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Israel reinstated contact-tracing activities by the Israel Security Agency to track carriers of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Five days later, it halted the ISA’s contact-tracing activities, due to a lack of parliamentary support.
A proposed coronavirus commission could provide a fuller picture of the government’s response to the pandemic. But its success depends on how it is staffed.
India, now the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, is wrestling with what is likely its greatest crisis since Partition. This post walks through the various factors that led the world’s largest democracy from confidence to chaos.
The United States’s track record in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has been awful. Yet the success of its vaccine development efforts shows that when it comes to biotechnology, the U.S. outpaces China and other rivals.
Far fewer coronavirus-related lawsuits have been filed against China in the past few months than previously, an ebb that may reflect any one of several good reasons why would-be plaintiffs would want to wait before bringing a case.
In an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, the Biden administration has articulated policy directives supporting protective measures such as mask wearing, social distancing and other science-based public health responses. Here, we are compiling selected executive actions taken by President Biden to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Many have discussed the shortcomings of contract-tracing apps during the pandemic. The real problem is the lack of adequate social and public health infrastructure in the U.S.
Around the world, spies are being used to respond to the pandemic by collecting information and equipment, engaging in information warfare, and exploiting contact-tracing platforms.
COVID-19 apps in the United States have been ineffective as public health tools because they are designed primarily to protect privacy. Poor design choices, effectively mandated by Google and Apple, were driven by ongoing consumer privacy and national security debates that shortsightedly rejected tracking technologies.
Inherent technical limitations mean that contact-tracing apps, at best, play a relatively small public health role and, at worst, risk doing more harm than good.