CHAPTER 8
Taken together, the two lines of research describe infrastructure for the next pandemic in three steps.
| Step | What it means | Elements of this research |
|---|---|---|
| Govern | Make information use and AI outputs verifiably governable under socially defined rules | VRAIO (Chapter 7) |
| Measure | On that foundation of trust, measure and understand infection and exposure at higher resolution | Smartphones and wearables; PAPR wear and breathing sensing (Chapter 4, Chapter 5) |
| Protect | Use that understanding to deliver protection and intervention where, when and to whom they are needed | PAPR for Everyone (Chapter 1, Chapter 6) |
Instead of imposing uniform restrictions across society, infection risk could be understood more precisely, and protective resources and interventions concentrated where they have the greatest value. This is a path towards high-resolution epidemiology and precision intervention.
This is not yet a completed social system. But many of its components are beginning to exist: technologies that protect the individual breathing zone, sensing through smartphones and wearables, increasingly capable AI, and privacy infrastructure designed to make information use verifiably governable. If they can be brought together, we may be approaching the threshold of a large-scale social infrastructure for the next pandemic.
We welcome contact from medical and public health researchers, local governments, manufacturers, funders and partner organisations (Chapter 10).
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Measures for the Next Pandemic: engineering and social infrastructure for controlling infection without stopping society | Yusaku Fujii (Gunma University)
This site presents research-stage work; figures are model calculations or prototype measurements.