Busting myths and dispelling doubts about Covid-19

RECENTLY the author John Ralston Saul observed "the ability to embrace doubt in the middle of a crisis is a sign of strength". In the case of the present global health pandemic doubt has been fuelled by political prevarication, scientific uncertainty, economic urgency and community apprehension. We are faced like never before with the urgent need for evidence-based policy development, but instead in many parts of the world, reactions have been kneejerk and late in coming.

With this conviction in mind the Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) at Singapore Management University (SMU) has embarked over past months on a programme of research designed to confront concerns about the pandemic and its control. Our interest is primarily directed to the ways in which AI-assisted technologies and mass data sharing have become a feature of pandemic control strategies. We want to know what impact these developments are having on community confidence and health safety. In developing this work, we have come across many myths that need busting.

The first is that the responsibility to contain the virus should be left to nation states. Unfortunately, this approach means that international or even global consensus on information distribution, and technology application is missing, and therefore opening up borders will be more contentious and "try and see". The exception to this anti-globalist view has been with the sharing of vital immunological knowledge so that vaccines can be fast-tracked and the benefits made available to a wider population, without the need for cyber espionage or exclusionist sponsorship.