COVID 19
COVID 19 is an infectious disease that affects the respiration system, mainly the lungs. It was first reported in China Wuhan city in late 2019. COVID 19 is caused by a virus known as Coronavirus which is spread from one person to another through touching services touched by an infected person. COVID 19 has been spreading across the globe at an alarming rate, therefore, becoming a global pandemic. Significant policy attention has forced on the need to identify and limit emerging outbreaks that might lead to pandemics and to expand and sustain investment to build preparedness and health capacity (Smolinsky, Hamburg, and Lederberg). Symptoms include; coughing, fever, shortness of breath, headache among others. World Health Organization has issued out several measures to help prevent and curb the spread of this virus, among the measures, include washing hands regularly with soap and water, coughing on a disposable tissue, avoiding crowded places, and gathering.
There are several effects of COVID 19;
Economic effects
Whenever a pandemic such as COVID 19 hits a country or a state, an economic crisis is inevitable. Economic activities are the most affected with a lot of businesses being shut down, movements restricted including flights, cites, and estates put on lockdown among others. Especially when a pandemic is affecting the globe at large, trading decreases, and import/export is largely affected and tax revenues can hardly be collect. World Bank economic simulations indicate that a severe pandemic could reduce world gross domestic product (GDP) by roughly 5 percent (Burns, Van der Mensbrugghe, and Timmwe). Previous work has estimated the economic loss that occurred as a result of the 20th-century pandemics as 0.7-4.8 percent of global gross domestic product (McKibben and Sidorenko).To try to curb the pandemic and even treat can raise expenditures in the health sector which was not initially budgeted for.
Emotional drain
COVID 19 has brought physiological problems since very much is happening and people have not been well prepared to deal with this global pandemic. People are worried and are not aware or have less information about the virus and therefore many people are disturbed physiologically. The economic effects have also contributed largely to this. “Our anxiety and fears should be acknowledged and not be ignored, but better understood and addressed by individuals, communities, and governments, “Dr. Hans Kluge noted. Mental health during such pandemics is key and should be looked at with a lot of seriousness. For example when people lose a member of the family to COVID 19 and don’t even get a chance to bury their loved one, emotional and physiological trauma can cling in and these people will need therapy.
Health effects
The health sector is the most affected during a pandemic such as COVID 19 which is highly infectious. It is even worse when health workers get infected and even some die. Research has proven that a certain percent of health workers are unable to report to duty because they are ill themselves, need to care of ill family members, need to care of children because of school closures, or are afraid (Falcon and Detty; U.S. Homeland Security Council). Additionally, patients who have other underlying health problems will find it difficult to seek medical attention from health facilities for fear of being infected. In the past such incidents have occurred for example in Sierra Leone, visits to public facilities for reproductive health care fell by as much as 40 percent during the Ebola outbreak (UNDP). While some patients will raise unnecessary anxiety from the stigmatization that comes along with COVID 19 and therefore giving the health works a hard time.
Work cited
Brahmbhatt, Milan, and Olga Jonas. “International Cooperative Responses to Pandemic Threats: A Critical Analysis.” The Brown Journal of World Affairs 21.2 (2015): 164.
Machalaba, Catherine, et al. “One Health Economics to confront disease threats.” Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 111.6 (2017): 235-237.
Sands, Peter, et al. “Assessment of economic vulnerability to infectious disease crises.” The Lancet 388.10058 (2016): 2443-2448.