Pandemic and the Critical Role of Knowledge Management
The Global Consequences of “Knowing”: Information Dissemination and Disparity in the Covid-19 Pandemic
Gary M. GrossmanCOVID-19 gripped the world with its sudden onset and its devastating impacts. The world was caught seemingly unaware, and even in nations with advanced information and dissemination pathways, the emergence was so fast as to neutralize any advantage a presumed level of development contributed. Much more important has been the effective use of information in the response to the onset of the virus. This chapter examines the differences between regions and nations in terms of the rate of vaccination; rates of confirmed cases in those nations; death rates; and development criteria and explores what we might expect in the future as far as the progress of the virus and our attempts to contain it. Finally, these conclusions are drawn together to explore just how damaging COVID has been to our decision-making and governance infrastructures. Whatever may occur, the only hope for the nations of the world will be to create and implement policy that works, decision-making that is transparent in its creation and execution, and accessible information that flows freely to all citizens of all nations. These goals or something very close to them will be required for the world and its citizens to have a future within the current paradigm. COVID-19 may well be just the beginning. Many more potentially greater challenges are ahead of us. One area of hope may rest on what we are learning about combatting the global pandemic. Those lessons can be very useful in dealing with the challenges ahead.
