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Open science : knowledge for everyone / by Polak, Monique.; Chan, Catherine(Illustrator);
Includes bibliographical references and index.Science is for everyone, right? Unfortunately, that's not always true. Discovery, research and innovation are often top secret, and big businesses charge high prices for that information. The field of open science is trying to change that. It's all about sharing knowledge. Teams of scientists around the world are working together to improve and speed up scientific research and share their results so that everyone benefits. Open Science: Knowledge for Everyone examines the history of scientific research and how ideas and information are shared and why. It also looks at innovations made using open science, such as treatments for diseases and vaccines to protect against viruses like COVID-19, discoveries that were only possible thanks to the sharing of information. Discover how regular people, including kids, can be citizen scientists and what we all can do to share science and make the world a better place.
Subjects: Science; Research; Open scholarship;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The plague cycle : the unending war between humanity and infectious disease / by Kenny, Charles,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.For four thousand years, the size and vitality of cities, economies, and empires were heavily determined by infection. Striking humanity in waves, the cycle of plagues set the tempo of civilizational growth and decline, since common response to the threat was exclusion-quarantining the sick or keeping them out. But the unprecedented hygiene and medical revolutions of the past two centuries have allowed humanity to free itself from the hold of epidemic cycles-resulting in an urbanized, globalized, and unimaginably wealthy world. However, our development has lately become precarious. Climate and population fluctuations and aspects of our prosperity such as global trade have left us more vulnerable than ever to newly emerging plagues. Greater global cooperation toward sustainable health is urgently required-such as the international efforts to harvest a Covid-19 vaccine-with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake. Written as colorful history, The Plague Cycle reveals the relationship between civilization, globalization, prosperity, and infectious disease over the past five millennia. It harnesses history, economics, and public health, and charts humanity's remarkable progress, providing a fascinating and timely look at the cyclical nature of infectious disease.
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Communicable diseases; Public health; Globalization;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rollout. by Abel, Danny,film director.; New Day Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by New Day Films in 2022.A vérité-style journey alongside residents of a tight-knit Kenyan community, as they face mounting pressure from a government they don’t trust, to get a Covid-19 vaccine they fear may cause more harm than good.The film is a journey alongside residents of Kibera, Nairobi - including Laureen, a mother and immunization nurse. Through ROLLOUT, we seek to show a vivid picture of the powerful and complex narratives and lived experiences driving the “shadow pandemic of vaccine hesitancy" which delayed vaccine uptake across communities worldwide, and ultimately stymied humanity’s chance to achieve global herd immunity. As the rollout efforts expand countywide, Laureen and her fellow healthcare workers visit with vibrant community members - from a church pastor to a radio DJ - who share their perspectives on the vaccination efforts. Through their stories, we feel their visceral mistrust, seemingly sparked by the government’s deeply unpopular and aggressive early pandemic response, and further fueled by a relentless flood of misinformation and conspiracy theories. We explore the deeper historical context that further exacerbates this mistrust, namely the fraught relationship between community members and global health actors, and a global vaccination agenda designed by global elites that disregard the needs of Kibera's residents.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Health.; African studies.; Foreign study.; Medicine.; Documentary films.; Current affairs.; Communicable diseases.; Africa.; Medical care.;
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An emergency in Ottawa : the story of the Convoy Commission / by Wells, Paul A.(Paul Allen),author.;
Includes bibliographical references."On Feb 14, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made what might be the most controversial decision of his tenure, invoking the Emergencies Act to end a three-week occupation of downtown Ottawa by truckers protesting mandatory COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Proclaimed in 1988, the Emergencies Act is designed to give federal officials extraordinary powers in the event of threats to Canada's national security that can't be managed under existing laws. Trudeau used it to make the protest illegal, freeze the accounts and cancel the vehicle insurance of participants, requisition tow trucks to clear protestors from the streets, among other measures. The government defended the first-ever invocation of the act as just and necessary; several premiers and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association called it an assault on democratic rights and civil liberties. As required by the act, Trudeau appointed a commission of inquiry into its use. Last November, justice Paul Rouleau held three weeks of riveting hearings that included testimony by so-called Freedom Convoy organizers, police officials, cabinet ministers, and Trudeau himself. Award-winning author Paul Wells was a regular visitor to the inquiry. Witnesses described layer on layer of dysfunction and acrimony in every organization that converged on Parliament Hill--three levels of government, three police forces, and the protesters themselves. How does a society make crucial decisions when everyone is exhausted, nothing works, and the noise from the truck horns and the shouting is deafening? And how do the protagonists regroup to make their case in the sterile, weird environment of a public inquiry? That's the story inside-a-story of the Emergency in Ottawa."--
Subjects: Canada.; Public Order Emergency Commission (Canada); Freedom Convoy (2022 : Ottawa, Ont.); Emergencies; Emergency management;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Shutdown : how COVID shook the world's economy / by Tooze, J. Adam,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Deftly weaving finance, politics, business, and the global human experience into one tight narrative, a tour-de-force account of 2020, the year that changed everything--from the acclaimed author of Crashed. The shocks of 2020 have been great and small, disrupting the world economy, international relations and the daily lives of virtually everyone on the planet. Never before has the entire world economy contracted by 20 percent in a matter of weeks nor in the historic record of modern capitalism has there been a moment in which 95 percent of the world's economies were suffering all at the same time. Across the world hundreds of millions have lost their jobs. And over it all looms the specter of pandemic, and death. Adam Tooze, whose last book was universally lauded for guiding us coherently through the chaos of the 2008 crash, now brings his bravura analytical and narrative skills to a panoramic and synthetic overview of our current crisis. By focusing on finance and business, he sets the pandemic story in a frame that casts a sobering new light on how unprepared the world was to fight the crisis, and how deep the ruptures in our way of living and doing business are. The virus has attacked the economy with as much ferocity as it has our health, and there is no vaccine arriving to address that. Tooze's special gift is to show how social organization, political interests, and economic policy interact with devastating human consequences, from your local hospital to the World Bank. He moves fluidly from the impact of currency fluctuations to the decimation of institutions--such as health-care systems, schools, and social services--in the name of efficiency. He starkly analyzes what happened when the pandemic collided with domestic politics (China's party conferences; the American elections), what the unintended consequences of the vaccine race might be, and the role climate change played in the pandemic. Finally, he proves how no unilateral declaration of 'independence" or isolation can extricate any modern country from the global web of travel, goods, services, and finance"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Economic history; Financial crises; COVID-19 (Disease);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics / by McNeil, Donald G.,Jr.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For a certain class of American's, Donald McNeil was a comforting voice when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. He was the regular reporter on the New York Times's popular Daily podcast, and he was telling folks to prepare for the worst. A generation of NYT readers went out and stocked up on food and PPE stuff because of his clear advice. He'd covered public health for the Times for 25 years and understood what he was seeing out of China. THE WISDOM OF PLAGUES is his account of what he learned over a quarter-century of reporting on public health in over 60 countries: part-memoir, part history, and part activism. Many science reporters understand the basics of diseases--how a virus works, for example, or what goes into making a vaccine. But very few understand the psychology of how small outbreaks turn into pandemics: How everyone from hunters to farmers to guano-diggers gets exposed to animal diseases. How diseases spread through networks of similar people and by "mass-gathering" events. How surveillance fails. How countries respond slowly or even cover up outbreaks. Why people refuse to believe they're at risk, or why they reject protective measures like quarantine or vaccines. How wild rumors spring up and scare people away from common sense responses. How greedy makers of false remedies spread confusion. Why public health agencies fumble and let things spiral out of control. The Covid pandemic was the story McNeil had trained his whole life to cover. His experience and deep bench of sources let him make many accurate predictions in 2020 about the course that a deadly new respiratory virus in Wuhan, China, would take and how different countries would respond. By the time McNeil wrote his last Times stories about the Covid-19 pandemic he had not lost his compassion, but he had grown far more stone-hearted about how he thought governments should react. He had witnessed so many failures and read enough history to realize that while every epidemic is different, failure was the one constant. Again and again, containable outbreaks ballooned into catastrophes because weak leaders were mired in denial. Citizens refused to make even minor sacrifices for the common good and were encouraged in that by money-hungry entrepreneurs and power-hungry populists. Science was ignored, obvious truths were denied, and the innocent too often died. THE WISDOM OF PLAGUES is ultimately about what we can do to improve global health and be better prepared for the next pandemic, which is coming"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Epidemiology.; Pandemics.; Public health surveillance.; Public health;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Conspirituality : how new age conspiracy theories became a health threat / by Beres, Derek,author.; Remski, Matthew D.,1971-author.; Walker, Julian(Podcaster),author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Conspirituality takes a deep dive into the troubling phenomenon of influencers who have curdled New Age spirituality and wellness with the politics of paranoia--peddling vaccine misinformation, tales of child trafficking, and wild conspiracy theories. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a disturbing social media trend emerged: a large number of yoga instructors and alt-health influencers were posting stories about a secretive global cabal bent on controlling the world's population with a genocidal vaccine. Instagram feeds that had been serving up green smoothie recipes and Mary Oliver poems became firehoses of Fox News links, memes from 4chan, and prophecies of global transformation. Since May 2020, Derek Beres, Matthew Remski and Julian Walker have used their Conspirituality podcast to expose countless facets of the intersection of alt-health practitioners with far-right conspiracy trolls. Now this expansive and revelatory book unpacks the follies, frauds, cons and cults that dominate the New Age and wellness spheres and betray the trust of people who seek genuine relief in this uncertain age. Each of the three authors has witnessed firsthand the use of fear-based political agendas to manipulate the human desire for spiritual fulfillment. They throw a spotlight on the telltale signs of cult dynamics and expose how influencers have stoked suspicion of public health initiatives. And they show how charlatans and pseudo-doctors encourage their followers to oppose mainstream advice as a form of spiritual quest. With analytical rigor and flashes of irreverent humor, Conspirituality offers an antidote to our times, helping readers recognize wellness grifts, engage with loved ones who've fallen under the influence, and counter lies and distortions with insight and empathy."--
Subjects: Conspiracy theories; Conspiracy theories; Conspiracy theories.; Medical misconceptions.; New Age movement.; Public health; Social media and society.; Conspiracy theories;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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