Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and successful societies. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI)—launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project—is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. The HCI is a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use will guide pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover lost ground. Ambitious, evidence-driven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them.

Coronavirus Drug Discovery, Volume 1: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment is the first of three volumes presenting comprehensive information on drug discovery against COVID-19. This volume provides background information on the genesis of COVID-19, the epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, and mutagenesis. It also presents the various treatment options, drug discovery opportunities and vaccine developmental processes. Written by global team of experts from key institutions across the globe, this book is recommended to all concerned agencies, private research firms, and consortiums working on finding a solution to COVID-19 and its variants. By design, this book will be useful to drug developers, medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, health experts, researchers, students and faculty members in industry and academia. - Presents information on the genesis of COVID-19, global impact and collaborative efforts - Details the epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, and mutagenesis of SARS-CoV-2 - Documents the various treatment options and vaccine development for COVID-19

Makes economics stick. Meets students where they are.

In May 2023, WHO declared that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency of international concern. In 2024, COVID-19 certainly has not gone away, but we can now take a more reflective look at the pandemic. This issue of the ERS Monograph does just that, bringing together a truly international group of experts, as befits a global illness, to consider areas such as: long-term sequelae in airway disease, interstitial lung disease, and in the immunocompromised; therapeutics in the community, in hospital and in the intensive care unit; and the pathophysiology and management of long COVID. The Guest Editors also consider the impact of COVID-19 on clinical research and scientific publishing, as well as looking to the future, considering what can be learnt from the pandemic.

The COVID-19 Pandemic will be seen as having had a profound effect on how we live and work, as well its economic and health repercussions. But it also brought ethical issues and challenges into focus, from ‘Fake News’ to issues of individual freedom. This edited collection addresses these issues and others, including vaccine distribution, incentivization, administration, and mandates; the unprecedented challenges faced by healthcare workers; crisis communication and response conundrums: and societal burdens. This is a companion book to Ethical Implications of COVID-19 Management: Evaluating the Aftershock, also published by Ethics International Press.

IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Enables Readers to Understand the Impact of International Legislative and Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic The wide array of legal and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have significant implications regarding the functioning of countries and their respective societies. This book addresses the impact of international legislative and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a range of countries. To aid the reader in understanding country-specific developments, each chapter focuses on a specific country and addresses the legal frameworks and policy approaches used to support measures to prevent transmission and otherwise reduce the impact of the virus on society and the economy. Sample topics discussed in the work include: The effect certain policies may have on civil liberties, such as due process, and the right to privacy in specific countries The provision of public goods in the face of the pandemic Policymakers in public health agencies and other branches of government, along with academics studying global pandemic response, homeland security, and emergency management will be able to use this book as a comprehensive resource to understand the current state of COVID-19 policies around the world and the potential future effects of these policies.

In this book, leading social researchers from Australia, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and USA discuss the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic in their respective countries. They explore socio-cultural, health, economic and educational aspects of people’s lives, and governments’ policies and programmes. Their analyses show how coronavirus infects indiscriminately and impacts discriminately, particularly the disadvantaged and marginalized groups. The pandemic exposes hidden health inequalities and calls for structural changes. It significantly contributes to lessons learned from the pandemic and the understanding of implications for community and social development. The book is a useful resource for further research and action, and policies and programmes to fight the pandemic and support people and communities with care and compassion.

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)

The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions discusses COVID-19 as the first pandemic in the Internet era and our current reality of continuous reports, news, and updates. Since its beginning, we were daily bombarded with news of what was happening around the world. There was no global political leadership. The United States was politically partially paralyzed. Russia and China hoped to gain diplomatic profile worldwide, but their vaccines are of limited efficacy, and trust in their clinical data is rightly low. The European Union did not order enough vaccines in time, but sued a large manufacturer for delivery delays. Now it is setting up yet another bureaucratic institution. At least the pharmaceutical or life science industry paved the way out, but is not enthusiastically praised for it. It would be too easy and superficial to blame mistakes of governments and leaders on stupidity. Idiocy exists, but we have to go deeper to understand how illusions and blind spots in today's common perception and science, inertia, arrogance, conflicts of interest, competition of individuals, and states and institutions for public recognition have contributed to a multitude of flawed assessments and direct mistakes. Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in an in-depth understanding of humankind's response to the COVID-19 challenge will not get around the key conclusions of this book. - Outlines key elements of modern civilization, public health, and drug and vaccine development on the background of the COVID-19 pandemic - Discusses the historical roots of separate drug approval of vaccines and drugs in administratively classified "children" (of whom many are bodily mature long before their 16th or 18th birthday), and why the belated approval of vaccines against COVID-19 in minors is not based on science, but on blurs and conflicts of interest - Outlines key elements we need to address to become better prepared for future global health challenges. In the first place, we do not need new institutions, but to overcome intellectual barriers and blind spots