How the Covid-19 Pandemic Has Affected Life

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Has Affected Life

The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve and spreading rapidly across the globe. Its effect is market with the ever-increasing new case count worldwide, which has necessitated warning to prepare, testing confusions, and closure of socially concentrated institutions and businesses, and individual lifestyle (World Health Organization, 2020). COVID-19 has caused the loneliness epidemic as many people are forced to stay at home to accommodate the virus. Many businesses, such as restaurant and entertainment entities, are closed down, and many people are unemployed as a result. The paper revolves around the effects of COVID-19 across the world, media, and nurses.

The Pandemics Of 1918 And 2020 Summarize and Compare the Pandemics

The 1918 flu pandemic, also known as Spanish Flu was a deadly influenza pandemic which lasted from January 1918 to December 1920, affected about a quarter of the world population at the time. More than 500 million people were infected worldwide. The Spanish Flu was responsible for deaths of were approximated to have been anywhere from 20 to 50 million and possibly as high as 100 million making the pandemic of 1918 one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Studies indicate that this Flu killed more people in 24 weeks than HIV/AIDS killed in 24 years (World Health Organization, 2020). The Countries that participated in world war I censors minimized the initial reports of the epidemic spread and mortality to maintain the morale including the UK, France, Germany, and the United States. The media reported the effects of the Influenza flu freely in Spain because it remained neutral during the war which created a false impression that Spain was particularly hard hit by the pandemic, giving way to the name ‘Spanish Flu.’ The historical and epidemiological information are inadequate to spot with surety the pandemics geographic origin with differing views. Influenza outbreaks disproportionately claimed lives of infants and very old people with high survival rate for the population that fall between. Still, the Spanish flu pandemic registered a high mortality rate for young adults. The Spanish Flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus; the second was swine flu in 2009..

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is called coronavirus disease that first hit Wuhan China in December 2019 and has spread across the world. It continues to spread with more than 2 million people already infected and more than 140 000 deaths across the globe. It continues to spread, and the number of infected people counts increases daily. The comparison of the COVID-19 and Spanish Flu pandemic. The 2020 pandemic affected adults over 60 years with underlying health conditions the most, children and young adults have much milder symptoms as compared to the Spanish Flu that hit infants and young children and the elderly the most.  In both pandemics, there was no vaccine both in the Spanish Flu and the current COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020). With the current rate of COVID-19 pandemic spread, it shows similarity and threatens a repeat of the 1918 pandemic impact on all facets, including the economy, social, and health sectors.

Disaster Response Nationally and Locally (Texas)

The emergency response team on COVID-19 in the United States have been swift compared to other countries. It was declared a national emergency by the president invoking authorities across the federal government and provision of funding and financing of federal departments, agencies, and local response. The government has formed an instrumental effort with health officials, including doctors, nurses, and medical researchers working around the clock to handle the patients and provide vital information needed to help contain the spread (Nacoti et al., 2020). The nurses are the frontline soldiers putting their lives on the line to respond to cases of COVID-19 patients across the country. The Texas hospitals are on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. The health department of Texas and the government are making an effort to keep Texans healthy and safe by stepping up a fight against COVID-19. Both the national and local COVID-19 response teams, with the support of both state and federal government funding and other groups funding the COVID-19 response effort, help to keep the contact tracing, quarantining, and offering healthcare services as well as testing possible (Watkins, 2020). The cases in the country have increased due to mass testing, thanks to the tiresome effort of the COVID-19 disaster response team.

Media and Its Effect On COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease has caused a global health crisis that has a profound impact on the perception of the world and our daily lives. The media is a powerful and formidable force shaping the human experience of the world. The media is playing an instrumental role in influencing COVID-19 pandemic management across the country. The positive side is that the media provides the much-needed public awareness on COVID-19 prevention mechanism. For many governments across the world, the media is responsible for conveying the government and health official reports on the cases of COVID-19. The media is helping in preventing misinformation by communicating and educating the public on effective health communications for adoption to reduce the severity of the pandemic.

On the other hand, too much negative information is harmful to public mental health. With the closure of learning institutions across the world, children are at home and exposed to daily, hourly, and high frequency of COVID-19 pandemic, which may affect their psychological development (Takian, Raoofi, & Kazempour-Ardebili, 2020). The negative information includes reporting of explicit deaths, and handling of the victims of COVID-19 is harmful to many with the risk of mental and psychological breakdown. The media officials and personnel are exposed to the danger of being infected by the novel Coronavirus.

New Normal for Nursing

The nursing community is among the frontline soldiers in the war against the novel coronavirus pandemic across the world. The nurse takes care of the patients of COVID-19 and penetrating in infected regions to conduct tracing mechanisms. Amid the outbreak of the pandemic, the new normal of nurses encompass wearing protective gear, including masks, and handing the patients of the epidemic. This year has been the year of nurses because Coronavirus outbreak across the world. Many governments are considering designing reimbursing the nurses and healthcare officials for the services and dedication, and this will affect the future when the pandemic is finally contained, God willing. The future of nursing will change the way nurses would be trained and preparedness in case of a future outbreak. Nurses need to be recognized and empowered to continue offering the services.

References

Nacoti, M., Ciocca, A., Giupponi, A., Brambillasca, P., Lussana, F., Pisano, M., … & Longhi, L. (2020). At the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic and humanitarian crises in Italy: Changing perspectives on preparation and mitigation. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 1(2).

Takian, A., Raoofi, A., & Kazempour-Ardebili, S. (2020). COVID-19 battle during the toughest sanctions against Iran. Lancet (London, England), 395(10229), 1035.

Watkins, J. (2020). Preventing a covid-19 pandemic.

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): situation report, 72.