NAME: FLAFE KELVIN KWAME EMAIL: KKFLAFE@ST.UG.EDU.

GH
STUDENT ID: 10867045 GROUP: 35

COVID-19: THE CHANGE WE NEEDED?

More diseases are discovered as the world progresses and improves. The diseases we are
familiar with improve and reappear stronger. Let us look at what infections and diseases are. An
infection is the invasion of disease-causing pathogens into an organism's bodily tissues, their
proliferation, and the host tissues' response to the infectious agents and the toxins they create.
Some of these infections are: Tuberculosis, Salmonella, Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus
(HIV), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 among others. A disease is a structural
or functional abnormality in a person, animal, or plant, especially one with a known origin and a
specific set of symptoms, signs, or anatomical changes. These infections are caused by viruses,
bacteria and other organisms that bring about harm to the body of the infected. These infections
bring about the diseases we know of. We sometimes get infected with these organisms which
bring about diseases and they affect individuals, businesses and the world. Let’s talk about the
latest disease everyone knows: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-
CoV-2 or COVID-19).
The Earth began a rapid plunge into biological darkness in late 2019. Wuhan, a previously
unknown Chinese city, will become deeply linked with the biggest public health disaster in over
a century. The coronavirus 2019, popularly known as COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 reared its ugly
head in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019 where the first case was reported. It spread out so
quickly that a month after, which was 30 January, 2020, the World Health Organization declared
it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and twelve days later, the virus we
trivialized was declared a pandemic. Ever since, it has affected the lifestyles of people, their
daily activities, businesses and their day-to-day transactions and the whole globe as a result. It is
critical to consider the devastation this pandemic has wreaked on our society, as well as the
changes it has forced on our systems and way of life. Has this pandemic led us to think about and
maybe implement the necessary changes in our world? Let’s find out as we look at some
scenarios where COVID-19 affected nursing home residents, schools and the globe.

To really know the impact the coronavirus had on the society, we are looking at a scenario
where COVID-19 affected nursing home residents. Michael Crichton once said, “Cure the
symptoms, Cure the disease.” We identify a disease by its symptoms. COVID-19, for example,
had been identified by the following signs and symptoms: fever or chills, cough, shortness of
breath among others. Sacco et al. (2020) pointed out the symptoms found in older adults as
compared to that of younger adults. Here also, there were other viral infections discovered with
the older adults. There were some cases of older residents with neurocognitive disorders. If not
for COVID-19, I personally doubt that the health conditions of these people would have been
discovered. They also mentioned that, “Delirium is commonly under-recognized when
superimposed to major neurocognitive disorders, especially during the severe stages of the
disease since a clear distinction between symptoms attributable to delirium or to underlying
dementia proves difficult.” They may have been categorized as people with neurocognitive
disorders but their exact condition has not been discovered. Ouslander and Grabowski (2020)
asserted: “Many residents with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment will not be
NAME: FLAFE KELVIN KWAME EMAIL: KKFLAFE@ST.UG.EDU.GH
STUDENT ID: 10867045 GROUP: 35

able to tolerate wearing a mask or cooperate with social distancing.” It is important for these
people to be given special care such that they are being guided to follow the COVID-19
guidelines.

Another way COVID-19 brought about change is the way schools operate. Since the
outbreak of the disease, countries rollout preventive measures in these times. One of the
measures is that people are required to keep a safe distance of at least one meter or three feet
from each other. This measure is being followed everywhere even in schools. Unfortunately,
some schools do not have enough classroom space to follow this measure as they are required to
implement a six feet distancing. For Stage et al. (2020) noted that, “The practical implication of
a 6 feet of distancing recommendation is that many schools are unable to open for full in-person
learning, or at all, due to physical limitations of school infrastructure.” This will bring about
consequences such as closing of schools because parents will not risk their wards’ safety to be in
a school that cannot follow the directives. In these schools, a three feet distancing is easy for
them and the benefit of this is that there is in-person learning. Stage et al. (2020) contends:
“Three-feet of physical distancing is more easily achieved in most school districts, including
public ones, and thus, relaxing distancing requirements would likely have the impact of
increasing the number of students who are able to benefit from additional in-person learning.” I
agree with Stage et al. (2020) when they assert: “Our data also suggest that intermediate
distances (4 or 5 feet) can also be adopted without negatively impacting safety; adoption of
intermediate distancing policies might be leveraged as a step-wise approach to return more
students to the classroom.” This would benefit everyone affected by this recommendation.

In Crawford’s Viruses: A Very Short Introduction, he asserts that when a virus comes to
stay in a population, there is a pattern of local epidemics and people get infected. After a period,
their bodies create antibodies to become immune to that virus. The virus become literally extinct
in that population and moves on. There is no way that a disease would magically appear without
a way for it to be transmitted. There are so many ways for a disease-causing pathogen to enter
the human body. Some of these are direct contact and indirect contact with infected person and
droplet transmission from the infected person to another person. There are certain determinants
of the spread of diseases. Findlater and Bogoch (2018) pointed out: “Many factors contribute to
the global spread of infectious diseases, including the increasing speed and reach of human
mobility, increasing volumes of trade and tourism, and changing geographic distributions of
disease vectors.” Now there are bigger planes and ships with larger capacities taking people in
and out of countries. One of the easiest modes of transmission is transmission by air. Again,
Findlater and Bogoch (2018) mentioned: “Air travel poses a growing threat to global health
security, as it is now possible for a traveller harbouring an infection in one location on earth to
travel to virtually any other point on the planet in only 1–2 days.” Before COVID-19, people
could travel everywhere, meet people without restriction. A person coughs or sneezes, he or she
is warned to cover the mouth/nose or there is no response from the people around. When the
COVID-19 outbreak occurred, everyone was mandated to wear a nose mask and now people are
NAME: FLAFE KELVIN KWAME EMAIL: KKFLAFE@ST.UG.EDU.GH
STUDENT ID: 10867045 GROUP: 35

more conscious of themselves and the people around them. I think COVID-19 in this situation
brought about the necessary change we needed.

COVID-19 has really affected us a lot in terms of individuals, families, communities,

businesses, nations and the world as a result. The scenarios of the nursing homes, the school and
the general public shows that COVID-19 made us review our various way of life and how we
humans operate. In some cases, it may have not necessarily brought a change but this question
still needs to be asked: “Did COVID-19 bring about the necessary changes humanity needed?”
NAME: FLAFE KELVIN KWAME EMAIL: KKFLAFE@ST.UG.EDU.GH
STUDENT ID: 10867045 GROUP: 35

REFERENCES

Crawford, D. H. (2011). Viruses: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Findlater, A., & Bogoch, I. I. (2018). Human Mobility and The Global Spread of Infectious

Diseases: A Focus on Air Travel. Trends in Parasitology, 772-783.

Ouslander, J. G., & Grabowski, D. C. (2020). COVID-19 in Nursing Homes: Calming The

Perfect Storm. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2153-2162.

Sacco, G., Foucault, G., & Annweiler, C. (2020). COVID-19 in seniors: Findings and lessons

from mass screening in a nursing home. Maturitas, 46-52.

Stage, H. B., Shingleton, J., Ghosh, S., Scarabel, F., Pellis, L., & Finnie, T. (2020). Shut and re-

open: the role of schools in the spread of COVID-19 in Europe. Modern Medicine, 1-34.

Sugg, M. M., Spaulding, T. J., Lane, S. J., Runkle, J. D., Harden, S. R., Hege, A., & Iyer, L. S.

(2021). Mapping community-level determinants of COVID-19 transmission in nursing

homes: A multi-scale approach. Science of The Total Environment, 1-9.