Covid-19 Pandemic
Environmental Consequences-Roshaan
Pollution levels have been lowered, emission levels decreased, coal use fell, NO2 emissions fading away
Many countries have made strict rules on how to sort their waste, making their carbon footprint smaller, wildlife have been roaming around more often, habitat is more healthy, trees sustain life longer
A pandemic recession may generate poverty, which affects conservation and areas that are protected by reducing funding and increasing human pressure on species. Many conservation groups are covering the medical expenses. These expenses reduce the budget for conservation work and replacement staff and HIV/AIDS cost.
-
Conservation groups believe it is important to keep our nature protected to prevent future crises. This forced deep cuts in federal funding just for the scientific research needed to protect our nature. A conservation group Ontario Nature says that social distancing can positively and negatively affect nature. The people that stay home and need to work can emit more individual emissions because of their own use. For example, a heater to keep them warm all day while they work.
As of April 8, 79% of Americans state that they have washed their hands two times, almost three times as much since the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a select few people work from home. The rest of the majority has to adjust to this lifestyle and is not easy for them. A big change is social distancing. Going out less, cancelled plans with family, stayed at home more and have gone shopping less. Statistics show 44% of the United States shop online more than they used to. These are all major adjustments.
Economic Consequences-Ravjot
All religious institutions have been shut down, so this disrupts with many peoples beliefs and religions.
All education has been online since April 6, 2020 and all students who go to publicly funded schools have not been in school since March 13, 2020 and the government is planning to let students go back to school on May 4, 2020 if everything goes according to plan
As of April 2, 2020, the government of Canada has funded 54.2 million dollars in research costs to Manitoba, Alberta and Nova Scotia
The economy lost its money production from all non essential businesses. Some essential businesses include food suppliers, health care providers, transportation services, community services and construction.
it is undesirable because it is really affected everyone who has lost their jobs in a negative way, and It has a negative impact on the economic stability because most of the main income sources have been shut down to prevent the spread of the virus
The government has created a funding system that provided $2,000 if you or your family has been affected by COVID-19
Local Consequences-Ravjot
The health officials of Ontario have told the public to self monitor themselves for 14 days and any exposure and they are told to monitor for a fever, cough or any difficulty with breathing. If all these symptoms are still present after 14 days, you are told to contact your health care provider or to go get tested from any one of the testing stations.
According to Peel Public Health, as of April 8, 2020, Brampton has 270 cases of COVID-19
Scientific Consequences-Gursiman
A vaccine is a preparation that gives active immunity to an infectious disease. To sum it up the immune system gets a small dose of a microorganism similar genetically to the disease but not the same as it. The immune system then recognizes the pathogen and starts to combat it; this trains the immune system to combat the actual disease itself.
In order to make a vaccine we need to know the virus as it is. Covid-19 is 79% identical to the SARS outbreak in 2003. Researchers who work on SARS have provided information that could help with making vaccines. Due to the RNA Covid-19 uses, mutation rates are high which have to be taken in for consideration when making a vaccine. The ideal coronavirus has spiky proteins which bind to lung cells. Although we have a lot of data on the virus, there is still a lot of unknown data such as the fact that people can’t test a vaccine on animals as we don’t know if they are susceptible to the virus.
Antiretroviral therapy is a type of therapy used with HIV. The drugs given do not kill the virus in any way, but they slow it down in a way. Similar to Covid-19 there is no known vaccine for HIV/AIDS so looking into a type of antiretroviral therapy would be a great idea in case we don’t find a vaccine. The drugs also reduce the transmission of HIV and if we could replicate that with Covid-19 it would be great as the virus spreads very fast.
A recombinant vaccine is a vaccine which is made by inserting DNA which has the antigen into a bacterial cell stimulating an immune response. This is helpful with Covid-19 as antigens include bacterial surface proteins and the virus has spiky proteins which bind to lungs
Covid-19 started roughly in December of 2019. Chinese wet markets which sell wild animals such as dogs, bats, and other exotic animals were all over the place and one market in Wuhan, China had animals being sold that were infected by the illness. People ate the infected animals thus infecting themselves.
It was on December 31st, 2019 that the WHO China Country Office was notified that cases similar to pneumonia were spreading fast; the unknown illness was then discovered. It takes roughly 14 days to show symptoms so people with the illness were unaware that they were spreading it everywhere; people with the illness then started travelling internationally while spreading it to everything they touched. This began the pandemic we are going through right now with many countries struggling.
-Covid-19 is a type of novel coronavirus that attacks the respiratory system when a host is infected. We have seen many coronavirus’ such as the SARS outbreak in 2003. The disease causes respiratory illness similar to pneumonia. Symptoms include flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.
As of now there is no cure or vaccine in place to stop the disease. The only thing we can do is to wash our hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, prevent the spread by staying indoors and staying away from people in general, coughing into our sleeves, and not touching your face and eyes with unwashed hands.
Personal Consequences-Roshaan
Personal action that can be taken by the community is to just listen to the government and medical practitioners. The main rule they keep repeating is to apply social distancing to reduce the spread of the virus.
Long-term effects can be for people that are laid off from their jobs. Many people delay their normal grocery schedules and their normal items that are purchased. Another big one can be cancellations of appointments.
As a doctor, it gets very hectic. A health-care worker in Brampton says that he gets roughly 150 patients a day in his 10 hour medical centre. Doctors do not swab everyone because of the severity of the virus. According to Osler public relations director, Cara Francis, 74% are swabbed. On March 29, 1895 people were swabbed. When the virus was new, there was a problem of mixing the patients, however their system and process is much more streamlined now.
As a patient, there are many assessments and tests they need to go through before being listed as a patient. Once they arrive, they recieve a number and get put into the system. Depending on how bad it is, some patients are seen first before others. Some patients can get rescheduled to come back if it isn’t as bad. If the doctors think you need to isolate, then that’s when you start.
Before COVID-19, I would be able to go to my friends house and play basketball, during the break I would go to my cousins house, most of my shopping is done online and my parents work from home so I can spend more time with my family.
The social distancing keeps me from doing what I would normally do. I am not used to being inside the house for this long everyday so it will take me awhile to adjust back to my normal lifestyle.
Students my age are very big with social media so the way we can spread awareness actively. Sharing it with our family members and friends
Ethical/Legal Consequences-Armaan
Its unethical of America to not send us anymore masks as we are helping them create a vaccine and we need to protect our doctors risking their lives.
People are told to donate to ones in need, and help promote the idea of sharing resources and being mindful of those who are in more trouble such as babies and elderly who have trouble in grocery stores ect.
This helps produce maximum good, as less crimes are happening around the world
Many people lose rights to education as schools shut down, people are also forced to stay inside and aren't allowed outside.
Social Consequences-Armaan
-As a result of the virus, many relations are at a distance, meaning society is being split up, and some are blaming others and taking actions that may hurt others feelings. It is dividing different ethnicities and causing wars on social media of different ethnic groups. It is practically dividing up everybody from each other, though it is letting individuals spend time and get closer with family as they are forced to stay inside.
Due to the Virus, we are forced to change our daily routines for the most part. We as a community have been given instruction to slow the virus down. Adapting to these rules will have a large impact on humans' lifestyles and health. It is hard for a lot of people to stay healthy in times like these as we are forced inside and barley allowed fresh air. Income is also tough to maintain for most which is causing a great deal of success to families across the world. Though people can take this time to work on themselves, and deal with personal problems/thoughts/doubts about themselves, distance themselves from the outer world to an extent as a form of refreshing and clearing their minds from the negativity going on.
The Corona Virus is responsible for shutting down society's cultural events, some examples of shutdowns and delays and events may include, National sports (NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL), Concerts and festivals such as Rolling Loud and Caribana. Many other worldwide events similar to these have also been delayed. Ethnic groups most affected by the virus are Europeans, Asians, and African Americans. Racism is increasing during these times as people like to blame other groups. People are being seperated due to the impact of the virus. Elderly people in retirement homes are also at a high risk of the virus, the health minister is trying to keep them safe by stating that no visitors should be allowed, unless a loved one is very ill, or needs end of life care. Injection drug users are also at risks especially where there may be poverty, most injections are passed on which can result in a spread of a sickness, possibly spreading the coronavirus or making themselves vulnerable to the virus
Schools across Ontario have been shut down, though we have resources to continue educating ourselves and have also been provided a flexible schedule which makes times like these easier, and learning more enjoyable for most.
Every community has been affected by Covid-19, specifically elderly people. So far 121 deaths have been confirmed for people over the age of 80. The virus is most common for people with underdeveloped immune systems.
People affected include, Elderly people, people with asthma, people with HIV, and research also shows male are at a higher risk.
Global Consequences-Gursiman
The pandemic is a problem all over the world infecting almost every country in the world. There have been 1,587,209 cases worldwide and 94,860 deaths all over the world due to Covid-19. These numbers are still set to dramatically rise with no vaccine made. The countries I'll be focusing on are Italy, America, and Canada.
Covid-19 took Italy by storm putting them as the most infected before America took over. Italy has seen 5.98% of worldwide cases and 19.27% of worldwide deaths which is crazy. These numbers are huge as there are 195 countries in the world. With over 5% of the cases coming from Italy, they had to make the choice of completely locking down the country. They have quite possibly been hit the hardest as they were one of the first countries to shut down; their doctors didn't see it coming and they now have a shortage of doctors due to 100’s of doctors being dead. Initial lockdowns in provinces began on February 21st. They have closed every border, and have been on a national quarantine since March 9th. Everything but essential goods sellers and banks have been closed and police are usually set on streets to stop any unnecessary travel.
Canada has been handling the case very well for a worldwide powerhouse. Canada has seen 1.31% of worldwide cases with over 25% recovered which is a good rate. Canada has also seen 509 total deaths which is 0.54% of total deaths worldwide. Canada was hit later then a lot of other countries which gave them more time to prepare. On March 16th, Canada brought in a travel ban to prevent people from bringing the virus. Shortly, they closed the America-Canada border to stop the spread. The country closed all unnecessary businesses only keeping essentials such as grocery stores, and gas stations open in late March. Canadians were encouraged to stay indoors and not go outside if not needed. Many emergency alerts were sent out telling people to stay indoors. Police have also been fining people 700-800 dollars for not following rules and going out a lot with friends for no reason. A law was also put out that if you had just come back from another country, you must stay isolated for 14 days, if not criminal charges could be applied.
-America has been hit the hardest most recently. Many people refuse to stay indoors for no good reason. States like California, and New York have been shut down with essentials only left open. For some reason President Trump is yet to order a national lockdown on America, leaving states to take actions for themselves. Trump also recently said he would not be shipping masks to other countries which raised tension. Like a lot of other countries American’s have been encouraged to stay indoors. As of April 9th 2020, America has the most confirmed Covid-19 cases at 464,865 which is the highest by a ton with Spain having 153,222 and still being second. America has a huge 29.29% of worldwide cases and 17.39% of deaths worldwide.
