This book discusses the science behind pandemics and their effects. The chapters examine the deadliest pandemics in history, explain how these diseases spread so quickly, and show how scientists are working to prevent and contain future disease outbreaks. Diagrams, charts, and photos provide opportunities to evaluate and understand the scientific concepts involved.

This book highlights the overview of the COVID-19 pandemic from both the scientific and the social perspectives. The scientific part presents key facts of COVID-19, including the structure of the virus and the techniques for the diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine development against the disease, covering state-of-the-art findings and achievements worldwide. The social part is written by WHO professionals who worked on the frontier of the fight against the disease. It covers the global security situation during the pandemic, the WHO and governmental-level risk management measures, and the estimated impact that COVID-19 will eventually create on social life after it is globally controlled.

This book is a fresh and readable account of the Covid-19 pandemic and how scientists and medical doctors are helping governments to manage the crisis. The book contains interviews and exchanges with dozens of scientists, doctors, experts, government representatives, and journalists. Why do some of the most scientifically advanced countries have the highest Covid-19 mortality? During the pandemic, the research community has been at the heart of—and actor in—a global scandal. Why has science failed? With the help of numerous testimonies from China, France, the UK and the USA in particular, the book provides an insider’s view on this major crisis. Although the governments of these countries based their Covid-19 strategy on science, scientists failed to have a decisive influence on decision-makers—except in China—, which created genuine “time bombs.” The accelerated development of vaccines does not erase past months’ errors. The crisis led to the development of “science politics” at an unprecedented rate. More worryingly, experts themselves acknowledge that they did not rise to the challenge. Covid-19 also highlighted the weakness of democratic regimes and the power of technocapitalism. Countries pulled down their blinds, locked their doors, and promoted national approaches rather than international cooperation. The author proposes to set up an international framework on health risk to co-construct decision-making. He advocates political distancing in order to put the basics first: develop science, fight ignorance.

COVID-19 has taken the entire world by storm. Many of the smartest people on Earth have been working to find treatments, a vaccine, and ultimately, a cure. So what exactly is COVID-19? What is a "coronavirus"? Where did the disease come from? How do you know if you have it? How is it treated? How do you stop yourself from getting it or passing it on to others? Learn all about the answers to these questions, and one more question on everyone's mind: When and how will the world go back to normal?

How can we keep up with the deluge of information about COVID-19 and tell which parts are most important and trustworthy?We read: 'Scientists recommend', 'Experts warn', 'A new model predicts'. How do scientific experts come up with their recommendations? What do their predictions really mean for us, for our friends, and our families?How can we make rational decisions? And how can we have sensible conversations about the pandemic when we disagree?These are the questions that this book is trying to address.It is written in the form of dialogues. Alice, a student of epidemiology, explains the science to three of her fellow students who have a lot of questions for her. The students have the same concerns that we all share to varying degrees: What the pandemic is doing to our health, our economy, and our cherished freedoms. In their conversations, they discover how the science relates to these questions.The book focuses on epidemiology, the science of how infections spread and how the spread can be mitigated. The science of how many infections can be prevented by certain kinds of actions. This is what we need to understand if we want to act wisely, as individuals and as a society.The author's goal is to help the reader think about the COVID-19 pandemic like an epidemiologist. About the various preventive measures, what they are trying to accomplish, what the obstacles are. About what is likely to be most effective in the long run at moderate economic and personal cost. About the likely consequences of personal decisions. About how to best protect oneself and others while allowing all of us to lead lives that are as close as possible to normal.While some chapters present slightly more advanced material than others, no scientific background is needed to follow the conversations. The technical concepts are explained in small steps and the occasional calculations in the book require only high-school mathematics.Related Link(s)

This reader offers some of the most important writing to date from the science of COVID-19 and what science says about its spread and social implications. The readings have been carefully selected, introduced, and interpreted for an introductory or graduate student readership by a distinguished medical sociology and political science team. While some of the early science was inaccurate, lacking sufficient data, or otherwise incomplete, the author team has selected the most important and reliable early work for teachers and students in courses on medical sociology, public health, nursing, infectious diseases, epidemiology, anthropology of medicine, sociology of health and illness, social aspects of medicine, comparative health systems, health policy and management, health behaviors, and community health. Global in scope, the book tells the story of what happened and how COVID-19 was dealt with. Much of this material is in clinical journals, normally not considered in the social sciences, which are nonetheless informative and authoritative for student and faculty readers. Their selection and interpretation for students makes this concise reader an essential teaching source about COVID-19. An accompanying online resource on the book’s Routledge web page will update and evolve by providing links to new readings as the science develops.

Learn more about how people communicate during crises with this insightful collection of resources In Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 Pandemic, distinguished academics and editors H. Dan O’Hair and Mary John O’Hair have delivered an insightful collection of resources designed to shed light on the implications of attempting to communicate science to the public in times of crisis. Using the recent and ongoing coronavirus outbreak as a case study, the authors explain how to balance scientific findings with social and cultural issues, the ability of media to facilitate science and mitigate the impact of adverse events, and the ethical repercussions of communication during unpredictable, ongoing events. The first volume in a set of two, Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 Pandemic isolates a particular issue or concern in each chapter and exposes the difficult choices and processes facing communicators in times of crisis or upheaval. The book connects scientific issues with public policy and creates a coherent fabric across several communication studies and disciplines. The subjects addressed include: A detailed background discussion of historical medical crises and how they were handled by the scientific and political communities of the time Cognitive and emotional responses to communications during a crisis Social media communication during a crisis, and the use of social media by authority figures during crises Communications about health care-related subjects Data strategies undertaken by people in authority during the coronavirus crisis Perfect for communication scholars and researchers who focus on media and communication, Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 Pandemic also has a place on the bookshelves of those who specialize in particular aspects of the contexts raised in each of the chapters: social media communication, public policy, and health care.