The COVID-19 Virus
Currently, the United States and the entire world are facing both the negative and positive impacts of the deadly pandemic that is affecting each person regardless of their age. In the United States, the number of affected cases or positively tested persons is increasing each day. Thus, the schools, industries, workplaces and other social gathering places are still shut down. Through a survey carried out by the PRC (Pew Research Center), the pandemic has profound impacts on the lives of Americans in various ways. Among ten US residents interviewed, it is evident that nine adults among the ten accepts and confirms that their lives have changed either in a minor way or a significant way. The COVID-19 pandemic has had both negative and positive effects on the US societies and the entire world in general. This paper provides more insights on the same.
Effect on American society
Social distancing has been a significant directive and concern in the US government. This is aimed at mitigating the spread of the pandemic since people are warned against having or attending social gatherings. From the PRC reports, 91 % of the adults in the US population agree that they feel uncomfortable attending a crowded event or parties. More so, 77% of the adult population in the US society thinks that they would not give in to eat from restaurants. In comparison, about 66% of the total US population feels that they will be uncomfortable to leave their houses and go to vote or take presidential polls. Surprisingly, 42% of the Americans feels discomfort leaving their houses for grocery shopping or visit their friends or receiving visitors like family members in their homes. Thus, social distancing requirements is pushing Americans further from each other, meaning that supposing today, the government decided that presidential elections take place, two-thirds of the US population will not vote. Schools have also been shut down, and the students are back with their parents. This has hindered most of the school activities, prevented students from socializing with others and sharing knowledge-based ideas. This makes it a possibility that after the pandemic, things might not be the same for students, classwork and teachers as a whole. Social distancing has an impact on the general world as well.
Closure of workplaces has forced most of the Americans to work from home. The working-age in America is 18 years to 84 years, and at this age, most Americans will have a college certificate or a degree, as well as upper-income earners. Most of these group members have children below the age of 12 years, and hence, they have said that the lockdown has ideally helped them to have a bond with their family as well as taking up the child care responsibilities. Parents who would sometimes have no time to bond or attend to their children have had this chance because they are involuntarily kept home by the virus’ directives. Through this, many aspects of family responsibilities have been attended to, creativity has also set in, and the couples have had time to mend their relationships.
Through the pandemic, the religious behaviours of Americans and the world population have changed. People have turned more to prayers and beseech to God to stop the spread of this deadly monster. According to the PRC reports, 55% of adult Americans are praying for the end of the pandemic, 86% of the large majority of Americans are praying daily for the same purpose. In the earlier survey, some of the US adults said that they seldom attend religious services that are a month or two. However, this survey taken during the pandemic reports that 59% of Americans have scaled their religious attendance due to coronavirus outbreak. This is because churches and other worship facilities have been shut down. But a considerable population of the Americans has reported that they have not disengaged themselves from having collective worship. About 57% of the population is tuning in to Televisions and online services to be inclined with their faiths, instead of attending in person for fear of the contiguous nature of the virus. Under a psychological perspective, COVID-19 pandemic has affected Americans’ way of thinking, relating to others and their values as well. The crisis has had uncertainties among the society dwellers since they are unable to think and decide on what to do during unfamiliar circumstances like the ones prevailing. It is uncertain on who will test positive if you or I am likely to be affected and the length to which the pandemic is likely to last. This, in return, has changed our needs and desires. Most Americans have become patriotic, regarding America as a superior nation as compared to other nations.
The American economy has significantly been affected by the pandemic. Global supply of major goods and services into and out of American has been disrupted. Firms and organizations are unable to file orders while labour supply has also decreased, thus slowing down the demand rate of goods and services in the US economy. According to the IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, coronavirus pandemic has been the scariest and uncertain occurrence in the world. There has been low market valuations and high volatility on the markets due to the pandemic outbreak. Thus, within the first four weeks of the pandemic outbreak in the US, about 22 Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Not only has the supply chain been affected by also the capital market have had the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as the Nasdaq had had a drastically decline up to when the government secured CARES act to see the index rise. Furthermore, the US bond yield has also dropped, making the Federal Reserve decrease the interest rates by 0.5%, making it a softer way of handling the coronavirus blow.
Worldwide effects
Health care and the pharmaceutical sectors have had a serious impact on the pandemic. The healthcare workers are at risk and greatly vulnerable to the pandemic as compared to other people. It is a fact that most health care practitioners cannot work remotely during this crisis. The pandemic requires high costs of mitigation and handling of the affected persons, the protective equipment shortages as well as low medical capacities have been a global challenge. There are serious concerns about individuals who are uninsured and working in workplaces like hospitals, predisposed to the viral infection. This will lead to financial consequences in case there is a disease attack to them.
Furthermore, health care change dynamics are likely to ensue, and most countries will invest massively into disease prevention, thus accelerating digital healthcare delivery transformation. For instance, in the United States, pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from China, thus due to the pandemic, production has slowed down, and there are limitations on supply, leading to loss of revenue in most states of the world. But a positive outcome from this is that on a global basis, companies from various nations have got the opportunity to engage in vaccine and drug development research, in an attempt to develop a viral vaccine to end the virus.
The tourism, hospitality and aviation sector around the globe has also felt the effect of the pandemic. Both the hospitality and travel industries have had the most dramatizing effects of pandemic worldwide. Hourly workers in this sector have been devastated, and some companies like the Marriott International have furloughed some employees due to the pandemic. Besides, last month, companies like Hilton Worldwide notified lenders to borrow precautionary worth %1.75 billion through a revolving loan, to preserve money as well as maintain the flexibility of the company due to uncertainty of the current global market. Most of the hostel industries in the world have declined while other has undergone suspension due to the impacts of the virus. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has distorted the hospitality industry as well as the global hotel markets in general. Similarly, the tourism sector has faced it rough, just like the hospitality and hotel industries. Due to the outbreak and deadly occurrence of the pandemic, The World Travel and the Tourism Council has cautioned the tourism sector in the world that almost 50 million jobs in the sector of tourism might be at risk. For instance, in Vietnam, approximately 1.455 million Chinese tourists paid a visit to Vietnam by the first quarter of 2019. However, by January this year, tourism visitation dropped by 644, 000. It is projected that if the coronavirus extends further into the second quarter, a loss of about $5 billion will be registered. Such impacts are seen in the US, UK and the Philippines.
The sports industry in the world is also facing the impacts of the epidemic. The largest sporting activities and calendar schedules were projected to take place in 2020. The Euro 2010 tournament is a worldwide most anticipated football event that has been postponed for a year due to the pandemic. Moreover, the International Olympic had planned on having the Tokyo 2020 Olympics during this summer; however, the tournament has been postponed until 2021 due to the current situation. Therefore, in general, the sporting industry has cancelled most of the sporting fixtures, creating delays in sporting events, in an attempt to mitigate and curb the spread of the pandemic.
In conclusion, COVID-19 has affected societies in the US and the world in general. The directives aimed at mitigating and curbing the epidemic has created both positive and negative impacts that have changed the lives of Americans and the entire world population. The education sector, sports industry, hospitality and tourism industry, the healthcare industry and the religious sector have faced the impacts of the virus. According to Pew Research Center, some Americans have reported on how the virus have had a negative or positive impact on their lives as well as the magnitude of the impact thereof.
References
Gallego, V., Nishiura, H., Sah, R., & Rodriguez-Morales, A. J. (2020). The COVID-19 outbreak and implications for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease.
Kumar, D., Manuel, O., Natori, Y., Egawa, H., Grossi, P., Han, S. H., … & Humar, A. (2020). COVID‐19: a global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic. American Journal of Transplantation.