How to avoid future "Covid-19 origins" questions?

Origins debates regarding Covid-19 are gaining momentum again. In light of the continued infections and deaths of Covid-19 seen in countries rich and poor, rather than focusing the approach with "whodunit", developing solutions that can help societies become better prepared for future pandemics might be a more meaningful way to move forward. In this paper, we propose a solution that could help society better predict and prevent future pandemics. A system could allow humans to anonymously report potential infectious disease outbreaks without fearing backlash or prejudice and could automatically surveil for potential disease transfers or virus leaks. The proposed autonomous and anonymous pandemic reporting and surveillance system has the potential to help health officials locate infectious disease outbreaks before they form into pandemics. And in turn, it better prevents future pandemics and avoids Covid-19 origins debates.

COVID-19, Gated Communities, and Urban Resilience: A Comparative Analysis Between China and Colombia

Based on a comparative analysis of gated communities in Shanghai, China and in Bogotá, Colombia, this chapter investigates weaknesses and patterns of urban resilience against the current COVID-19 outbreak, arising from the functional and spatial organization of these residential settlements. The study benefits from an extensive literature review of urban resilience enhancement and enclosed compound types, and is based on the empirical analysis of nine case studies for each city to highlight differences and commonalities under the typo-morphological perspective concerning the containment norms implemented by the institutions in the two contexts, as well as to the provision and quality of outdoor space and facilities which strengthen the settlements’ resilience. The results of the study add value to the existing literature on urban morphology and urban resilience and highlight the need for a holistic context-specific approach for an adaptive urban design that can tackle acute shocks like the current pandemic, but also, as time passes without definitive solutions, possible chronic distresses. The conclusions highlight urban form as one of the methods of enhancing a city’s resilience. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.