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(1) Researchers at the University of Toronto (David Fishman and Asleigh Tuite) developed an online simulation using global infection data to show how early control measures can slow the spread of Coronavirus.
(2) Washington Post Simulation of Coronavirus Spread: www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
How is the impact of the pandemic in the U.S. or Canada likely to differ from the impact in China or Italy?
- Coronavirus: Three reasons why the UK might not look like Italy - . BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51858987
- Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19. Authors: Jennifer Beam Dowd*, Valentina Rotondi, Liliana Andriano, David M. Brazel, Per Block, Xuejie Ding, Yan Liu, Melinda C. Mills* Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford & Nuffield College, UK. https://osf.io/fd4rh/?view_only=c2f00dfe3677493faa421fc2ea38e295
How will this virus act after initial shelter-in-place restrictions seem to have worked?
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- ‘We need to be alert’: Scientists fear second coronavirus wave as China’s lockdowns ease. Nature.com.
Coronavirus vs. other pandemics
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Ask students to look up and compare news coverage of Coronavirus in different languages they speak, or in countries with which they are familiar
Conduct a discourse analysis of news coverage in English from different continents (such as Al-Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, India Today, France24, Hong Kong Free Press)
Have students explore the results of mis-information and information suppression. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00920-w?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=09c7da52c4-briefing-dy-20200331&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-09c7da52c4-43968837
Libraries historically play an important role in society as locations where people can gather and where information is freely available. What role do libraries play during a pandemic such as COVID-19?
Librarians often assert that “information wants to be free.” How does the wide availability of materials that had hitherto been behind firewalls work for or against such an assertion?
As scientists and researchers share their work across borders in an effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic, they seem to be pushing through previously established barriers. Given this sharing of information and global cooperation, what might the “new normal” of information availability look like?
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Ask students to compare the 1918 Spanish Flu with the Coronavirus pandemic. A number of articles have been circulating in the media, such as:
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/health/coronavirus-is-very-different-from-the-spanish-flu-of- 1918-heres-how.html
www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-pandemic-response-citiesCoronavirus Is Very Different From the Spanish Flu of 1918. Here's How. New York Times.
How U.S. Cities Tried to Halt the Spread of the 1918 Spanish Flu. History.com.
Ask students to explore the impact of pandemics on ancient civilizations
Discuss the connection between pandemics and colonization
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Hospitals in particularly “hot spots” are overwhelmed by population needs. Architecturally, many hospitals are unprepared for this level of need. As a result, we hear stories about people being treated in hallways, inadequate quarantine areas for healthcare workers, and hospitals storing bodies in churches (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8162847/Coffins-Italys-churches-halls-death-toll-soars-969-single-day.html; https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/italian- churches-being-used-store-bodies-amid-coronavirus-outbreak) or refrigerator trucks (https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/fema-sending-refrigerated- trucks-to-new-york-city-for-covid-19-bodies/). What architectural changes might you imagine in a post-COVID-19 hospital building? How will these changes help? What immediate solutions might you suggest?
Families are having to shelter-in-place, some in apartments or flats that don’t allow for much privacy for studying or working. What immediate solutions might you suggest? What architectural changes might you imagine in a post-COVID-19 residential building to address the possibility of repeated outbreaks?
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Discussion of individual freedom vs. imposed self-isolation for the good of the community
Comparing the approach different countries have taken to limit the spread of the pandemic (ask students to find resources and post online)
Ethical issues involved in limiting the movement of individuals
Ethical dilemmas involved when there isn’t sufficient capacity in hospitals to treat all patients
Ethical issues involved when hospitals run out of equipment to protect their medical staff
Ethical issues in research during global health emergencies: www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/research-in-global-health-emergencies
How do you see the principles of civic society in action during a pandemic?
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How have artists responded to previous epidemics/pandemics? How might these responses suggest ways that artists could respond to COVID-19? What innovations might we see?
Many artists are turning to their artistic mediums as ways to support broad global communities during COVID-19 (e.g. Patrick Stewart; Yo-Yo Ma; virtual choirs; actors and writers reading books aloud). Moreover, many artists are choosing to return to works that emerged during periods of tremendous world change. Why those works? Why is the work of art important now? Why will this work be important in a post-COVID-19 world?
Eric Whitacre imagined a virtual choir in 2013 (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs). How do virtual choirs during COVID-19 build on his work? How does the imagination required for art prepare communities, perhaps the world, for future developments?
How might a sculptor, painter, ceramicist, jeweler, or textile artist imagine a response to COVID-19?
Consider historical artistic responses to the Black Death (https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/plague-in-art-10-paintings-coronavirus/). What do these response suggest about ways that artists respond to epidemics? Pandemics?
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