Victor Xavier Veloso
World History
Patricia Andrews
April 15th 2020
Corona Virus
A few weeks ago, on Wednesday (11), the World Health Organization declared the covid-19 pandemic, a disease caused by the new coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2). Since then, the term has not left the news.
It’s really important for us to know the the difference between many different terms during the pandemic so we know what the news are talking about. An Outbreak, such as the covid-19, occurs when there is a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease in a specific region. An epidemic, it is the considerable increase in the number of cases of a certain disease in different regions in the same country. An endemic, the issue is not quantitative. A disease is classified as endemic when it happens very often only in a specific location - not reaching other communities. There are so-called endemic areas: in the case of Brazil, for example, it is possible to mention yellow fever in the Amazon. A Pandemic, on a severity scale it is the most delicate case. It is characterized by an epidemic that spreads across several regions of the planet.
Similar cases of pandemics and outbreaks occurred in 1729, 1781, 1830. In 1889, a new pandemic emerged in May in southern Russia and spread throughout Europe: the Russian flu. In early 1890's, a steamboat from Germany took the disease to Salvador, Bahia, infecting half of the Salvadorans. In Rio de Janeiro, the virus still hit Dom Pedro 2, at the very end of the monarchy.
The most serious flu pandemic broke out in the last year of the First World War, with possibly an outbreak in the USA. The troop movement spread the Spanish flu around the world, infecting 40% of humanity in only two years.
The last time, before the coronavirus, that the World Health Organization had declared a pandemic was in 2009, for H1N1, influenza A. Popularly known as swine flu, it had its first cases registered in Mexico in the middle of March 2009. After spread across the world and reaching Oceania. The virus was identified as a new strain of the already known Influenza A subtype H1N1, the same virus responsible for the highest number of cases of influenza among humans.
This new pandemic has affected many people and families around the world. Taking the lives of many people and making many sick. The self isolation is one of the techniques everyone is using to try to slow down the spread of the covid-19 while scientists try to create a cure or a way to stop the spread.
Because the lockdown happened really fast all over the world, canceling flights, closing businesses and making people only go outside their houses for essentials, many people like me and my family were affected. As I was traveling from the US to Europe to visit family during the spring break, flights got canceled and airports closed, and that forced us to stay were we were. That made us move four different times from hotel to hotel because they were closing down because they didn’t have many customers. That brings stress for us because we don’t know were we are going to be next week. We don’t know if we will have to fin a new place to stay. And we don’t know when we will be able to go back home.
As we stay in hotels hoping they don’t close, classes have moved from normal to online classes. Online homework, quizzes and tests. Many professors have been helping students, or at least trying to adapt and help them as much as possible during this difficult time. Others seem not to understand that some of the students are not in America, are not home. Some students are in a complete different timezone. I find myself and my family in a room in Russia, where many websites used in the US for classes, emails and quizzes are blocked by the government here. Adding to all that stress, students are trying to transfer to other universities because of financial problems NDNU is going through. What I hope they find a cure for this virus as soon as possible, so I can go back home, finish classes online where I can access websites that are not blocked, pass the classes so I can play next semester for a university I transfer to. And if all that happens I thank some professors for adapting classes and understanding the difficulty some students, including myself are going through. And to the professor that seem not to understand, I really hope this doesn’t happen again so students won’t be affected by their way of teaching, going through so much stress.
Citation
What Is a Pandemic? - Science Alert - https://www.sciencealert.com/pandemic
Previous outbreaks - World Health Organization https://www.who.int/csr/don/archive/year/en/
Past Pandemics - CDC -https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/past-pandemics.html
12 deadliest virus on earth - Live Science - https://www.livescience.com/56598-deadliest-viruses-on-earth.html
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