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Article VIII:  "Viral Damages To The World":
Around the world, millions of people are still sick of viral pandemics such as AIDS that has killed more than 40 million people worldwide.  As of 2021, 27.4 million people living with HIV were on antiretroviral therapy, up from 8 million in 2010.  While this leaves over 10 million people still untreated, the United Nations intends to narrow the gap with their ambitious 90-90-90 strategy, which aims to end the pandemic by 2030. 
The primary goals of the 90-90-90 strategy were meant to be met by 2020, namely:
  • Diagnosing 90% of people living with HIV worldwide
  • Placing 90% of the diagnosed people on treatment
  • Ensuring 90% of those on treatment have an undetectable viral load
It is known that by achieving this level of viral suppression, people with HIV are far less likely to pass the virus to others. By doing so on a global scale, UNAIDS officials strongly believe that the pandemic can effectively be ended by as early as 2030.  But is it really as easy as all that?  Even the most ardent supporters of the strategy acknowledge that such targets have never before been achieved in the history of public health. In the same breath, however, most will also agree that without the aggressive expansion of existing national HIV programs, the window of opportunity to stave that global crisis could be all but lost.  It was this latter reality that eventually led to the endorsement of the 90-90-90 strategy at a United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, held in New York City in June 2016.
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After more than three years of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that over 763 million infections, and nearly 7 million deaths, have been attributed to COVID-19. Vaccination was deemed crucial to prevent the continued spread of the disease, protect those infected from experiencing severe effects, counter the rise of new variants, and ultimately end the pandemic.  The WHO has lifted the Public Health Emergency of International Concern, but ending the ongoing threat of COVID-19 still depends on vaccination and other protective behaviours. Understanding the effectiveness of vaccines remains crucial.
The WHO announced on May 5th, 2023 that COVID-19 is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).  Meanwhile, a new pandemic may already be on the horizon as the global and interspecies spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza is raising growing alarm. The adoption and now lifting of the PHEIC declaration during the COVID-19 pandemic, and actions taken by governments in between, offer clear lessons if the world is willing to learn and apply them.
True recovery from the viral pandemics is a difficult goal to accomplish, and it is expensive.  For example, who is the real "Patient Zero" of HIV?  Is it human or animal like chimpanzee?  In my view, it is an animal like infected chimpanzee.   Therefore, we need to perform Disaster Recovery (DR) planning and implementation activities.  DR is an organized method of regaining access and functionality to its infrastructure after disaster like viral pandemic, natural disaster like storm, or some other type of disaster.  In other words, DR is consist of best practices designed to prevent or minimize damages from catastrophic disasters.
Many people neglect to develop a reliable and practicable DR plan.  Without such a plan, they have little or no protection from the impact of such disruptive disasters.
A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a set of detailed, documented guidelines that outline critical assets and explain how the organization will respond to unplanned incidents. Unplanned incidents or disasters typically include terrorism, system failures, power outages, natural disasters, equipment failures, or infrastructure disasters.  More specifically, a DRP measures how capable an organization’s ability to restore its functionality and access to critical resources, regardless of the disaster event.
A DRP should identify the responsibilities within the organization, outline the step-by-step instructions for the disaster recovery process, and create plans to mitigate and reduce the impact of the incident so that the organization can resume basic operations as soon as possible.  Without these plans in place, organizations can suffer catastrophic damage in form of data loss, data exposure, significantly reduced productivity, penalties and fines, reputational damage, lost revenue, and unplanned recovery expenses.
Creating DRPs, along with Business Continuity (BC) and Incident Response (IR) plans, can help build confidence with stakeholders, investors, clients, and business partners that demonstrate the capability and preparation to deal with any incident.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is similar to DRP, but a continuity plan is an overarching plan that outlines the steps needed for a business to continue operating in the event of an incident or disaster. A disaster recovery plan considers a more structured approach to the recovery process rather than the continuity process.
Incident Response Plans (IRP) are critical to any security program because they provide detailed actions for responding and reacting to specific incidents. An IRP is focused on handling a cybersecurity incident and its fallout from start to finish, whereas a DRP is a more robust plan that considers the potential of serious damage to the whole enterprise and how to restore technology.
Ultimately, the aim of a DRP is to facilitate quick and complete restoration if disaster strikes that results in downtime.  However, the cost of business downtime is not always easy to calculate and recover.  Amazon, online retailer,  reported revenues of $107 billion in 2015, which comes out to $203,577 every minute in today's numbers, or a $2,646,501 price tag for the 13 minute episode of downtime.
Viral attacks target physically or logically that have one or more vulnerabilities that can be exploited. As a result of the attack, the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the resource may be compromised.  UpGuard's platform for digital resilience ensures that the infrastructure is at all times compliant, hardened for strong security, and free from misconfigurations  that could cause downtime.
The history of viruses is a reminder of the ongoing battle between attackers and defenders. Each new virus has brought new challenges and has continually forced the community to up its game. The landscape of world threats is a battlefield where each side learns and adapts from the other, making the next move unpredictable and the stakes ever higher.  This constant evolution highlights the importance of staying vigilant and proactive, not just in developing new defences but also in educating people about the risks and the best practices for staying safe. After all, in the world, the next threat is just around the corner, waiting for an opportune moment to strike.
Never let your guard down.  The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the globe how this affects our lives, regardless of our region or country. Indeed, how society comes together may determine how resilient we are and will be in the future.  Data is the lifeblood of our businesses and data protection should be a priority for every organization, regardless of size or sector.  As we quite rightly prioritize protecting our lives, it is important not to drop our guard in protecting our most important information assets and understanding its use, particularly pertinent for those sectors that have been most impacted by the pandemic.  We have the opportunity now to keep our businesses and people safe and secure today, but resilient for trusted tomorrow.
In the U.S., new COVID-19 infections are no longer tracked or reported as closely as they were during the public health emergency.  Instead, the officials now focus on testing the contents of wastewater of Americans to keep tabs on the virus.  To identify virus levels and larger trends, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) relies on a large network of sampling sites at wastewater treatment facilities.  The monitoring network covers about 43% of the population.
The process does not precisely count the numbers of cases, and readings can vary based on sewage flows at a particular location or the characteristics of a given variant at a point in time.  However, it does provide an early warning about viral spread.  CNN is tracking these figures each week across the country and by state, and it will keep releasing the new information online.
CDC has funded universities to conduct genomic surveillance research in collaboration with public health agencies. These studies provide deeper insights into viral genomics and molecular epidemiology within the various regions across the U.S. These insights include:

  • Genomic surveillance and outbreak investigation

  • Vaccine breakthrough

  • Patient outcomes and risk factors for severe disease

  • Transmission on or around schools and institutes of higher education

These collaborations further develop and build upon bioinformatic and sequencing capabilities around the country, which are necessary components of a comprehensive public health infrastructure.

Respiratory virus season has arrived in the United States and health officials say that October is a prime time to get vaccinated.  Vaccines for Covid-19, flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are available now. While the respiratory virus season tends to peak between December and March, getting vaccinated in the fall can help provide protection throughout the season.  It takes about two weeks for the body to build up a complete immune response after vaccination, but the protective benefits can last for months, said Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
Pfizer has won a bid in a London court to invalidate two of GSK's patents relating to a RSV vaccine.

The two pharmaceutical giants are among a number of companies in competition for a vaccine for RSV, which typically causes cold-like symptoms but is also a leading cause of pneumonia in toddlers and older adults.

While most cases of RSV go away on their own, the virus can be dangerous for older adults and very young children and is the leading cause of hospitalizations in infants, according to the American Lung Association.  In fact, up to 160,000 older adults get hospitalized for RSV every year, which translates to 6,000 to 10,000 RSV-related deaths per year among people over age 65.​

by Naveed Khan and World Wide Web (WWW) pages; 10/10/2024

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