Blog Fifteen 04/16
Write a short (3-page) essay that puts the current coronavirus pandemic into historical context. Use the information you learned in Module 5 to get you started. You do not need to do additional research unless you decide it is necessary. However, you do need to cite all sources of information you end up using in your essay. Include both in-text citations such as (Strayer 91) and a Work Cited section at the end. Your essay should be 3 pages and include the following elements / address the following questions:
Xerena Sarria
Professor Andrews
World History
16 April 2020
Word Count: 1043
Covid-19
What really is a “pandemic”? What factors are involved to really make something qualify as a pandemic? To begin, a pandemic is known as a new virus that emerges and is able to be spread throughout people in one way or another. With it being a new virus, there is pretty much no cure, no vaccine, or anything, which usually makes it global, since many people travel and germs and such spread out at such a fast pace. Throughout our history in life, there have been many pandemics the world has come into contact with. With some of these being HIV, flu, asian flu, the black death, yellow fever, polio, spanish flu, swine flu, ebola, and many, many more, now comes what is known as Covid-19, or Coronavirus.
Covid- 19 has been something that has changed the lives of many. With it being something that has come to be such a big thing in a short amount of time it makes people wonder what is truly a pandemic? We went from living our daily lives hearing about this “new” virus coming from China that was supposedly caused by someone eating a bat, to schools being such down, many people losing their jobs, there being a shelter in place order, people having to be quarantined, many people dying or losing loved ones from something as simple as a hand shake. When really looking into the whole Covid-19 thing, one can see that the virus technically isn’t new, it’s a new strain of it that we are not immune to and with this strain, it is set out to attack our respiratory systems which is ultimately what kills us.
Thinking about what is qualified as a pandemic, in the sense of if the virus absolutely needs to be a global thing or if it can be regional, some would say that it should be global or be considered a pandemic, but there are those who of course believe that a deadly disease or virus, is exactly that. If it’s to the point where it is killing tons of people, whether it be world wide or only attacking some, like the native americans with the small pox, it was still in the end doing the same thing. There have of course been others that didn’t come in contact with every place in the world and it was still considered a pandemic. Why? Because it was something so deadly and dangerous that was killing so many.
Going back to some of the other pandemics, HIV, flu, asian flu, the black death, yellow fever, polio, spanish flu, swine flu, ebola, there are many questions for each one. But a main one is, how did they start? With HIV, they believe that it all came from chimps, and eventually spread and mutated to humans when they would hunt down and eat these animals. With the flu, it was caused by another virus that had avian genes. With the Asian flu, it was known as a category two flu, that also carried that avian gene and eventually spread throughout China, the black death, or black plague, was spread from little fleas that had been infected. These fleas would live on the bodies of small animals and spread from there. Other ways of it spreading were from bodily fluids or animals that were infected with the plague. Yellow fever goes back to a very long time ago and originated in Africa. They believe it originated from nonhuman primates then given off to humans. Polio was spread through the feces of the infected and was passed along easily in poor areas due to there being feces in the waters and such. As there are more and more to talk about and get into, the main idea shown, is how easily a virus can be spread and it shows how in reality, one never really knows.
With Covid, it has really altered the way we live. It has really highlighted the importance of hygiene, the importance of distance from others, and overall rethink the way we did things. It reminded people how quick jobs are to get rid of us, it showed us how we shouldn’t belittle those working certain jobs, because those are the places that are still open during a pandemic, it showed us how we really appreciate the little things, like going to the mall or the movies or anywhere. It reminded us how to really enjoy the time we have with our loved ones because things can change in the blink of an eye. And of course, it reminds us that we should truly be thankful to our health care workers because they put themselves at extreme risk every single day that they walk into their jobs, to go and try to save many people who carry the virus.
For me personally, it changed a lot. It was in the middle of trying to figure out if our school was closing down, so we were hit with the news of not being able to return to campus at all this semester to learn that I would not be returning to this school in the fall either. I learned how to be appreciative of my job because I hear and read about many people struggling with not having a job, and as annoyed as I get having to go to work sometimes because I personally didn’t believe we were essential, to now realizing that I’m getting a good amount of hours, I’m getting paid a good amount, which is allowing me to have even more money to save for college and everything which is great, but of course there is the slight fear of the possibility that I could come into contact with this virus since I deal with tons of people and things throughout my day. I just hope that I remain healthy and don’t pass anything on to those I live with. And of course, the hardest thing about it all is having to stay away from my family who I miss so dearly. Since I would see everyone every Friday, it has definitely been really sad without them. But of course, we take this day by day and hope for the best in life through this pandemic.
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