Doc Hay:A Chinese Herbalist Combating the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic in America

This is a story about a Chinese herbalist Ing“Doc”Hay who combated the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in the America West.As an immigrant,he came to the States as a laborer,but he had knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine due to his family heritage.This made it possible for him to start practicing in the Chinese community in John Day,Oregon,until 1948 when he retired.During the time of the pandemic running wild in the 1910s,he prescribed formulas aimed at flu and boiled herbal decoction,personally delivering it to a working site for those Chinese laborers as well as non‑Chinese patients.None of the laborer patients treated by him died during this deadly pandemic.Due to his success and fame,his practice was booming even after the Chinese community disappeared in John Day in later years.Doc Hay is always remembered in the history of earlier development in eastern Oregon,so that the site of his practicing,Kam Wah Chung and Co.Building,is now a national historic landmark.And more importantly,he has also been remembered by Chinese herbal medicine practitioners in the United States.

Effects of Health Record Computerization in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Burundi’ Hospitals: Propensity Score Matching

Introduction: A great number of software are currently used to digitalize the patient records in order to optimize the quality of services offered to patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of Electronic Health Records use in Burundi’s hospitals, taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic context. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study based on difference in difference method. Ten district hospitals were included in the study, five of them had the Electronic Health Records and five of which did not yet have the Electronic Health Records. The hospital’s control group were chosen using the propensity score matching method. The period before the project’s implementation was 2014 and the period after were 2019 and 2020. Results: After 5 years of the Electronic Health Record’s implementation, the results showed an increase in outpatient consultation (70%), deliveries (more than 100%), caesarean sections (56%) and major surgeries (43%) indicators. The overall quality score of hospitals’ care had a regressive effect of 37% and the income from performance-based funding had an increase by 31%. The indicators which were affected by the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were especially outpatient consultation, caesarian section, income from performance-based funding decreased by 3%, 5% and 20% respectively. Conclusion: The effects of Electronic Health Records use are effective. As the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the hospital’s indicators negatively, the resilient strategies alongside the potential shocks are recommended.

Aerosol transmission of human pathogens:From miasmata to modern viral pandemics and their preservation potential in the Anthropocene record

Ongoing uncertainty over the relative importance of aerosol transmission of COVID-19 is in part rooted in the history of medical science and our understanding of how epidemic diseases can spread through human populations. Ancient Greek medical theory held that such illnesses are transmitted by airborne pathogenic emanations containing particulate matter(“miasmata”). Notable Roman and medieval scholars such as Varro, Ibn al-Khatib and Fracastoro developed these ideas, combining them with early germ theory and the concept of contagion. A widely held but vaguely defined belief in toxic miasmatic mists as a dominant causative agent in disease propagation was overtaken by the science of 19th century microbiology and epidemiology, especially in the study of cholera, which was proven to be mainly transmitted by contaminated water. Airborne disease transmission came to be viewed as burdened by a dubious historical reputation and difficult to demonstrate convincingly. A breakthrough came with the classic mid-20th century work of Wells, Riley and Mills who proved how expiratory aerosols(their “droplet nuclei”)could transport still-infectious tuberculosis bacteria through ventilation systems. The topic of aerosol transmission of pathogenic respiratory diseases assumed a new dimension with the mid-late 20th century “Great Acceleration” of an increasingly hypermobile human population repeatedly infected by different strains of zoonotic viruses, and has taken centre stage this century in response to outbreaks of new respiratory infections that include coronaviruses. From a geoscience perspective, the consequences of pandemic-status diseases such as COVID-19, produced by viral pathogens utilising aerosols to infect a human population currently approaching 8 billion, are far-reaching and unprecedented. The obvious and sudden impacts on for example waste plastic production, water and air quality and atmospheric chemistry are accelerating human awareness of current environmental challenges. As such, the “anthropause”lockdown enforced by COVID-19 may come to be seen as a harbinger of change great enough to be preserved in the Anthropocene stratal record.

从自然灾害志的实践谈新冠肺炎抗击志的编纂

自然灾害是地方志记录的传统对象之一,旧志有灾异志,近年来地方志部门先后编纂了《汶川特大地震抗震救灾志》《特大龙卷风冰雹盐城抢险救灾重建志》等志书。2020年,江苏先后编纂了《生命至上:江苏抗击新冠肺炎疫情实录》《泰州市抗击新冠肺炎疫情实录》,为编纂新冠肺炎抗击志做出了有益的探索。编纂新冠肺炎抗击志,应树立以实用为基础的指导思想。各地根据本地抗击新冠肺炎的具体情况,可选择事件志编纂体例,其框架内容以疫情概况、应急响应、组织指挥、医疗救治、预防、复工复业等为线索,依次展开记述,也可按照综合性志书的编纂体例,坚持横分门类、分类合理、门类齐全的原则,从抗击新冠肺炎疫情的各个方面,准确记述中国人民勇敢抗击新冠肺炎疫情的经历和取得的成就,为后人留下可供借鉴的宝贵经验。

Artificial intelligence for COVID-19: battling the pandemic with computational intelligence

The new coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)has become a global pandemic leading to over 180 million confirmed cases and nearly 4 million deaths until June 2021,according to the World Health Organization.Since the initial report in December 2019,COVID-19 has demonstrated a high transmission rate(with an R_(0)>2),a diverse set of clinical characteristics(e.g.,high rate of hospital and intensive care unit admission rates,multi-organ dysfunction for critically ill patients due to hyperinflammation,thrombosis,etc.),and a tremendous burden on health care systems around the world.To understand the serious and complex diseases and develop effective control,treatment,and prevention strategies,researchers from different disciplines have been making significant efforts from different aspects including epidemiology and public health,biology and genomic medicine,as well as clinical care and patient management.In recent years,artificial intelligence(AI)has been introduced into the healthcare field to aid clinical decision-making for disease diagnosis and treatment such as detecting cancer based on medical images,and has achieved superior performance in multiple data-rich application scenarios.In the COVID-19 pandemic,AI techniques have also been used as a powerful tool to overcome the complex diseases.In this context,the goal of this study is to review existing studies on applications of AI techniques in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.Specifically,these efforts can be grouped into the fields of epidemiology,therapeutics,clinical research,social and behavioral studies and are summarized.Potential challenges,directions,and open questions are discussed accordingly,which may provide new insights into addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and would be helpful for researchers to explore more related topics in the post-pandemic era.