The year 2020 has been a roller coaster of a year. From the online spread of conspiracy theories about the origin of coronavirus to China’s struggle to flatten the misinformation curve on COVID-19, and the global race to find an effective coronavirus vaccine, here’s a recap of our most-read cover stories and interviews that shaped 2020.
Deepika Khurana
The year 2020 has seen the outbreak of a new coronavirus, a major global health crisis that changed the way we live, our social interactions, and most of all, our perception and attitude towards health and well-being.
With the head of the World Health Organization unveiling the name of the new disease as COVID-19 on February 11, a whole slew of words like lock-down, quarantine, home isolation, and flatting the curve became part of our conversations, and at the same time, terms like asymptomatic, zoonosis, super-spreader and predictive models dominated our headlines.
As the year draws to a close, here’s a recap of our most popular cover stories and interviews that shaped 2020.
1. China’s struggle with COVID-19 data
The COVID-19 pandemic originated in the Wuhan province of China. While the country reported the number of corona cases and deaths on a daily basis, there has been considerable skepticism toward China’s reported numbers, both outside and within the country. In fact, the lack of reliable timely information also gave rise to misinformation.
Data journalists at Health Analytics Asia analysed over 6 million records of legal trade in wildlife and found that China’s attempts to curb wildlife trade in the aftermath of SARS-CoV in 2003 were short-lived. On the contrary, the volume of wild animals traded; even legally, has only increased, and popular hosts of zoonotic diseases continue to be traded despite recurring outbreaks of novel zoonotic viruses.
3.In graphs: China’s deserted airports due to COVID-19 outbreak
Owing to COVID-19 outbreak, air traffic at China’s busiest airports plummeted by more than 80 percent, since the beginning of the year. In fact, the drop-in air travel in China, and the continuous spread of coronavirus is expected to have an impact on the global aviation market as well. As per the International Air Transport Association estimates, it could cost airlines more than $29 billion in revenue.
4. Missing COVID-19 deaths in India
With the COVID-19 toll soaring across India, there has been a major debate about India’s reported missing COVID-19 deaths. As per several reports, the country of 1.5 billion people is underreporting the COVID-19 deaths and thus presenting a low fatality rate picture in the public domain.
5. COVID-19 hit cancer research, clinical trials globally
Right from the lab work and clinical trials to the grants and funding, for the scientists or researchers working on cancer research, everything has come to a screeching halt since the outbreak of the COVID-19. Read our report.
6. “Superbugs are potentially the next big health challenge“
In an exclusive interview with Health Analytics Asia, Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, a pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India and head of the country’s leading biotechnology enterprise, Biocon shared her views on the future of healthcare in India, the potential threat of the next pandemic, and global concern about medical misinformation.
7.Next steps in health — where can AI take us?
COVID-19’s global impact has accelerated the adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare, with Medtech companies and governments laying the groundwork for a data-driven future. Whether this will translate into the timely prediction of future outbreaks, better diagnosis, faster drug development, and efficient care is the billion-dollar question.
8. COVID-19 to unlock India’s potential as a global supplier of essential drugs and vaccines
As the world continues to battle the deadly COVID-19 virus alongside the economic crisis and healthcare crisis, Dr. Vasan Sambandamurthy, the Chief Executive Officer of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance admits that India with its talent pool of researchers is well placed to establish a world-class biomedical research ecosystem in the country.
9. Coronavirus Outbreak: How an epidemic of misinformation spreads on China’s WeChat
From rumours and unscientific claims to dubious health advice and conspiracy theories, China’s most popular messaging platform, WeChat is infested with misinformation related to Coronavirus. The Tencent-owned app with now one billion monthly active users, has taken some measures to fight medical misinformation but the scale of the problem is overwhelming.
10. “In India, research in medicine is viewed as a luxury“
Rotavirus – a highly contagious virus is a common cause of diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children and is responsible for the death of 80,000 to 100,000 children every year in the country. India’s vaccine Godmother, virologist Dr. Gagandeep Kang gets candid about the effectiveness of Indian vaccines, lack of research funding, the role of teamwork in research, and the problem of fake news in science.
The post Health Analytics Asia : 10 most popular cover stories of 2020 appeared first on Health Analytics Asia.
