Saving lives versus saving livelihoods: Can big data technology solve the pandemic dilemma?

ABSTRACT

Pandemics such as COVID-19 present an difficult choice to policymakers between saving lives and saving livelihoods. On the one hand, economic lockdown is deemed necessary to contain the rapid spread of the disease. On the other hand, a lockdown inflicts steep economic costs as normal activities are disrupted. The painful tradeoff between human toll and economic costs has led to heated and sometimes divisive debate in the policy domain…. © 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.