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Over the Moon ( Review )

Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) is a girl who suffers the horrible grief of losing her mother at a young age. Four years later, her father (John Cho) has moved on and is considering marrying again, sending Fei Fei for a loop. She’s not yet processed the loss of her mother and now she’s being asked to welcome another woman into that role, along with an annoying potential stepbrother. Fei Fei panics and decides to basically explore her mother’s favorite legend about a moon goddess who is waiting there for the return of her lost love. She builds a rocket and takes off into the stars, sucked into a magical world of helpful dragons and bright creatures inspired by the Chinese tradition of the Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival. In visual terms, this is a space trip as imagined by someone on a bulk candy bender, splashed with more vibrant colors than we typically see on the gray orb. When Fei Fei gets to the moon, she finds the legendary Chang’e (Phillipa Soo of “Hamilton” fame), but she’s not exactly welcoming. Insisting that Fei Fei must bring her a gift, our heroine is sent on a quest—find the mysterious gift, which will be exchanged for a photo to prove the existence of Chang'e. If Fei Fei can show that the legend of a woman who has waiting centuries for the return of her love is true than maybe dad wait a little bit longer to replace Fei Fei’s mother. A character named Gobi (Ken Jeong) ends up by Fei Fei’s side almost as if someone yelled “Give me an Olaf!” during a production meeting and this was the result.

For as long as children’s animation has existed, it has been used to confront how children process grief. It’s one of the greatest changes that a child can face, and the best family entertainment addresses it without talking down to young people. “Over the Moon” doesn’t exactly talk down, but it clutters its serious themes every chance it gets. The music is generally forgettable, though a song near the end that directly addresses loss is easily the most powerful in the film because it’s the first time the movie feels like it calms down and confronts what it should have been about instead of throwing flashy colors in pursuit of dull quest storytelling. There’s a tenderness in some of the beats near the conclusion that one wishes the rest of the movie leaned into instead of just hurtling itself through the stars.

It also doesn’t help that the visuals of “Over the Moon” are so polished and refined that it resembles a video game more than cinematic animation that stands the test of time. It’s rich with color but thin on actual detail. It's the vast difference between something that tries to numb kids with constant motion and something that trusts their young audience to meet them halfway. It’s naturally a little unfair to compare something to Studio Ghibli, but they’re a studio that has dealt with grief and princess mythology before, and have done so in a way that never disguises the humanity embedded in all of their work. That’s what’s missing here.

It can feel a bit curmudgeonly to come down on an animated musical about a girl grieving the loss her mother. Especially for families dealing with so much pain and grief in 2020, “Over the Moon” could be the kind of fable they need to help process what’s going unspoken in their lives. But the best fables linger in the heart and mind. This one never makes it past the eyes.

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“Managing public health crises: the role of models in pandemic preparedness and Coronavirus   Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Perspective from China”

Text 1

Title of the Text: Managing public health crises: the role of models in pandemic preparedness

Author(s)of the Text: Seyed M. Moghadas, Nick J. Pizzi, Jianhong Wu, Ping Yan

Title of the Journal/Publication: Issue Online: 02 March 2009, Version of Record online: 02 March 2009, Editorial history: Accepted 3 February 2009. Published Online 3 March 2009.

URL or web address: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1750-2659.2009.00081.x

Main Idea: Given the enormity of challenges involved in pandemic preparedness, design and implementation of effective and cost‐effective public health policies is a major task that requires an integrated approach through engagement of scientific, administrative, and political communities across disciplines. There is ample evidence to suggest that modeling may be a viable approach to accomplish this task.

Evidence that supports the main idea (provide at least two): There will be little time for thoughtful and rapid reflection once an influenza pandemic strikes, and therefore preparedness is an unavoidable priority. Modeling and simulations are key resources in pandemic planning to map out interdependencies and support complex decision‐making. Models are most effective in formulating strategies for managing public health crises when there are synergies between modelers, planners, and policymakers.

Text 2

Title of the Text: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Perspective from China

Author(s) of the Text: Zi Yue Zu, Meng Di Jiang, Peng Peng Xu, Wen Chen, Qian Qian Ni, Guang Ming Lu, Long Jiang Zhang

Title of the Journal/Publication:

URL or web address: https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.2020200490#

Main Idea: Radiologists’ understanding of clinical and chest CT features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will help detect the infection early and assess the disease course.

Evidence that supports the main idea (provide at least two): In December 2019, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and spread across China and beyond. On February 12, 2020, the World Health Organization officially named the disease caused by the novel coronavirus as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Because most patients infected with COVID-19 had pneumonia and characteristic CT imaging patterns, radiologic examinations have become vital in early diagnosis and the assessment of disease course. To date, CT findings have been recommended as major evidence for clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 in Hubei, China. This review focuses on the etiology, epidemiology, and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 while highlighting the role of chest CT in prevention and disease control.

 C.

“Managing public health crises: the role of models in pandemic preparedness and Coronavirus  

Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Perspective from China”

Influenza pandemics have traditionally been detrimental to mankind with substantial morbidity , mortality and socio-economic effects. The 1918–1919 pandemic, the so-called "mother of all pandemics," caused more than 50 million deaths from myriad infections worldwide. Today, 40 years after the last pandemic in 1968, the planet could be on the edge of another big global pandemic. , with a toll that could surpass that of the 1918-1919 pandemic. While the magnitude of the next influenza pandemic can not be determined with precision, determining strategies to effectively minimize the spread of disease is an important priority in response to this global threat. The workshop brought together public health specialists, key decision-makers and modelers of infectious diseases to: recognize the strengths and shortcomings of statistical models and find ways to strengthen their predictive potential that would potentially affect policy effectiveness; and have an opportunity to address the target elements of the Pandemic Strategy and define important factors that influence policy decision-making.

A sustained outbreak of pneumonia associated with a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, was recorded in Wuhan, Hubei Province , China, in December 2019. In the weeks that followed, diseases spread across China and other countries around the world. Chinese public health, healthcare and science institutions have taken steps to ensure prompt identification of the new virus and to distribute the viral genome sequence around the world. The disease was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Significance by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. On 12 February 2020, the WHO referred to Coronavirus Disease 2019 as the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A group of international experts, with a range of expertise, have worked with Chinese counterparts to try to contain the outbreak. In a preliminary paper, a full viral genome review showed that the virus shared 88 per cent sequencing identity with two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, although more distant from the SARS coronavirus. As a result, the virus was initially named the novel coronavirus in 2019. Coronavirus is an enveloped and single-stranded ribonucleic acid known for its solar corona-like appearance due to 9–12 nm-long surface spikes. On 11 February 2020, the Coronavirus Research Group of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy eventually named it as SARS coronavirus 2, based on phylogeny, taxonomy and existing practice. Shortly afterward, the WHO responded to the disease caused by the coronavirus COVID-19. Based on current evidence, it appears that SARS coronavirus 2 may initially be carried by bats and may have been transmitted to humans by means of pangolin or other wild animals sold at the Huanan Seafood Market, but subsequently spread via human-to - human transmission.

As a matter of fact , the two papers are related to the subject. This pandemic coronavirus is the biggest public health epidemic of our time and the largest threat we have encountered since the Second World War. Since its appearance in Asia late last year, the virus has spread to all continents except Antarctica. But the pandemic is far more than a health crisis, it is also an ongoing socio-economic disaster. Every nation needs to intervene quickly to plan, adapt and recover.