We value your privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies. Cookie Policy

Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

ADVERTISEMENT
Africanian
  • News
  • News 24/7
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • World
    • US
    • Russia
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • America
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
Africanian
No Result
View All Result
Home Tech

The importance of data in the fight against Covid-19

This is why the current Covid-19 pandemic is so challenging since it is beyond our control and threatens our security.

in Tech
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
0
The importance of data in the fight against Covid-19
0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Whatsapp

The psychologist, Dr David Ludden, wrote in an article that we as humans have a natural desire for control and security.

This is why the current Covid-19 pandemic is so challenging since it is beyond our control and threatens our security. We feel extremely vulnerable in these trying times due to the loss of control.

It is, therefore, in the nature of the human being to have something concrete to fight the immediate threat.

According to Ludden, this is the reason why conspiracy theories are proliferating during a time of crisis and uncertainty. A good example of such a conspiracy theory widely circulated on social media is that 5G technology is the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak.

However, there is another and much better way to concretely fight the Corona virus pandemic and that is to use technology to its fullest capability, whether it is to support working from home, developing products to combat the virus, protecting health facilities from cyber attacks, or gathering and analysing data to predict the spread of the virus.

More

Cape Verde adds 13.5 MW of wind power and 26 MWh of battery storage to cut 50,000 tons of CO₂ annually

Bridge to the future: Africa consolidates its digital strategy at GABI 2025

Cabo Verde inaugurates 13,000 m² of cutting-edge technology

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the US, in collaboration with Facebook and Google, collect and analyse data about Covid-19-related symptoms reported by Facebook and Google users. The real-time self-reported data of Covid-19 activity is correlated with data from medical claims and laboratory testing to ensure accurate estimates reflective of reality.

he correlated data is then used to model and predict the future behaviour of the Covid-19 virus from county to country level. Estimates of the virus behaviour several weeks into the future could have proven to be valuable to assist governments, hospitals and health officials in their planning.

The approach followed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is the same that is used for forecasting influenza activity and entails two aspects: The first is “crowdcasting”, which is based on the wisdom and aggregate judgements of the public or crowd. Facebook each day invites some of its US users that opted-in, to voluntarily answer a symptom survey designed and run by CMU, while Google distributes daily one-question surveys on behalf of CMU.

The surveys mainly determine if people experience symptoms such as fevers, coughing, shortness of breath, or a loss of smell or taste, which are typically associated with the Covid-19 virus. Since these symptoms are often a precursor to becoming more seriously ill, the surveys are very useful in forecasting the spreading of the virus when the data is aggregated and correlated with other relevant health data.

The second method entails artificial intelligence and statistical machine learning that recognises patterns in health care data, such as Covid-19 searches on the Google search engine, anonymized inpatient and outpatient data, diagnostic test data from laboratories, and several other sources of health data.

The identified patterns become the basis for advanced modelling of the behaviour of the virus.

Facebook has gone even further and released disease prevention maps from their Data for Good Mobility program that provides aggregated data where people are travelling, as well as the interaction between regions. In the absence of a vaccine, countries all over the world are relying on social and physical distancing to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus and reduce its impact on the health system.

The aggregated Facebook data, when combined with demographics, infrastructure and socioeconomic indicators, provides a very reliable picture of people’s adherence to isolation regulations, whether they are staying near their home or visiting many parts of town. The data can also be used to indicate where additional measures could be necessary to ensure adherence to government regulations. Co-location and social connectedness patterns are further identified to help modellers determine the speed of spreading.

In the fight against Covid-19 health data has become a valuable tool and currently informs decisions all over the world. For example, in Taiwan data analysts have been able to identify the cities with the highest chance of infection in advance and thus enabled health officials, the cities, and medical facilities to prepare properly. The data is also used to study the effectiveness of lockdown measures, to steer public health messaging, and with the help of artificial intelligence to predict the future need of scarce hospital resources such as ICU beds, protective clothing and ventilators.

As South Africa plans to lift the isolation restrictions in future, it is critical to have a very clear understanding of the behaviour of the virus and when infections will reach a peak. Accurate real-time data on a municipal level, and preferably on a suburb level, will help the South African government to determine where resources should be sent to, as well as when, where and at what pace the gradual lifting of the isolation should be implemented.

Social network companies can become invaluable partners in the provision of relevant anonymized data and the fight against Covid-19, especially when the data is analysed by using data mining and analysis tools, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology.

Perhaps some South African Universities could follow the example of CMU in the fight against Covid-19 since Facebook is already expanding their survey globally with the help of the University of Maryland in the US. CMU is also building an application programming interface (API) that will enable researchers all over the world to easily access the data.

Data is powerful and can increasingly become an effective tool in fighting Covid-19. The numerous apps and devices we are using are generating large amounts of aggregated data that create many possible opportunities to use it to the benefit of society, while protecting people’s privacy. If used responsibly data can help us to manage the current pandemic and get back on the road to economic recovery.

Professor  Louis C H Fourie is a futurist and technology  strategist.

Source: iol.co.za
africanian

africanian

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Rwanda combines youth innovation and circular economy to build a resilient nation

Rwanda combines youth innovation and circular economy to build a resilient nation

July 3, 2025
7 Tracks, 1 Future: AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2025 Sets the Stage for Africa’s Innovation Renaissance

7 Tracks, 1 Future: AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2025 Sets the Stage for Africa’s Innovation Renaissance

June 25, 2025
Kenya: a business blossoming from the soil

Kenya: a business blossoming from the soil

June 23, 2025
Lesotho increases blood collection by 70% between 2017 and 2024

Lesotho increases blood collection by 70% between 2017 and 2024

July 8, 2025
Nigeria accelerates economic transformation with key reforms and signs of recovery

Nigeria accelerates economic transformation with key reforms and signs of recovery

July 7, 2025
RevUp Women Initiative Launches Nigeria Edition at Lagos Startup Week 2025

RevUp Women Initiative Launches Nigeria Edition at Lagos Startup Week 2025

July 5, 2025
Twitter Instagram Youtube Facebook
No Result
View All Result

Africanian News

Is a dedicated project aimed at amplifying the voices of the African Ecosystem and Diaspora. We actively collaborate with initiatives to improve access to education and digital inclusion, both in traditional schools and through digital platforms, for African children.

It’s crucial to emphasize that none of the articles or images featured on our platform are intended for copyright infringement, neither now nor in the future. If you believe that any information, text, image, etc., may be subject to copyright and should be removed, please notify us by sending an email to info@africanian.com

Your dreams matter; your stories matter.

Feel free to explore collaboration opportunities with us. Share your articles, thoughts, interviews, experiments, or no-comment videos by reaching out to info@africanian.com. You can also subscribe to our mailing list to receive the latest updates from Africanian News.

© 2024 Africanian News: From Africa, by Africans, for Africa, and friends of Africa.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Tech
  • Travel
  • World

© 2024 Africanian News: From Africa, by Africans, for Africa, and friends of Africa.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.