework. But if it’s not compatible with Australia’s app, what does that mean for travellers?
In order to contain a deadly virus, the COVID Alert app needs to go viral.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Ironically, to encourage people to download the COVID Alert app, we need viral processes as we attempt to contain an actual virus. And that’s a challenge when we’re socially isolated.
Low income workers are suffering much more than high income ones. It’s a pattern that dates back millennia.
South Africa’s finance minister Tito Mboweni says the IMF loan will limit the country’s economic vulnerabilities which have been exacerbated by COVID-19.
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The IMF loan does not impose any conditions over and above what is in South African law on how the funds can be used; it only seems to expect the country to implement policies already announced.
South Korea’s success in containing COVID-19 came at the price of sacrificing privacy.
AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
COVIDSafe uses Bluetooth radio waves. These can only measure how physically close two people are, but not if those people are in the same room, or even in different cars passing each other.
The federal government has announced a stepped approach to relaxing social distancing measures. What they haven’t said is how high they’ll allow the curve to rise.
From conflicts with specialised medical devices, through to unresolved problems with iPhone functionality, COVIDSafe is in need of updates. A major one may come within the next few weeks.