WHO online courses on Covid 19 treatment ..

While discussing with one of my colleagues on how to make effective interventions in the Covid treatment scenario in our University,  it came upon me to learn something more about the Covid virus  treatment protocols  design of treatment centers etc. when I came across one of my friends speaking about World Health Organization (WHO) online courses.

WHO has been proactively involving itself, first with China, though it has been misunderstood very badly of late, to improve the awareness and preparedness of nations to meet the Covid 19 pandemic. There is no other international organisation like WHO that has the competitive ability to intervene across geographical boundaries to alleviate the harmful impact of the virus and to take effective steps to control the spread of the pandemic.

After downloading the OpenWHO app from Google store, I went through the courses being offered. Joined for the eProtect course and by Saturday evening completed. I found that this was one of the best ways to get authentic information about the virus and different treatments   there was no looking back. 

WHO DG Dr. Tedris Ghebreyesus Adhanom

By Monday 22 June morning 7.15 am, I had completed 4 WHO online courses. Certificate links given here with QR codes to assure the authenticity of the process.

1. Course 1 on eProtect Respiratory Infections

2. Course 2 on Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 :

methods for detection, prevention, response and control

3. Course 3 on COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines

and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support

country preparedness and response

4. Course 4 on designing a Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) treatment centre

5. Course 5 on Standard Procedure in hand hygiene 

6. Course 6 on Standard Precautions in Waste Management.

7. Course 7 on Environmental Cleaning and disinfection

8. Course 8 on How to put and remove PPE 

9. Course 9 on Decontamination and Sterilization of Medical Devices

10. Course 10 on Standard Precautions on Injection Safety and Needlestick Injury Management

The Kubler Ross grief cycle ..

The experience was unique.

Unfortunately these 6 courses never mentioned about the human stresses because of the Covid 19 infection and how to handle these stresses effectively.

The Kubler-Ross grief cycle (given here) is a curve that gives the various stages through which people pass when overcome with real grief (or anticipatory grief) .

Click here for the HBR article of Mar '20 here ..

According to me, the migrant worker population in India are already in the descending part of the KR curve, given that they were the first in the country to go back to their native states. The office going staff are slightly up, yet to face reality .. After reaching the native states the workers are relaxed but the feeling of what next and where next has gripped them.. They are in the process of descending the curve fast ..

Will awareness of the harmful potential of the virus help them to explore alternate ways to face the life-crisis ? Will people for the time being, turn to agriculture, as a means to improve their livelihoods and overcome the desperation ?

George 

A role play on Design Thinking at Alliance University ..

Design Thinking comprises of a set of skills by which one is able to solve complex design problems and come up with innovative practical and economical solutions.

Though the process has been developed by David Kelly of IDEO, Professor at Stanford D-school, IDEO CEO has come with an interesting article in HBR in 2008.  Click here for my earlier writing on a Design Thinking Workshop at AU.

This write up is regarding a classroom Design Thinking exercise we had with students of sem 3 MBA on 9 June 2020, through the online mode. These days because of the Corona scare, all classes are happening virtually online through the MS TEAMS setup in AU.

We started with the empathising phase, which involves everyone in the exercise introducing themselves with an introduction, which essentially is the narration of an unfortunate event in the life of the participant till that time. The main purpose of this step is to ensure that the participant is able to recollect realistic situations with the deep meanings in the expressions and narration.

We entered the definition phase by identifying the problem we were going to work on. The issue of traffic congestion in different parts of Bangalore city was the one that came to our mind. We decided to do a design thinking exercise to find out the reasons why traffic congestion is high in Silk Board junction in Bangalore and possible steps to counter it.

In the next phase of Ideation, we embarked on a Brainstorming exercise to find out possible means by which traffic congestion could be reduced at Silk Board junction in Bangalore.

The brainstorming session created about 18 ideas with 3 rounds of 6 teams each, and then we narrowed down into 3 top ideas.

In the Prototype phase, we thought about the different steps that could be taken up to get the plan implemented. Since providing good connectivity between Metro and BMTC was one of the final 3 ideas that came up, we decided to ask govt and BMTC, Metro etc to have dedicated teams that would work to improve the connectivity between Metro and BMTC across Bangalore.

One the Govt accepts our recommendations, we are sure the traffic congestion issue in Bangalore, Silk Board junction will be solved to come etxnet, at least. .

Tour of a cargo ship ..

A sea man's life is tough. Though he gets to see all land and people around the world,  being away from home and family for sometime as long as six to eight months can really be nerve-cracking.

Click here for a video of the tour of a cargo ship (25 minutes), interesting  ..

If not for an appointment letter from MRF Chennai, I would have been working on a cargo, container or cruise ship now, as before MRF, I was working at Kochi Port Trust after my Mechanical Engineering degree BTech, from Government College of Engineering   Trivandrum,  Kerala, 1981-86.

This video helps me give real life experience sharing with students on sea transportation using ships.

George 

Differences in Covid handling approach of countries and states across the world ..

Difference in approach to handle Covid virus patients acrossthe world ..

How precious are lives for the government in Kerala, the small state in the Southern tip of India, how meticulously they go about coordinating their activities across the length and breadth of the state with whatever limited resources at their disposal, identifying high risk patients coming across state and national boundaries, quarantining them, isolating Covid positive patients, coordinating their food and medical supplies at near perfect efficiency levels,  ensuring high quality medical attention through out this period, and finally managing to keep death and  casualities at under 4 ...

On the other hand, we have the so called medically and heath-wise advanced countries of the world, where patients are falling off like chicken (already reached 2,45,000 with no value for human lives..😥😥), with overwhelmed medical infrastructure offering poor medical attention and primary health care to patients, no preparedness for prevention of virus spread, poor care and attention of the infected and highly critical patients..

We hear only futile words of promise from the leaders in these countries and reassurance of loss of thousands more cheap lives in the coming days .. What a degraded, discredited and debased health-care system which only cares for the revival of health of the economy with total disregard of the physical health of its precious citizens, who are left individually to fend for themselves .. 🤔🤔😥😥

I am confused, which is a truly welfare state?

George Easaw..

Supply Chain Crossword puzzle 2

Puzzle

Across

1. product _____ is the process of distinguishing a product or service from others,
   

1. (cont..) to make it more attractive to a particular target market. (d,15)

2. actual demand is the trigger for this type of production system (4)

3. the push-pull ______ separates the push and pull system of production in organisations (b,8)

4. the distribution side of the supply chain is mainly of this type (d,9)

5. these supply chains are more concerned with customer satisfaction than costs (i,10)

Down

1. place where inventory is stored (9)

2. supplies raw materials (8)

3. this supply chain focus on reducing waste and containing costs (e,9)

4. this supply chain focus more on customer experience and satisfaction (r,10)
   

5. the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of
   

1. (cont..) consumption to meet the requirements of customers or corporations.(l,9)

6. the trigger for a push system is the ______ forecast (6)

© 2020 Alliance University, Bangalore

Age-wise analysis of Covid deaths

While discussing with my son over the lockdown lifting in Bangalore and across the world, the additional infection and fatalities, against the ensuing industry closure and economy lockdown, I was arguing for more strict lockdown measures while my son was arguing for opening of the economy.  

He patiently put his point through - it's the 74 years plus who are mostly dying, what can we do about it? It makes not much difference  .. 

NY deaths, 14 April '20, AGE	Number of Deaths	Share of deaths
0 - 17 years old	3	0.04%
18 - 44 years old	309	4.50%
45 - 64 years old	1,581	23.10%
65 - 74 years old	1,683	24.60%
75+ years old	3,263	47.70%
TOTAL	6,839	100%

I found his argument that 50% of the deaths in NY city were of age 74+ years and 95% of the dead were 44 + years, to be very alarming but at the same time useful information ! I was arguing from my perspective and he was arguing from his side. It was a real eye opener for me !!!

I wanted to see the age distribution in the city of NY. (only age wise data available till 14 April '20), 

Pl click here for an age wise analysis in NY city ..

The facts he reeled out were 100% true. The Covid virus is taking away the old and aged from society, early. Quite natural !! 

In India almost 70% of population is below 44 years (with just 5% risk of dying of Covid virus, extrapolating NY data to India) and they are risking their future and livelihoods for the other 30% aged 44 years and above who are the most affected (with almost 95% death cases in NY).. He silenced me with just this one fact or statement..

Should we open the economy or extend the lockdown  ? Let us rethink hard ..

George  ..

Analysis - Covid urgency in India, 4 May 2020

Covid related deaths have been happening in India at very low rates, compared to Europe or US, but alarmingly increasing daily at a positive rate, though not nearing exponential proportions. That was the reason why I thought it is the ripe time to carry out an analysis of the Covid situation in India.

Click here for an interesting analysis, carried out by me for the decision makers and policy planners in India. Data from www.manoramaonline.com. 

It is very simple and clear. Maharashtra and Gujarat are the two major Indian states badly affected, Indians would be better off not visiting these two states, unless very urgent,  in the next six months. 

While Maharashtra continues to be badly affected, Kerala at the lower end, though the first in India to have a Covid patient from China, has managed the process well with just three deaths in as many months.

Wishing the Covid deaths in India get controlled by May end of 2020, with no second bout of infections, as forecasted by some sections of the media.

Indians would be better off practicing

• social distancing
• avoiding social gatherings 
• avoiding handshakes, 
• wearing masks 
• observing high standards of personal hygiene and 
• frequent hand washing
• less travel, particularly air travel
• improving personal health by good exercising
• getting good sleep, almost 7-9 hours daily
• most importantly, caring for the suffering members of the public

Lets hope by these steps we are jointly able to contain this virus, once for all.

George..