COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Factors determining transmission dynamics, effects of lockdown on public health, environment and economy, and techniques of decision support to cope with future epidemics of the COVID-19 and similar vital agents

One of the current questions in the contemporary scientific debate is to explain factors determining the diffusion of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a new viral infection that is generating a severe acute respiratory syndrome with serious pneumonia to manifold people worldwide that may result in progressive respiratory failure and death. To reduce the number of total deaths and infected individuals of COVID-19, many countries, universities, public and private research organizations have accelerated the scientific research production generating new knowledge about this new Coronavirus disease, but also many people/organizations not involved in research activities sought to provide innovative solutions, especially adopting what they already know, such as current technologies. This on-going accumulation of knowledge, driven by an accelerated velocity of science production on COVID-19 is due to a process of systematic research in labs to generate effective vaccines, new therapies, and new antiviral drugs that can counteract this global public health threat and future epidemics similar to COVID-19.
Current literature in this field of research is rather fragmented and doesn’t tell us in a systematic framework the manifold and complex factors involved in transmission dynamics the COVID-19, effects of public policies (such as, lockdown) on public health and economic system and results for improving decision-making of the crisis management of COVID-19 in society.
The goal of this book is to explain some characteristics related to factors determining the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 associated with geography, environment, atmosphere and social structure of cities and regions and effects of public policies applied by governments. In particular, this book, in an interdisciplinary perspective, describes a collection of new researches that can clarify some factors of the spread of COVID-19 in polluted cities extending and effects of containment measures to explain vital relationships that may be helpful for decision making of policymakers in different environments to solve this global health issue or at least reduce its impact in society and future social issues of similar viral agents.
This book is designed for public and private managers and policymakers, as well as general readers that wish to clarify critical aspects of COVID-19 and that wish to expand their knowledge on these areas. I have attempted to minimize the use of extremely complex models, concepts and theories. Studies that I include here are integrated with cases study and empirical analyses based on real contexts of cities and nations, rather than on theoretical models that generate simulations with computer experiments to predict eventual real effects of the dynamics of COVID-19 pandemic in different urban contexts. In order to attain a reasonable depth, this book concentrates on selected topics of particular relevance to problems of COVID-19, and which meet the needs of the intended audience.

The book is divided in four interrelated parts.
1. The first part of this book focuses on environmental, demographic, and geographical factors that influence the spread of COVID-19 in society (Chapter 1-2-3).
2. The second part describes the effects of policy responses of governments to cope with recurring waves of COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on impact in public health, environment and economic system (Chapter 4-5).
3. Part three of the book concentrates on a new approach to assess and predict environmental, demographic, and geographical risk factors that influence the spread of COVID-19 and future epidemics similar to COVID-19 (Chapter 6).
4. The final part of the book explains some general approaches and concepts that can support decision making of crisis management to cope with global pandemic and similar social issues discussed in this book (Chapter 7).
However, no single book could hope to cover adequately all aspects of what is wide and essentially multi-disciplinary field of inquiry, such as infectious diseases, and here it is not the intention to attempt to cover all aspects of COVID-19 pandemic crisis in society. It is regrettable but inevitable therefore that some topics are excluded or given only limited coverage and it is not possible to meet fully the preferences of all readers. I hope that readers dealing with infectious diseases like COVID-19 and other similar viral agents, such as clinicians, managers, policymakers, etc. are able to see this text as a starting point to understand the complex and different factors and processes associated with COVID-19 global pandemic crisis and other similar infectious diseases.
This book’s strengths and weaknesses are the responsibility of author.