COVID-19 Pandemic and the increasingly evolving ‘new normals’ for today and beyond: Rekindling the imperative to optimize the ‘pandemic positive harvests’ for the challenges ahead
Rapid response to:
LettersCovid-19: the long road to recovery
Reimagining healthcare after covid-19: a new normal for medicine
COVID-19 Pandemic and the increasingly evolving ‘new normals’ for today and beyond: Rekindling the imperative to optimize the ‘pandemic positive harvests’ for the challenges ahead
The ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ as an ‘Enigmatic Global Public Health Challenge’, and a ‘COVID Phenomenon’ [1] in the ‘Annals of Our Humanity’, remains unbelievably the ‘World’s Unprecedented Ravagingly Devastating 21st Century Storm’ [2-4]! As a ‘COVID Phenomenon’, it significantly impacts on almost ALL ‘Aspects of Human Existential and Developmental Domains’ [1]!! The horrendous ‘Limitless Untoward Havoc’ wreaked in its trail have been disposed in ‘Previous Communications’ to amplify the implications of the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ ambushing the World largely unprepared and completely off-guard! The ‘Lessons Learnt from Previous Epidemics and Pandemics’ [5] were allowed to become ‘Missed Opportunities’ and, hence, the seeming, but clearly and certainly avoidable, ambush of the World by the ‘Current Devastating Scourge’!!
Coming with the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ is a plethora of ‘New Normals’ in the ‘Annals of Our Common Humanity! The World is increasingly treated to ‘Enlarging Lexical Possibilities’: ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’, ‘Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs)’, ‘COVID Phenomenon’, ‘Social Distancing’, ‘Social Solidarity’, ‘Containment Measures’, ‘Mitigation Measures’, ‘Testing and Tracing’, ‘Self-Isolation’, ‘Quarantining’, ‘Shutdown’, ‘Lockdown’, ‘Shelter-in-Place’, ‘Stratified Shielding’ and ‘Interventional Precocity’. Others are: ‘Mass Gathering Restrictions’, ‘Easing Lockdowns’, ‘Candidate Vaccines’, ‘Epidemic Curve’, ‘Flattening the Curve’, ‘Behind the Curve’, ‘Ahead of the Curve’, ‘Surges and Resurgences’, ‘Second Waves’ and ‘Face Masks Use’. Still others include ‘Proactive Universal and Specific Precautionary Measures’ including, among others, ‘Hand-washing Techniques’/ ‘Hand Hygiene’, ‘Hand Sanitizer Use’, ‘Respiratory Hygiene’, ‘Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs)’, ‘Non-Contact Infrared Thermometry’, ‘Pre-Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Transmissions’, ‘Frontline Healthcare Workforce’ etc! These ‘New Normals’ now routinely colour ‘Topical Conversations’ in the ‘COVID-Pandemic Era’!!
As a ‘COVID Phenomenon’, it is ‘Not All Doom’ for the ‘Global Landscape’ disposed by the ‘Phenomenal Unprecedented Pandemic’! There is a ‘Tale To Tell’ that also disposes a ‘Harvest of Boom’!! Indeed, the ‘Increasingly Impactful Landscape of Positives’ is being disposed by the day [6-8]!! The plethora of ‘Increasing and Illimitable Pandemic Positives’ will not be discussed further in this ‘Communication’ but peculiar focus will be on the ‘New Normals in Medicine’ in the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ and, more importantly as an imperative, for the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ [9,10]!! These ‘New Normals in Medicine’ are also now dominating ‘Contemporary Medical Conversations and Activities/ Practice and Conduct’!! The possibility of sustaining these ‘New Normals’ as a ‘New Way of Life’ in ‘Medical Professionalism’ is being further explored for the ‘Road Ahead’ and the ‘Inevitable Challenges’ in the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ [9,10]!!!
In this ‘New Dispensation’ occasioned by the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’, there is a ‘Phenomenal Imaginatively Innovative Approach’ to the ‘Practice and Teaching of Medicine’ and the ‘Conduct of Medical Professional Meetings and Conferences! The ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ is envisioned to dispose ‘Reimagining Healthcare’ in several ramifications with demonstrable capacity and ability to rapidly surmount previous ‘Impossibilities’: Traditional Barriers, Institutional Inertia, Red Tape among others [10]!! In the ‘New Normals in Medicine’, a ‘Myriad of Possibilities’ is disposed: Flexible Deployment of Healthcare Workforce, Stronger and More Efficient Collaboration, Systematic and Systemic Use of Telemedicine and Triage, Improved Clinical Governance, Institutional Support for the More Vulnerable Populations etc [10]! With rapidly evolving ‘ICT-compliant Cloud-based Technologies’, several ‘Meetings and Conferences in Medicine’ are being increasingly ‘Conducted in Virtuality’: Webinars on ‘Different Topical and Conceptual Conversations’, ‘Video Conferencing on Medical Issues’, ‘Virtual Professional Association Meetings/ Conferences’, ‘Virtual Medical Education Encounters’, ‘Virtual Ward Rounds and Configurations’, ‘Tele-Consultations’ etc!!
It is also conjectured that the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ has opened a ‘Fertile Field for Research’ [10]! The ‘Rapidly Dynamically Transmuting COVID-19 Pandemic Possibilities’ constitute ‘Knee Jerk Responses’ for raising ‘Research Questions’ to undergird the ‘Conduct of COVID-19 Research’ BUT the ‘Time-tested and Time-honoured Principles/ Pillars’ MUST be upheld for ‘Research Governance’ and ‘Data Governance’ to AVOID the bothersome enlarging ‘Body of COVID-19 Research Output/ Data’ now increasingly conjectured as tantamount to ‘COVID-19 Research Waste’ [11-14]!!
The capacity of ‘Medical Doctors’ to rise up to, and cope with, the ‘Evolving Demands’ of the ‘New Normals in Medicine’ requires our ‘Rekindling the Imperative’ to focus, once again, on ‘Medical Socioeconosophy (MSE)’ as a desired ‘Productive Basic Medical Education Improvement Intervention (BMEI)’ for the 21st Century [15,16]! The ‘Medical Socioeconosophy (MSE)’ will assure the ‘Formation and Production’ of robust and informed ‘Medical Doctors’ who will be ‘Fit-for-Purpose’ and ‘Work-in-Teams’-compliant in the 21st Century seemingly to be remarkably defined by the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’-induced ‘New Normals in Medicine’!
This ‘Communication’ is a modest ‘Contribution’ to the enlarging ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Era’-induced ‘New Normals in Medicine Conversation’ that MUST ‘Redefine and Reimagine’ the ‘Triad of Medical Interventions’: Teaching, Practice and Research in Medicine! It is suggested that ‘Clinicians feel empowered to make the desired changes and this must not be lost’ [10]!! Indeed, the ‘Rekindled Imperative to Optimize’ the ‘New Normals in Medicine’, as part of the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Positive Harvests’, MUST not be allowed to dovetail into another AVOIDABLE occurrence of ‘Missed Opportunities’!!
REFERENCES
1. Eregie C.O. COVID Phenomenon: An innovative conceptual coinage in Human Development and Sustainable Development in the 21st Century. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-17 of 9th April 2020
2. Godlee F. COVID-19: Weathering the storm. BMJ 2020; 368:m1199 of 26th March 2020
3. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: Still on the difficult unresolved increasing challenges in weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-13 of 2nd April 2020
4. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: Further perspectives on the difficult unresolved increasing challenges in weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-16 of 5th April 2020
6. Kickbusch I, Leung GM, Bhutta ZA, Matsoso MP, Ihekweazu C, Abbasi K. Covid-19: how a virus is turning the world upside down. BMJ 2020; 369:m1336 of 3rd April 2020
7. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: The daunting challenges of assuring sustainable benefits from weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-14 of 8th April 2020
8. Nelson B. The positive effects of Covid-19. BMJ 2020; 369:m1785
9. Godlee F. Covid-19: Surviving the long road ahead. Editor’s choice. BMJ 2020; 369:m1840
10. Lakhani M, Lakhani S, Lakhani P. Reimagining healthcare after Covid-19. BMJ 2020; 369:2220
11. Clinical Trials.gov. History of changes for study. NCT04280705, 1 May 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/history/NCT04280705?A=10&B=15&C=Side-by-S....
12. Yan W. Coronavirus tests science’s need for speed limits. New York Times 2020 Apr 14. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/science/coronavirus-disinformation.html
13. Glasziou PP, Sanders S, Hoffmann T. Waste in covid-19 research. BMJ 2020; 369:m1847
14. Eregie CO. COVID-19 Pandemic: The multifaceted picture of compromised COVID-19 research and the COVID Phenomenon’. https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1847/rr-12 of 10th June 2020
15. Eregie C.O. The NHS Health Workforce Crisis and the Modern Firm: Considering an Additional Role for ‘Medical Socioeconosophy’ in Basic Medical Education Curriculum Improvement. https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l4173/rr-3 of 26th June 2019
16. Eregie C.O. ’Fit-for-Purpose’ Medical Doctors in Today’s Globalized World: Further Imperative for ‘Medical Socioeconosophy’ in Basic Medical Education Improvement. https://www.bmj.com/content/366/bmj.l4997/rr-1 of 30th August 2019
Professor Charles Osayande Eregie,
MBBS, FWACP, FMCPaed, FRCPCH (UK), Cert. ORT (Oxford), MSc (Religious Education),
Professor of Child Health and Neonatology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria.
UNICEF-Trained BFHI Master Trainer,
ICDC-Trained in Code Implementation,
*Technical Expert/ Consultant on the FMOH-UNICEF-NAFDAC Code Implementation Project in Nigeria.
*No Competing Interests.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
03 July 2020
CHARLES OSAYANDE EREGIE
MEDICAL DOCTOR
Professor of Child Health and Neonatology, University of Benin and Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Also, UNICEF-Trained BFHI Master Trainer and ICDC-Trained in Code Implementaion. Also a Technical Expert/ Consultant on FMOH-UNICEF-NAFDAC Project on Code Implementation in Nigeria
Institute of Child Health, College of Medical Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Rapid Response:
COVID-19 Pandemic and the increasingly evolving ‘new normals’ for today and beyond: Rekindling the imperative to optimize the ‘pandemic positive harvests’ for the challenges ahead
The ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ as an ‘Enigmatic Global Public Health Challenge’, and a ‘COVID Phenomenon’ [1] in the ‘Annals of Our Humanity’, remains unbelievably the ‘World’s Unprecedented Ravagingly Devastating 21st Century Storm’ [2-4]! As a ‘COVID Phenomenon’, it significantly impacts on almost ALL ‘Aspects of Human Existential and Developmental Domains’ [1]!! The horrendous ‘Limitless Untoward Havoc’ wreaked in its trail have been disposed in ‘Previous Communications’ to amplify the implications of the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ ambushing the World largely unprepared and completely off-guard! The ‘Lessons Learnt from Previous Epidemics and Pandemics’ [5] were allowed to become ‘Missed Opportunities’ and, hence, the seeming, but clearly and certainly avoidable, ambush of the World by the ‘Current Devastating Scourge’!!
Coming with the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ is a plethora of ‘New Normals’ in the ‘Annals of Our Common Humanity! The World is increasingly treated to ‘Enlarging Lexical Possibilities’: ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’, ‘Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs)’, ‘COVID Phenomenon’, ‘Social Distancing’, ‘Social Solidarity’, ‘Containment Measures’, ‘Mitigation Measures’, ‘Testing and Tracing’, ‘Self-Isolation’, ‘Quarantining’, ‘Shutdown’, ‘Lockdown’, ‘Shelter-in-Place’, ‘Stratified Shielding’ and ‘Interventional Precocity’. Others are: ‘Mass Gathering Restrictions’, ‘Easing Lockdowns’, ‘Candidate Vaccines’, ‘Epidemic Curve’, ‘Flattening the Curve’, ‘Behind the Curve’, ‘Ahead of the Curve’, ‘Surges and Resurgences’, ‘Second Waves’ and ‘Face Masks Use’. Still others include ‘Proactive Universal and Specific Precautionary Measures’ including, among others, ‘Hand-washing Techniques’/ ‘Hand Hygiene’, ‘Hand Sanitizer Use’, ‘Respiratory Hygiene’, ‘Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs)’, ‘Non-Contact Infrared Thermometry’, ‘Pre-Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Transmissions’, ‘Frontline Healthcare Workforce’ etc! These ‘New Normals’ now routinely colour ‘Topical Conversations’ in the ‘COVID-Pandemic Era’!!
As a ‘COVID Phenomenon’, it is ‘Not All Doom’ for the ‘Global Landscape’ disposed by the ‘Phenomenal Unprecedented Pandemic’! There is a ‘Tale To Tell’ that also disposes a ‘Harvest of Boom’!! Indeed, the ‘Increasingly Impactful Landscape of Positives’ is being disposed by the day [6-8]!! The plethora of ‘Increasing and Illimitable Pandemic Positives’ will not be discussed further in this ‘Communication’ but peculiar focus will be on the ‘New Normals in Medicine’ in the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ and, more importantly as an imperative, for the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ [9,10]!! These ‘New Normals in Medicine’ are also now dominating ‘Contemporary Medical Conversations and Activities/ Practice and Conduct’!! The possibility of sustaining these ‘New Normals’ as a ‘New Way of Life’ in ‘Medical Professionalism’ is being further explored for the ‘Road Ahead’ and the ‘Inevitable Challenges’ in the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ [9,10]!!!
In this ‘New Dispensation’ occasioned by the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’, there is a ‘Phenomenal Imaginatively Innovative Approach’ to the ‘Practice and Teaching of Medicine’ and the ‘Conduct of Medical Professional Meetings and Conferences! The ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’ is envisioned to dispose ‘Reimagining Healthcare’ in several ramifications with demonstrable capacity and ability to rapidly surmount previous ‘Impossibilities’: Traditional Barriers, Institutional Inertia, Red Tape among others [10]!! In the ‘New Normals in Medicine’, a ‘Myriad of Possibilities’ is disposed: Flexible Deployment of Healthcare Workforce, Stronger and More Efficient Collaboration, Systematic and Systemic Use of Telemedicine and Triage, Improved Clinical Governance, Institutional Support for the More Vulnerable Populations etc [10]! With rapidly evolving ‘ICT-compliant Cloud-based Technologies’, several ‘Meetings and Conferences in Medicine’ are being increasingly ‘Conducted in Virtuality’: Webinars on ‘Different Topical and Conceptual Conversations’, ‘Video Conferencing on Medical Issues’, ‘Virtual Professional Association Meetings/ Conferences’, ‘Virtual Medical Education Encounters’, ‘Virtual Ward Rounds and Configurations’, ‘Tele-Consultations’ etc!!
It is also conjectured that the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic’ has opened a ‘Fertile Field for Research’ [10]! The ‘Rapidly Dynamically Transmuting COVID-19 Pandemic Possibilities’ constitute ‘Knee Jerk Responses’ for raising ‘Research Questions’ to undergird the ‘Conduct of COVID-19 Research’ BUT the ‘Time-tested and Time-honoured Principles/ Pillars’ MUST be upheld for ‘Research Governance’ and ‘Data Governance’ to AVOID the bothersome enlarging ‘Body of COVID-19 Research Output/ Data’ now increasingly conjectured as tantamount to ‘COVID-19 Research Waste’ [11-14]!!
The capacity of ‘Medical Doctors’ to rise up to, and cope with, the ‘Evolving Demands’ of the ‘New Normals in Medicine’ requires our ‘Rekindling the Imperative’ to focus, once again, on ‘Medical Socioeconosophy (MSE)’ as a desired ‘Productive Basic Medical Education Improvement Intervention (BMEI)’ for the 21st Century [15,16]! The ‘Medical Socioeconosophy (MSE)’ will assure the ‘Formation and Production’ of robust and informed ‘Medical Doctors’ who will be ‘Fit-for-Purpose’ and ‘Work-in-Teams’-compliant in the 21st Century seemingly to be remarkably defined by the ‘Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era’-induced ‘New Normals in Medicine’!
This ‘Communication’ is a modest ‘Contribution’ to the enlarging ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Era’-induced ‘New Normals in Medicine Conversation’ that MUST ‘Redefine and Reimagine’ the ‘Triad of Medical Interventions’: Teaching, Practice and Research in Medicine! It is suggested that ‘Clinicians feel empowered to make the desired changes and this must not be lost’ [10]!! Indeed, the ‘Rekindled Imperative to Optimize’ the ‘New Normals in Medicine’, as part of the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Positive Harvests’, MUST not be allowed to dovetail into another AVOIDABLE occurrence of ‘Missed Opportunities’!!
REFERENCES
1. Eregie C.O. COVID Phenomenon: An innovative conceptual coinage in Human Development and Sustainable Development in the 21st Century. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-17 of 9th April 2020
2. Godlee F. COVID-19: Weathering the storm. BMJ 2020; 368:m1199 of 26th March 2020
3. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: Still on the difficult unresolved increasing challenges in weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-13 of 2nd April 2020
4. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: Further perspectives on the difficult unresolved increasing challenges in weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-16 of 5th April 2020
5. Barro R, Ursua J, Weng J. Coronavirus and the lessons we can learn from the 1918-1920 Great Influenza Pandemic. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-great-influenza-pande... of 23rd March 2020
6. Kickbusch I, Leung GM, Bhutta ZA, Matsoso MP, Ihekweazu C, Abbasi K. Covid-19: how a virus is turning the world upside down. BMJ 2020; 369:m1336 of 3rd April 2020
7. Eregie C.O. COVID-19 Pandemic: The daunting challenges of assuring sustainable benefits from weathering the storm. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1199/rr-14 of 8th April 2020
8. Nelson B. The positive effects of Covid-19. BMJ 2020; 369:m1785
9. Godlee F. Covid-19: Surviving the long road ahead. Editor’s choice. BMJ 2020; 369:m1840
10. Lakhani M, Lakhani S, Lakhani P. Reimagining healthcare after Covid-19. BMJ 2020; 369:2220
11. Clinical Trials.gov. History of changes for study. NCT04280705, 1 May 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/history/NCT04280705?A=10&B=15&C=Side-by-S....
12. Yan W. Coronavirus tests science’s need for speed limits. New York Times 2020 Apr 14. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/science/coronavirus-disinformation.html
13. Glasziou PP, Sanders S, Hoffmann T. Waste in covid-19 research. BMJ 2020; 369:m1847
14. Eregie CO. COVID-19 Pandemic: The multifaceted picture of compromised COVID-19 research and the COVID Phenomenon’. https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1847/rr-12 of 10th June 2020
15. Eregie C.O. The NHS Health Workforce Crisis and the Modern Firm: Considering an Additional Role for ‘Medical Socioeconosophy’ in Basic Medical Education Curriculum Improvement. https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l4173/rr-3 of 26th June 2019
16. Eregie C.O. ’Fit-for-Purpose’ Medical Doctors in Today’s Globalized World: Further Imperative for ‘Medical Socioeconosophy’ in Basic Medical Education Improvement. https://www.bmj.com/content/366/bmj.l4997/rr-1 of 30th August 2019
Professor Charles Osayande Eregie,
MBBS, FWACP, FMCPaed, FRCPCH (UK), Cert. ORT (Oxford), MSc (Religious Education),
Professor of Child Health and Neonatology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria.
UNICEF-Trained BFHI Master Trainer,
ICDC-Trained in Code Implementation,
*Technical Expert/ Consultant on the FMOH-UNICEF-NAFDAC Code Implementation Project in Nigeria.
*No Competing Interests.
Competing interests: No competing interests