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Expository Essay about Corona Virus Pandemic

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Abstract

A pandemic is a wide-reaching outbreak of a contagious ailment that may significantly increase

morbidity and mortality over a sizeable geographical region resulting in a remarkable socio-

economic and political disruption ( (Jones K E, 2008). Coronavirus first came into attention

following reports of patients who had suffered from pneumonia whose cause was not known.

These patients had a connection to the Seafood Market in Wuhan China at Hubei Province in

December 2019 (Adhikari, 2020). It appeared that most of the initial victims affected by the

virus had happened to have a close interrelation to the Chinese Seafood Market at Hubei

Province. It was soon noticed that the infection could also be transmitted between human beings,

especially when they came into close contact with each other, thus posing to be a severe threat.

As a result, the number of infected people, including those who had not been exposed to the

seafood market, began to rise rapidly. Several medical professionals were also reported to have

become victims of the dreaded virus. It became crystal clear that individuals became infected

when they got exposed to the virus in their surroundings. Both the healthy and the immune-

compromised population were susceptible to the virus. Individuals with underlying conditions

such as diabetes, the older demographic, and those with the weak immune system were

considered to be at more risk ( (Adhikari, 2020). As a result of increased global travel, cultural

integration, and urbanization today, the coronavirus might prove to be potentially more

disastrous as it is still a new virus strain with no known vaccine. (Jones K E, 2008).

The Exponential Spread of Coronavirus

Covid-19, the name given to the new coronavirus strain found in December 2019, has spread

very fast all-round the globe for less than five months, and still, new cases keep rising daily.
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Before the discovery that the disease could be transmitted through human-human interaction, it

had already begun spreading at a very exponential rate from the area where the first cases were

suspected at Wuhan, Hubei Province at the Seafood market to several places around mainland

China. Several medical practitioners also tested positive of the infection, yet they didn't even

have a clue that they were infected. Necessary health precautions to help curb the spread such as

lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, and washing hands were put in place at Hubei province

to halt the spread of the virus. It helped, but the strategies did not prove to be efficient since

some individuals carried the virus and were asymptomatic, making it difficult to contain the

virus. Ninety thousand eight hundred seventy individuals tested positive for the virus by 3 rd

March 2020. Eighty thousand three hundred four were from China, and the remaining 10,566

had already spread to the other 72 countries. These figures depict only laboratory-confirmed

diagnoses cases merely and thus not reflecting how the data currently was on the ground

(Sohrabi C, 2020). The virus grew from an epidemic to a pandemic in a short period. On 11th the

same month, the number of cases and affected countries had further increased. The number of

affected countries had risen to 114, with the total confirmed cases had been increased to 118,000.

The virus had already caused mortality to more than 4,300 individuals. The rapidly spreading

viral infection was later declared a pandemic by the WHO on that same day, stressing that it is of

global concern as the cases would further increase according to statistics (Branswell H, 2020).

One month later, the total number of cases had risen to more than two million cases, and more

than 150,000 deaths affecting more than 200 countries. Currently, the curve is still growing.

Socio-economic impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

Since coronavirus being characterized as a pandemic, the tactics put in place to curb its spread

are attacking societies at their core. It has been noted that the socio-economic effects of the virus
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are being borne disproportionately by various marginalized individuals. Due to the disruptions

caused by the virus and the measures put in place to curb it, it has brought suffering among

people. Some individuals have lost their jobs due to the closure of businesses; others have even

become homeless due to measures put in place by various countries. Street families are highly

exposed to the virus since they lack shelter to keep safe. Some individuals, such as displaced

individuals, refugees, migrants, and those who don't have access to running water, stand to suffer

disproportionately. Increased job losses during this period have made it difficult to provide basic

needs like food for some individuals (Nations, 2020). There has also been a spark of xenophobia

that this virus has brought along with it. Some Africans in China have been ejected from their

houses by landlords and turned away even from lodgings and hotels, despite claims not having

had any recent travel history or known contact with Covid-19 patients (Citizen, 2020). The virus

has also really affected the economy of multiple countries as a result of its demands to manage it.

A lot of funds have been put into the service to eradicate the disease while at the same time,

major enterprises being on shut down to contain the spread. The pandemic has brought the

economies of affected countries to their knees.

Political impacts of Coronavirus Pandemic

Covid-19 has affected the politics of different countries in significantly different ways disabling

economics, health systems, social and leadership patterns. Some hotspots of the coronavirus

outbreak are not fully capable of dealing with the coronavirus. In a country like North Korea, its

government has reduced the capacity to contain, test, and treat infections making the virus

quickly spread out of their control. Such a state would slow down the global fight against the

pandemic (Milner, 2020). Politicians need to appear in control of the situation to avoid the panic

that could be extremely damaging to society. The initiative to secure social protection for
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vulnerable households in every region is essential at this moment by politicians, and personal

gain should be tossed aside. This will ensure cohesiveness in the fight against the virus and

failure to that; the results will be brutal as nothing won't stop the infection from spreading.

Conclusion

COVID-19 being a new virus that has been declared a pandemic, neither vaccines nor drugs are

out to help contain it. We must be personally responsible for helping curb the spread by

appropriately playing the role we are supposed to. One could ensure social distancing, wear face

masks while in public, and reduce human interactions as much as possible. The government

officials should ensure to provide the needs of the marginalized groups; Ensure they are well

taken care of by offering provisions such as sanitizers, masks, shelters, and food for those not

capable of fending for themselves at the moment. They should also ensure the smooth running of

services for efficient service delivery to allow health workers to be healthy and fight for their

people. In the long run creating a world where the more fortunate support, the less fortunate in

their ways so that we could fight this pandemic as a whole because that's the best way, we can

beat it.
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References

Adhikari, S. M. (2020). Epidemiology, causes, clinical manifestation and diagnosis, prevention,

and control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the early outbreak: a scoping review.

Infect Dis Poverty. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-020-00646-x

Branswell H, J. A. (2020). Health. WHO declares the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic

Jones K E, P. N. (2008). Global Trends in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Nature.

Sohrabi, C, A. R. (2020). International Journal of Surgery. WHO declares global emergency: A

review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID - 19), 71-76.

Zhu N, Z. D. (2020). A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China. Retrieved

from N Engl J Med: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017