How Technology is Saving us from Total Collapse During Covid-19?

 Technology is so weaved into our lives that many people take it from granted. We sometimes don't realize all the benefits it has brought into our daily lives, work, and education. But, with the pandemic, we saw the actual use of technology in our lives. 

We used devices, the Internet, online platforms, and different other software that allowed us to keep connected and keep our society going. And even with all this help, the economy in the country and the world suffered a massive hit. Imagine where our society would be if we didn’t have technology to aid us? 

From AI software to data science and big data analytics, this is how technology helps us manage the pandemic and save us from total collapse. 

Remote Working and Education

Imagine having to move a team of hundreds of employees from working at the office to a remote workspace in a matter of days. That's what almost all businesses around the world had to do when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. It was a strategic nightmare, especially for companies that didn't have an established online management platform. 

Technology allowed businesses to continue their operations remotely. And without all the tools we have today, many more companies would have totally collapsed. These tools included team management tools, secure enterprise solutions, communication, access to databases, etc. 

In education, the situation was similar. Millions of kids, teenagers, and adults had to move to online platforms to continue their educations without risking infection. Online courses are more common now than five or 10 years ago, especially with the improvements in self-paced courses and AI-powered platforms that adapt to each student. 

But after the pandemic, they grew much more worldwide, and many students will stay with these courses instead of going back to the regular classroom. Technology is also stepping up for the new normal. Companies that are returning their operations to the physical office are implementing technologies like temperature monitoring cameras that help maintain security protocols. 

Don't miss this: Top 10 Careers in Demand for 2021

Tracing People

Another thing that became apparent when the Covid-19 virus was declared a pandemic back in March was the need to track people's contacts in the last few days when they were diagnosed with the virus. This means going over where this person was and with whom they had interactions because they could be infected as well. 

Without technology, that would have been impossible. The Covid-19 virus takes from two days to two weeks to incubate. During this time, people are infectious. So, when someone was Covid-19 positive, they had to trace back on their last two weeks to pinpoint with whom they had contact. 

This is where big data analytics enter the picture to make our jobs easier. Using data from smartphones, data analysts could trace back infected people's locations in the last month and compare it to other users. They could know where the epicenter for the infection was and find and alert people that could have had contact with the infected person.  

Facial recognition AI software can also be used to help trace people. It was used to monitor infected patients and make sure they weren't having contact with other healthy individuals. And it is being used in countries like China to monitor the temperature in hundreds of people in places like airports or hospitals and identify infected patients before they could spread the virus. 

Finding Drugs

Finding drugs is something that AI-powered technologies promise for the future. It is not still a reality but for lack of data instead of computing power. AI software is already good in giving accurate predictions, but in the case of healthcare, the issue is that we don't have enough data. 

The healthcare industry is just starting to introduce technology in their operations, and this is mostly still unheard of in underdeveloped countries. But once we have full and universal databases for patient's data, the potential is enormous. In the US and other developed countries, we are closer to this reality, but still not closed enough that we can find a vaccine right away. 

Plus, this software is a project that only has a few years since it started, so they have to be tested first. With that said, machine learning and AI engineers are creating software to make researchers’ jobs easier by going through research papers in seconds when a person will take months. The software is also trained to understand viral protein structures and give suggestions on possible vaccine components. 

Related Reading: Suddenly Unemployed Because of Covid-19? This Is What You Should Do Next

Informing People

Misinformation is one of the enemies of controlling the pandemic. The Internet is an excellent source of information, but it has the downside that anyone can post false information, and many people believe it. In Iran, 700 people died from alcohol poisoning because they believe the rumor that alcohol will protect them from the virus. 

But overall, all online platforms are trying to keep people informed by providing free Covid-19 resources. All social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, or TikTok have these resources for anyone to access at any time. You can see symptoms, what to do if you think you are infected, and much more information about it. 

Patient Care

Technology has also been key in monitoring and taking care of patients. The first application was the use of ventilators for critical patients. Because the Covid-19 virus attacks mainly the lungs, critical patients had difficulty breathing and had to use artificial ventilators to survive. 

Then, there is also a shortage of health care professionals. There were so many patients going to the hospital that there wasn't enough personnel to attend them all. Some countries implement the use of robots to do the necessary tasks like doing mouth swabs, listening to organs, or doing ultrasound scans. 

Finally, the use of technology to help monitor patients with a chronic disease will be more at risk if they go to the hospital.  

In Summary

Technology has its downside, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic. It helps many businesses continue their operations and people to continue learning all over the world. It also helps to trace people who were infected and try to quarantine all possible individuals with the virus. And it has made the job of healthcare professionals a lot easier.