Project Managing a Covid Response

 This by no means is a blueprint for tackling the obvious but rather a series of thoughts I have had since this pandemic began.  As to how I could help and what can be done in some small way I found I could do what I think I am equipped to.  Educate.  I was part of a volunteer task force led by some eminences in MIT and co-funded by some prominent non profits to develop content to explain how to use mobile apps to do contact tracing, what Covid is and what the available testing means.

I like to think few people benefited from reading some of that content.

That said I think the overall scope of Covid and its impact and the subsequent required mitigation is to solve for or tackle the three boulders (big rocks).

1. Funding - probably a key component.  Adequate and consistent funding to pay for multitude of services and research and staffing and components and peripherals like masks, PPE etc.

2. Logistics - managing global supply chains to deliver everything from prophylactics or now vaccines or even test kits to protective gear and oxygen machines, ventilators to where it is needed most.  As our Dr. Fauci says - getting needles in arms.  There are several entities globally equipped to do this in the most efficient manner.

3. Medical Science and ongoing evolution of cure - The vast body of medical know how that would at first lessen severity of symptoms, diagnose and then develop cures is an integral part of this overarching design that could help us overcome the crisis of the planet.

Now having listed this perhaps simplistic view of what we are facing what I found most baffling is the execution against any of the above.

e.g.  For all the Gates foundations, Tatas (in India) or many more luminous organizations or NGO there has not been a concentrated war like command and control that would oversee the conceiving and delivery of a global solution.  What I see instead is arbitrary and sporadic efforts being run out of random pockets on the globe, in large part by grass roots organizations with no capacity nor the training to tackle something of this scale.

Compound this with social media that IMHO has been more of a curse than blessing with lot of GIGO overpowering the good that the individual efforts are attempting to deliver.

A friend recently highlighted this plight when he said there were multiple fakes or sub standard oxygen concentrators being peddled in Whatsapp and desperate customers were paying ridiculous sums and not doing any due diligence.  This is resulting in more pain and death and not much upside.

Clearly the governments whether first world or not have seen that they were nowhere near prepared to handle what happened.

On the corporate front I also wonder how a oft touted business case in Ivy schools like Amazon.com was not able to re-deploy a fractional portion of its vast supply chain to break the logistics boulder.  Am I missing something?

Then take research and drug development.  Yes, the regulatory framework was bent to deliver vaccine in record time but the subsequent dissemination and /or hoarding in some cases is baffling.  What is more important?  Storing millions of vials for what may be needed some day when enough nurses were around or immediately plugging the holes in the dam that threaten to upend the existence if not plugged yesterday?

Any rate head in the sand approach, or ideological arrogance and battle of egos has cause irreparable harm globally.  Common man always has and will bear the burden of this pathogen's wrath.

For all the advances in many arenas and human ingenuity we also saw the worst of our species on display.  Price gouging to rape of innocents has been highlighted as the species fights one of its most important battles this century.  If we are to continue to inhabit this planet we are going to have to hit a major reset.  I like to think we are far way from there.