A coronavirus is a group of viruses that cause infections in both human beings and animals. The strain of the virus experienced globally was known as acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus is associated with coronavirus disease 19(COVID-19). Coronavirus pandemic was a global health crisis that the world had felt in ages since World War Two. With different hypotheses on where the virus would have originated, some suggested it spread through bats and pangolins. The first human case of the virus was first tested in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 (Yuki et al.) The virus affected the respiratory organs making it hard for the individual to breathe normally, and hence, were induced to the life support machine. On March 11, 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a global pandemic (Yuki et al.). Ever since, the virus had spread all over the world, causing detrimental economic crises globally.
Precautional measures such as sanitizing, maintaining social distance, avoiding crowded places, and sanitizing alcohol-based solutions were advised to the public, but people still died even after practicing these procedures. The virus caused more deaths to have been recorded worldwide, and more people were dying daily. The health sector tried to develop different vaccines to curb the virus, whereby some were effective, and others failed. The pandemic had paralyzed every industry of each nation health-wise, economically, politically, and religiously. According to Flecknoe et al., the other virus that had such damage was the Spanish flu, also known as Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which lasted for two years, claiming over 500 million people (66).
The coronavirus pandemic had caused havoc for the period it lasted, leaving long-lasting scars in the social, political, and economic sectors of the country it touched. Every day people were losing loved ones, jobs and they were unsure of when the virus would end. The government, non-governmental organizations, and people came to the frontline to help people affected severely by the pandemic, especially in African nations. People lived in fear as they never knew who the virus would attack next and when it would end. This inculcated fear even in the officials in the government as it had taken more people in the leadership position than any other virus.
It was estimated that older adults were at a high risk of contracting the pandemic as their immune systems were weak. Hence, some health officials advised people to lessen visitations. Countries were put under lockdown and curfew hours stipulated to minimize movement. This affected the nation economically as businesses had to close at given hours, making it hard for them to work as they used to before. Politically, many campaign and voting processes had to be changed or not conducted at all. Some nations like the United States advocated for electric voting, which was practiced in certain states like Georgia.
From the time the virus was declared a global pandemic by WHO, people observed precautional measures displayed on different platforms, including social media and television. Even with all these measures, people continued to die, others losing their jobs, and governments turning to ask for help from lenders to borrow loans to stabilize their economy. With the efforts of different medical practitioners and highly enhanced technological equipment in the medicine sector, doctors and scientists came up with other vaccines that worked with fewer side effects. In conjunction with WHO, various organizations looked for safer and effective ways the vaccine could reach billions of people worldwide. The pandemic taught people a viable lesson in terms of hygiene and the need for economic stability in a country.
Work Cited
Flecknoe, Daniel, Benjamin Charles Wakefield, and Aidan Simmons. “Plagues & wars: the ‘Spanish Flu’pandemic as a lesson from history.” Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol. 34 no. 2, 2018, 61-68.
Yuki, Koichi, Miho Fujiogi, and Sophia Koutsogiannaki. “COVID-19 pathophysiology: A review.” Clinical Immunology, 2020, 108427.