Lessons for Epidemic Emergency Policy: A Scoping Review of Ebola and COVID-19 Pandemics in Africa

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks in Central and West Africa 2013-2020 were the deadliest, most intense and most widely spread. On top of this, the novel Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has given us all a new experience. It is imperative to draw lessons to prepare for future disease outbreaks. This was a scoping review, a method that allows the assessment of emerging evidence. The objectives of the review were to 1) describe the manifestation of the epidemics;2) elaborate on the social and economic effects;3) characterize the responses;and 4) draw lessons. The findings show that Ebola risk is permanent and even increasing. The next COVID-19 epidemic is around the corner. For Africa, the situation has been made worse by poverty and fragility of institutions. Africa’s incapacity to manufacture its own vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and protective wear has been detrimental in the management of epidemics. The need for personal and home hygiene has been emphatically brought to attention. The trust in the government and other agencies is the cornerstone in the management of emergencies. The use of armed soldiers should be discouraged, for they scare people from seeking help. It is much better to use trusted local leaders instead of strangers during pandemic emergencies. Understanding the local politics without getting involved in them is essential. It is critical to understand community and individual perception of the risk of the disease in question. Often neglected is the psycho-social aspect, which should be planned early. The science of response measures ought to be explained simply and transparently, as part of risk communication. Emergency funds should be raised, and made easy and quick to disburse. Mechanisms of sharing health technologies and knowledge need to be devised under the UN. People centeredness ought to guide the conduct of trans-border movements and all transactions during pandemics.

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on urban park visitation:a global analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 33 million confirmed cases and over 1 million deaths globally,as of 1 October 2020.During the lockdown and restrictions placed on public activities and gatherings,green spaces have become one of the only sources of resilience amidst the coronavirus pandemic,in part because of their positive effects on psychological,physical and social cohesion and spiritual wellness.This study analyzes the impacts of COVID-19 and government response policies to the pandemic on park visitation at global,regional and national levels and assesses the importance of parks during this global pandemic.The data we collected primarily from Google’s Community Mobility Reports and the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker.The results for most countries included in the analysis show that park visitation has increased since February 16th,2020 compared to visitor numbers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Restrictions on social gathering,movement,and the closure of workplace and indoor recreational places,are correlated with more visits to parks.Stay-at-home restrictions and government stringency index are negatively associated with park visits at a global scale.Demand from residents for parks and outdoor green spaces has increased since the outbreak began,and highlights the important role and benefits provided by parks,especially urban and community parks,under the COVID-19 pandemic.We provide recommendations for park managers and other decision-makers in terms of park management and planning during health crises,as well as for park design and development.In particular,parks could be utilized during pandemics to increase the physical and mental health and social well-being of individuals.

Response surface modeling-based source contribution analysis and VOC emission control policy assessment in a typical ozone-polluted urban Shunde,China

To develop a sound ozone（O_3） pollution control strategy,it is important to well understand and characterize the source contribution due to the complex chemical and physical formation processes of O_3.Using the ＂Shunde＂ city as a pilot summer case study,we apply an innovative response surface modeling（RSM） methodology based on the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality（CMAQ） modeling simulations to identify the O_3 regime and provide dynamic analysis of the precursor contributions to effectively assess the O_3 impacts of volatile organic compound（VOC） control strategy.Our results show that Shunde is a typical VOC-limited urban O_3 polluted city.The ＂Jiangmen＂ city,as the main upper wind area during July 2014,its VOCs and nitrogen oxides（NO_x） emissions make up the largest contribution（9.06%）.On the contrary,the contribution from local（Shunde） emission is lowest（6.35%） among the seven neighbor regions.The local VOCs industrial source emission has the largest contribution comparing to other precursor emission sectors in Shunde.The results of dynamic source contribution analysis further show that the local NO_x control could slightly increase the ground O_3 under low（10.00%） and medium（40.00%）reduction ratios,while it could start to turn positive to decrease ground O_3 under the high NO_x abatement ratio（75.00%）.The real-time assessment of O_3 impacts from VOCs control strategies in Pearl River Delta（PRD） shows that the joint regional VOCs emission control policy will effectively reduce the ground O_3 concentration in Shunde.

Development and case study of a science-based software platform to support policy making on air quality

This article describes the development and implementations of a novel software platform that supports real-time, science-based policy making on air quality through a user-friendly interface. The software, RSM-VAT, uses a response surface modeling（RSM） methodology and serves as a visualization and analysis tool（VAT） for three-dimensional air quality data obtained by atmospheric models. The software features a number of powerful and intuitive data visualization functions for illustrating the complex nonlinear relationship between emission reductions and air quality benefits. The case study of contiguous U.S.demonstrates that the enhanced RSM-VAT is capable of reproducing the air quality model results with Normalized Mean Bias 〈 2% and assisting in air quality policy making in near real time.