key: cord-0799334-x0gqyqt1
authors: Seah, KT Matthew
title: COVID-19: Exposing digital poverty in a pandemic (Correspondence)
date: 2020-05-23
journal: Int J Surg
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.05.057
sha: 2712606843473f11def9e8a4730354c4fd62a8a8
doc_id: 799334
cord_uid: x0gqyqt1

nan

In an increasingly digital world, we have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with rapid data sharing, facilitating the development of over 100 trial vaccines 1 .

Digital technologies are incorporated into many countries' public health plans.

Many businesses now require employees to work remotely, and as schools and universities close their doors, learning has also moved online.

Relatively privileged people are able to use their access to digital technologies to enable remote access to health and education, as well as economic and political empowerment. However, a significant proportion of the global population is digitally excluded because they lack internet access and/or have Digital technologies are advancing at an accelerated pace, and we need to be mindful that unless developments are consciously designed to address the specific needs of the most deprived, then the use of digital technologies risks excluding and further disadvantaging those already being left behind.

Provenance and peer review Not Commissioned, internally reviewed

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