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. 2024 May 22;5(2):211-220.
doi: 10.3390/epidemiologia5020015.

Post-COVID-19: Time to Change Our Way of Life for a Better Future

Affiliations

Post-COVID-19: Time to Change Our Way of Life for a Better Future

Roch Listz Maurice. Epidemiologia (Basel). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: From the year 1 anno Domini until 1855, with the third plague, major pandemics occurred on average every 348 years. Since then, they have occurred on average every 33 years, with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) now underway. Even though current technologies have greatly improved the way of life of human beings, COVID-19, with more than 700,000,000 cases and 6,950,000 deaths worldwide by the end of 2023, reminds us that much remains to be done. This report looks back at 18 months of COVID-19, from March 2020 to August 2021, with the aim of highlighting potential solutions that could help mitigate the impact of future pandemics. Materials and Methods: COVID-19 data, including case and death reports, were extracted daily from the Worldometer platform to build a database for the macroscopic analysis of the spread of the virus around the world. Demographic data were integrated into the COVID-19 database for a better understanding of the spatial spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cities/municipalities. Without loss of generality, only data from the top 30 (out of 200 and above) countries ranked by total number of COVID-19 cases were analyzed. Statistics (regression, t-test (p < 0.05), correlation, mean ± std, etc.) were carried out with Excel software (Microsoft® Excel® 2013 (15.0.5579.1001)). Spectral analysis, using Matlab software (license number: 227725), was also used to try to better understand the temporal spread of COVID-19. Results: This study showed that COVID-19 mainly affects G20 countries and that cities/municipalities with high population density are a powerful activator of the spread of the virus. In addition, spectral analysis highlighted that the very first months of the spread of COVID-19 were the most notable, with a strong expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. On the other hand, the following six months showed a certain level of stability, mainly due to multiple preventive measures such as confinement, the closure of non-essential services, the wearing of masks, distancing of 2 m, etc. Conclusion: Given that densely populated cities and municipal areas have largely favored the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is believed that such a demographic context is becoming a societal problem that developed countries must address in a manner that is adequate and urgent. COVID-19 has made us understand that it is time to act both preventatively and curatively. With phenomenological evidence suggesting that the next pandemic could occur in less than 50 years, it may be time to launch new societal projects aimed at relieving congestion in densely populated regions.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemics; population density; prevention; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide by week, from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2021. The quadratic regression profile (R2 = 0.7592) appears to indicate some stability in the spread trend of the SARS-CoV-2 virus towards fall 2020. The data were sampled over three consecutive 6-month periods, i.e., from 2 March 2020 to 31 August 2020, from 1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021, and from 1 March 2021 to 31 August 2021 for further investigations. (b) The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide by week, from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2020; (c) COVID-19 spectrum showing width of 8 201T at threshold 5% of maximum amplitude, T = 1 week period; (d) number of COVID-19 cases worldwide by week, from 1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021; (e) spectrum of COVID-19 spread profile showing wide bandwidth 12 161T, T = 1 week period; (f) number of COVID-19 cases worldwide by week, from 1 March 2021 to 31 August 2021; (g) spectrum of COVID-19 spread profile showing wide bandwidth 11 171T, T = 1 week period.
Figure 2
Figure 2
From the year 1 anno Domini until 1855 with the third plague, major pandemics occurred on average every 348 years; since then, they have occurred on average every 33 years, with COVID-19 now underway.

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Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.