Deliverables

Governance

• Drawing on a selective review of published literature, theoretical constructs from organization sciences, public administration and political sciences, and feedback from experts in three countries (Netherlands, Finland and Italy), “D1.1 Recommendations for governance and policies in the COVID-19 response” conceptualizes the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences as a wicked problem; a complex and dynamic societal challenge for which there is no single and widely accepted solution. It also analyzes the outbreak as a slow burning crisis, with long lasting effects well beyond when the “hot phase” of the crisis is over.

• Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HERoS partner PCPM has deployed emergency medical teams to Italy, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uganda to provide ICU and case management support as well as training to local medical staff. Within HERoS, PCPM has used this experience to update minimum datasets collected by EMTs to include COVID-19 surveillance data and streamline standard operating procedures of EMT deployment. The effort – which is reflected in D1.3 “Changing workflows and methods to support COVID-19 outbreak surveillance” – has been carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe and tested in real-life conditions during a recent deployment in Uganda.

Epidemiological and behavioural modelling 

• “D2.1 Local behavioural model and recommendations for local COVID-19” response makes a head start on agent-based modelling that provides insights into the dynamics of the spread and the impact of different policies in two cities. Based on this, we provide recommendations for cities and governmental bodies on robust policies that help to control the spread of the disease.

• “D2.2 Healthcare System Analysis” assesses how healthcare systems responded to the crises during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. In the study we analyse how different health care system features, country characteristics, and COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions affected the spread of the virus on healthcare systems in Europe in the spring of 2020 and how the health care systems responded. Note: An ICU capacity online tool created within the context of this deliverable is now available.

Medical supply chain management

• The objective of “D3.1 Gap analysis and recommendations for securing medical supplies for the COVID-19 response” is to identify the gaps in the medical supply chains caused by COVID-19, and to make recommendations helping to secure medical supplies. Thus, the present deliverable contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak”.

• “D3.2 –  Adaptation of workflows for drone deliveries to quarantines” analyses the potential benefits of the delivery of medicines using drones in the context of pandemics as well as the factors that hinder its development. We also surveyed the UAV, crew workflow and ground support services framework and prepared recommendations for legal implementation. On this base, we propose a model workflow for UAV delivery of medicines.

Online misinformation 

• “D4.1 – COVID-19 misinformation tracking” presents the state of the art in measuring the impact of fact-checking , highlighting a gap in which our knowledge of misinformation spread patterns is disconnected from how we approach the diffusion of fact-checking information. It  highlight the necessity for understanding the “co-spread” of both misinformation and fact-checking information, to be able to measure the impact of fact-checking on specific misinforming claims temporally and, potentially, at the geographic or platform level.

• In “D4.2 – Crowdsourced information clustering“, we describe our efforts to identify sources of data from which we can gather insights about what kinds of needs (informational and tangible) citizens have shared during the COVID-19 pandemic. We introduce our methodological approaches for processing this data and making it a useful resource for the research community, as well as government officials and authorities who are charged with handling the crisis.

Publications 

Scientific articles and conference proceedings

• Grégoire Burel, Tracie Farrell, Harith Alani (2021). Demographics and topics impact on the co-spread of COVID-19 misinformation and fact-checks on Twitter. In: Information Processing & Management, Volume 58, Issue 6,2021, 102732, ISSN 0306-4573, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102732.
• Falagara Sigala, Ioanna; Kovács, Gyöngyi (2020). Lessons learned from humanitarian logistics to manage supply chain disruptions. In: Journal of Supply Chain Management.
• Burel, Gregoire; Farrell, Tracie; Mensio, Martino; Khare, Prashant and Alani, Harith (2020). Co-Spread of Misinformation and Fact-Checking Content during the Covid-19 Pandemic. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Social Informatics Conference (SocInfo), LNCS.
• Boersma, Kees; Larruina, Robert (2020). Restoring the medical supply chain from below. The role of social entrepreneurship in the production of face masks during the COVID-19 crisis. In: 18th ISCRAM Conference Proceedings.

Media articles 

• HERoS: How can we improve our response to health emergencies? In: European Sciences-Media Hub (2021)
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with Gyöngyi Kovacs about the EU Project HERoS. In: European Sciences-Media Hub (2021)
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with Ira Haavisto about the EU Project HERoS. In: European Sciences-Media Hub (2021)
• Gray, Richard (2021). How vulnerable groups were left behind in pandemic response. In: Horizon Magazine
• Kovács, Gyöngyi (2021).Vaccin mot covid-19: Större produktionskapacitet och stabila leveranser är i huvudfokus. In: Ekonomiska Samfundets Tidskrift
• Gray, Richard (2020). Lack of solidarity hampered Europe’s coronavirus response, research finds. In: Horizon Magazine
• Kovács, Gyöngyi ((2020). Covid-19: de ekonomiska konsekvenserna av en epidemi. In Ekonomiska Samfundets Tidskrift
• Sarkis, Joseph ; Kovács, Gyöngyi (2020). How Humanitarian Logistics Can Inform a New Normal for Supply Chains – Post-COVID-19
• Bruun, Alva; Kovács, Gyöngyi (2020). From risk to resilience in the global supply chain economy after Covid-19, a humanitarian response. In Discover Society

Blogs

• Falagara Sigala, Ioanna (2021). Your face mask impacts the global supply chains. Humlog Blogs. 
• Bergtora Sandvik, Kristin; Kovács, Gyöngyi; Comes, Tina (2020). The Coldest Cold Chain: Chilling Effects of Covid-19 Vaccines. International Health Policies.
• Falagara Sigala, Ioanna; Kovács, Gyöngyi;  Maghsoudi, Amin; Piotrowicz, Wojciech; Storsjö, Isabell; Vega, Diego (2020). Temperature control matters! Fact sheet to prepare for COVID-19 vaccination programmes. Humlog Blogs

Tools & training 

• ICU capacity data visualisation tool. HERoS partner Nordic Healthcare Group has developed an online tool to visualise occupancy rates at intensive care units in different countries and regions of the European Union between February and November 2020. It is based on datasets from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as well as national health authorities. Availability of data concerning ICU capacity at regional and country level in real-time is pivotal to organise health infrastructure at the EU level during a crisis. This tool is an example of how data can be processed to guide decision making by public authorities.

• Fact-Checking Observatory. The Fact-checking Observatory builds on research by the Knowledge Media Institute of The Open University carried out within European projects related to misinformation (HERoS and Co-Inform). It generates weekly automated reports about misinformation risk areas – including COVID-19 – and indicators about the effectiveness of fact-checking articles in reducing misinformation spread.

• ‘Logistics for Pandemic Response’ training module. HERoS partner Hanken School of Economics has developed a pandemic response training module as part of the Introduction to Humanitarian Logistics MOOC that it currently offers. The ‘Disease Outbreaks’ module draws from the research carried out within HERoS and provides an overview of the different types of outbreaks and their impact, particularly on supply chains. Some of the topics discussed in the module include supply chain disruptions, mitigation strategies and civil-military cooperation. The MOOC is free, open to all and ‘always on’, meaning that prospective participants can start the course at any time.