The Application of Data Science in Public Health

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220105.060How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Data Science; COVID-19; Health QR Code; Privacy; Public Health

Abstract

Since the eruption of COVID-19 pandemic at the end of Dec. 2019, China has relied heavily on health QR code to monitor the movement of people at various locales and regions. Technically, health QR code is a micro-program embedded in Alipay or Wechat that integrates big data and complicated algorithm to allocate a certain color (red, yellow, or green corresponding to different levels of exposure risks) to the code. The placement of health QR code in nearly every smart phone in China has contributed to the establishment of a social barrier to withstand the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, before the sweeping of COVID-19 pandemic, QR code was mainly limited to occasions such as electronic payment and seldom applicable to the domain of public health. Gradually, the destiny of QR code has been sublimed to a national necessity and the very techniques that make the code work fall into the category of data science, via which data is collected, processed, integrated, and visually displayed. However, while health QR code contributed to choking of COVID-19 spread in China, the implication of coercive usage of such a system led to concerns that personal information might be misused for unrighteous purposes and the erroneous analytical results might cause negative consequences. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that although the wielding of data science might lead to some undesirable effects, it is inevitable for contemporary human beings to accept and get along with datafication.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Dingwei Zhan
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/01/17
TI  - The Application of Data Science in Public Health
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Social Development and Media Communication (SDMC 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 317
EP  - 322
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220105.060
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220105.060
ID  - Zhan2022
ER  -