Daniella Marie C.

Fajardo

2BSA-1

The Contemporary World

Activity #2

How the covid-19 pandemic will reshape the Philippines and other countries'
social and economic connections?

Year 2020 bought us a lot of fear, danger and anxiety attack. It is a tough
year for everyone around the world. It began March 2020 when our government
authorities put us on lockdown. At first, we taught it is just an ordinary
communicable disease that can be easily prevented but we are all wrong about it.
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an on-
going pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the
transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),
which was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The outbreak was
declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020,
and a pandemic in March 2020. A pandemic is defined as “an epidemic occurring
worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and
usually affecting a large number of people”. The classical definition includes
nothing about population immunity, virology or disease severity. By this
definition, pandemics can be said to occur annually in each of the temperate
southern and northern hemispheres, given that seasonal epidemics cross
international boundaries and affect a large number of people. However, seasonal
epidemics are not considered pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide
and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the
world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is
devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty,
while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690
million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.

Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the world’s

3.3 billion global workforces are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Informal
economy workers are particularly vulnerable because the majority lack social
protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive
assets. Without the means to earn an income during lockdowns, many are unable
to feed themselves and their families. For most, no income means no food, or, at
best, less food and less nutritious food. 

The pandemic has damaged the whole economy and society and has
shown its vulnerability. Border closures, trade barriers and containment policies
have hindered farmers from entering markets, including the purchase and sale of
products and the processing of crops by farm workers, thus disrupting domestic
and foreign food supply chains and limiting access to nutritious, secure and
sustainable diets. Millions of working and self-employed farm workers face high
levels of labour insecurity, malnutrition and poor health on a daily basis when
feeding the nation, and suffer from a lack of safety and labour security as well as
other forms of violence.

It is very hard to bring back our life before this pandemic happens but
Filipinos can easily adapt to the changes we have to face in our present time
because it is natural to us. We face challenges with a smile. For me, this
pandemic reshape our countries in a lot of aspects, it bring us a lot of challenges
to face in our society until the next generation but I do believe that in order to
grow we have to adapt changes in life and live with it. Change is the only
constant thing in this world. Maybe it is hard to accept that things may never go
back to normal, we just have to embrace the “new normal” that we have. Just
believe in the power of prayer and have faith to God.