Countries deal with pandemic in their own ways: We must come together during this difficult time
It is intriguing how world leaders and different countries are all dealing with the global pandemic so differently. It is difficult as this is all new to everyone and there are limited historic policies to base judgments and actions on. With all the media coverage from around the world, it is important to gather information from various news sources and to understand you cannot believe everything that is out there on social media.
I think it’s mind boggling that certain world leaders are comparing this global pandemic to the Spanish influenza of 1918, which many consider the worst pandemic in history. During this time, soldiers returned home from war and brought diseases and viruses home with them, and many people ended up dying.
Technology advancements were very limited then. Today, we have highly advanced medical technology and data to help us develop vaccines. We are able to use previous cures to help fight infections and diseases. CNN recently reported that President Trump referred to two drugs traditionally used to treat malaria as “game changers” in the scope of the COVID-19 outbreak. I think this is quite risky, but at the same time quite an ingenious way to help combat this rapidly growing virus.
With over 54,000 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to a March 25 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is clear that the healthcare system is unable to cope with the large influx of cases that grows on a daily basis. Doctors are working overtime and in some cases, are working in dangerous conditions while being exposed to the virus.
I think this is a good time for us to pinpoint the weaknesses in the government system that need to be addressed for the near future. As this has been a topic of political debates for many years now, it is apparent that something needs to be done to fix this issue.
I think it was also very misleading for governments to report that COVID-19 was only affecting older populations of the world, when there was limited data to base this statement on in the beginning stages. This resulted in college students and younger populations carrying on with their lives as they did not think it would happen to them. There are now higher numbers of younger people contracting the virus. With this being said, the messages that world leaders were giving out were almost giving false hope. The western world should have replicated and looked at what China did to combat COVID-19. The country was on lockdown for two months before it saw a reduced number of cases.
If President Trump looks to open the borders and allow the U.S. to operate business as usual by Easter, it will cause another influx of cases after we have been told to social distance and stay home for this period of time. If world leaders are looking at how the economy is being negatively affected by this virus and not looking at the well-being of people, this virus could potentially be around for months to come and not get any better. This would only cause a greater issue and likely an increase in death count.
This global pandemic will cause a lot of changes to the way the world works and functions in the future, with employers looking at the benefits of working from home and everyone being forced to connect online. I think we should all be optimistic once we are out of this tragic time. We have seen countries come together and we should put the political, social and economic differences behind us so we can all work together to fight the war against COVID-19.
