The past year has clearly become one of the most challenging periods of the 21st century for the whole planet, as people were faced with a global pandemic expanding at an unprecedented rate. When it comes to the United States, the issue of Coronavirus has been tackling American society by infecting more than one hundred thousand fellow residents every single day (CDC). Thus, the American society of today is expected to take care of itself by handling the issue with the help of individual actions. Bearing in mind the duty to defend society during the time of struggle, the following speech is aimed at defining how Americans should act to prevent themselves and their surroundings from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first and perhaps most important aspect of pandemic prevention is adherence to the worldwide recommendations on using means of personal safety, including wearing a mask and hygienic hand disinfection. According to the latest expert testimony, such preventative policies, while unable to stop the pandemic entirely, have a considerable influence on the individual’s risk of disease contraction (Zhang et al.). The following behavioral pattern is of great benefit to individual safety that eventually leads to lower prevalence rates and increases one’s chances of avoiding contact with the infection whatsoever. However, nowadays, there exists a common belief that wearing a mask might be not only inefficient but detrimental in terms of one’s preventative health. Although such a point could only be applied to the cases when people utilize masks inappropriately, in order to eradicate even minor risks, it is of crucial importance to respect the notion of social distancing.
Thus, another important aspect of COVID-19 prevention on a national level is Americans’ respect for the policy of social distancing and self-isolation. At the time when social distancing has become an implicit duty of every woke citizen, the overall period of staying inside has already become unbearable for the vast majority of people, as such an atmosphere could be quite stressful and dangerous for one’s mental health (Musinguzi and Asamoah). As a result, many people might now be considering self-isolation as inefficient due to the remaining risk of contracting a disease in any case. However, while such an assumption has a right to exist, the overall hypotheses of COVID-19 incidence rates shall not be justified by personal experience, as it puts public health in danger. Considering the aforementioned facts, it might be concluded that the major issue Americans are to face nowadays is ignorance.
While some people refuse to accept the harsh reality due to psychological defense mechanisms, others deliberately ignore the situation happening around them. According to the researcher, such behavioral patterns stem from the indifference displayed by local policymakers (Timmermann). As a result, Americans struggle with combating the pandemic within their surroundings, making the infection almost inevitable. It goes without saying that the very root of such a counter position might be justified by nationwide ignorance. However, when talking about situations concerning global pandemics and disease with unpredictable outcomes, the emphasis should still be placed on the means of individual safety.
Thus, the primary solution to the following issue is to encourage American citizens to pay actual attention to the minimal actions that could perform to adverse or, at least, mitigate the disaster. These actions include the realization of self-isolation significance, respect for people’s privacy, and paying attention to self-prophylaxis, i.e., washing hands, covering the face, and taking vitamins to improve the immune system state. Once ignored, the issue of COVID-19 expansion will eventually lead to a rapid increase in the incidence rate, claiming millions of new cases detection every day within a few months.
Taking everything into consideration, it might be concluded that while people had to adapt to a new pattern of living over the past year, modern reality leaves no room for adjustment and encouragement. What Americans can do now to avert the disastrous outcomes of COVID-19 spreading is to minimize any possibility of contracting the disease by adhering to basic means of personal safety. In such a way, one person is able to save dozens of lives by refusing to become the infection carriers.
Works Cited
CDC. “COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Trends in the US | CDC COVID Data Tracker.” Centers for Disease Control and Preventionr. 2020, Web.
Musinguzi, Geoffrey, and Bennedict Oppong Asamoah. “The Science of Social Distancing and Total Lock Down: Does it Work? Whom does it Benefit?.” Electronic Journal of General Medicine, vol. 17, no. 6, 2020.
Timmermann, Cristian. “Epistemic ignorance, poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic.” Asian Bioethics Review, 2020, pp. 1-9.
Zhang, Lei, et al. “Can Self-Imposed Prevention Measures Mitigate the COVID-19 Epidemic?.” PLoS medicine, vol. 17, no. 7, 2020, e1003240.