Pandemics, Preprints, and Praxis

Background

COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), as named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. As of December 5^th, 2020, there have been over 66 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally and more than 1.5 million deaths according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (Johns Hopkins, 2020). The pandemic continues with no end in sight, save for the hope of a vaccine being produced, tested, and distributed in record time. Similar to the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, general precautions recommended by medical experts include physically distancing, wearing a multilayered mask over the mouth and nose, and frequently washing hands. Contemporary technologies have afforded people novel ways to seek medical help and diagnose and treat illnesses that people a century ago did not have. Videoconferencing technologies allow people to conduct telehealth appointments, computers afford the ability to construct, view, and disseminate advanced models of how diseases progress and may progress, and there is the possibility of diagnosing illnesses through data collected by wearable technologies.