COVID-19: Its Precedence in History, Its Impact on the Present - Essay Sample

Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves across the world ever since the virus started rampaging China, infecting and killing thousands of people. Arguably, for most people, they have not experienced a pandemic of this magnitude before. Nonetheless, even though the coronavirus disease may be unique in several ways, it is not necessarily unusual based on history. Other pandemics such as the Black Plague and the Influenza pandemic of 1918 proved to be equally pervasive and devastating on people's way of life and health. Through a comparative analysis between the coronavirus pandemic and other past pandemics, this essay argues that an understanding of how past pandemics began, spread and were contained offers insight into how coronavirus can be controlled.

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Global pandemics are not a new phenomenon. For most of us, however, the coronavirus is the first global pandemic of an unprecedented scale we are experiencing. How the coronavirus strains the public health system, society and the global economy is worrying. I am getting more worried that these effects may persist as the number of infected people increases. Since a cure for the coronavirus is yet to be developed, it has become a matter of life and death for people who contract it depending on the symptoms they show or have pre-existing medical conditions. As such, I have developed a fear of contact with other people, going to the grocery store or market to purchase foodstuff, going to work, getting into public spaces and travelling using public transport means. I am forced to stay quarantined in my house, which is becoming harder since I always like socializing.

The reaction to this coronavirus is even worse across the general public. Since news in the global media revealed that the virus had begun spreading from China to other countries, people started fearing that they may have been exposed to the virus through people who travelled to China and back. People have become hysterical as shown in their "panic-buying", where they are purchasing more foodstuffs and toiletries from retail outlets than they usually purchase. This "panic-buying" is due to the uncertainties on how long this pandemic will last or prepare for drastic government measures such as lockdowns. As news of more coronavirus positive cases continue being reported, some people are even purchasing firearms for fear of possible public unrest. A similar scenario is depicted in the film, Contagion, where the public resorts to vandalizing grocery stores due to hysteria resulting in widespread chaos that the police are unable to control.

The current coronavirus disease is neither the first pandemic to be experience nor the first strain in the human coronavirus family. According to Fielding (2020), medical researchers first discovered human coronaviruses in the 1960s. However, it was not until 2003 when the first coronavirus outbreak, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), was reported in Hong Kong and China. The second outbreak was reported in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which researchers identified as the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Fielding, 2020). These two types were caused by different strains of the human coronavirus and were managed through natural circumstances and human intervention.

For the current outbreak, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been branded as the novel coronavirus. Several reasons may explain this branding. One such reason is that even though scientists are knowledgeable about human coronaviruses due to the past reported cases and outbreaks, Fielding (2020) argued that these scientists do not know everything about the virus. Besides, Peckham (2020) maintain that by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) labeling the virus that causes COVID-19 as SARS-CoV-2, they recognize that COVID-19 may be related genetically to the other SARS coronaviruses but unique in aspects some unknown aspects. This labeling explains why COVID-19 is being identified as the novel coronavirus, with scientists having to study the specific contexts of the pandemic rather than simple analogies to understand it.

Another possible reason why COVID-19 has been referred to as the novel coronavirus is that it has no unique treatment or vaccine yet. Unlike other virus infections such as influenza, scientists have not yet developed a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 (European Center for Disease Prevention and Control [ECDC], 2020). However, following past influenza outbreaks such as the Influenza pandemic of 1918, medical researchers have been able to develop vaccines that are approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). These researchers modify these vaccines constantly to address the mutation of influenza viruses and ultimately prevent year-round and seasonal influenza epidemics. Conversely, no individual has prior immunity for COVID-19, which makes it seem to be more infectious than influenza and other coronaviruses such as SARS, thereby partly explaining the tag "novel coronavirus. Moreover, COVID-19 appears to be evolving in human beings, which fastens its transmission, while SARS and MERS evolved in animals (Hamblin, 2020).

Norton (2020) acknowledged that the spread of COVID-19 has been unprecedented owing to the resultant social and public health consequences. The current populace has never faced a pandemic of this magnitude before. First, when compared with the two other major coronavirus outbreaks, COVID-19 is already showing to have unmatched effects. Hamblin (2020) stated that less than 1000 people died during the SARS and MERS epidemics. In the COVID-19 context, however, the pandemic had already killed more than 2000 people by February 25th 2020 (Hamblin, 2020). Therefore, COVID-19 is proving to be a more lethal respiratory infection that people can contract in unpredictable and unidentifiable ways. In essence, Hamblin (2020) purported that sometimes patients who are contracting COVID-19 are showing no symptoms of respiratory illnesses.

Due to the COVID-19's unpredictability, Norton (2020) also argued that the best way to manage it is by taking preventive measures that require governments' intervention in restricting movement and people changing their social behavior. Nonetheless, COVID-19 has not been the only unprecedented pandemic in world's history. Parallels can be drawn from the Black Plague of the 14th century with regards to the level of severity. Al-Marashi (2020) stated that this plague, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, originated from Central Asia and spread to Europe and China. There are no official records that show the mortality rate of this plague. However, in 1894, a similar plague caused by Yersinia pestis originated from Southwest China and was spread to other continents by rats through the global trade network. This plague killed 12 million people over a 30-year duration. Also, in the US, over 4000 people lost their homes in Chinatown when Honolulu decided to respond by quarantining and burning infected houses and garbage (Al-Marashi, 2020).

Other than the severity, the way countries have responded to COVID-19 seems to be different from other pandemics, especially the Influenza pandemic of 1918. This influenza pandemic was first detected in birds and later spread to human beings. When this flu was first detected by Spanish officials, they were quick to notify other countries of the outbreak for them to implement containment measures. Research by Markel et al. (2007) on the effectiveness of various intervention measures revealed that less draconian actions such as banning public gatherings and closure of schools in the early phases of a pandemic were more effective than quarantines. With that in mind, it would be expected that when most countries confirmed their first COVID-19 cases, they should have not imposed quarantines or lockdowns at first.

However, if the case of China is considered, for instance, the way Chinese officials responded to the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that they may have either underestimated its spread or disregarded knowledge gained from containing earlier pandemics. The lack of some COVID-19 positive patients to show acute respiratory symptoms may be the reason why the Chinese were not prompt in their reaction when the first case was reported in Wuhan. Al-Marashi (2020) purported that local officials in Wuhan were either unaware or scientific findings from earlier pandemics and allowed people to continue congregating. When the officials realized that the coronavirus had begun spreading rapidly, they issued quarantine orders in Wuhan within eight hours, a duration that was enough to allow most people to leave Wuhan. This response shows that the officials were unaware of the magnitude of coronavirus at its early stages, which has since proved to be more prevalent than the other coronaviruses.

Another aspect that makes COVID-19 an unprecedented pandemic is the way information about it is being relayed through the internet and television. The Black Plague of the 14th century occurred during the middle ages where there was no internet of cell phone technologies. Even though no official record to show the mode of transmission of information about the pandemic, one can deduce that people used the methods of mass communication in medieval Europe. Such methods include using messengers and networks where rulers sent correspondents to various destinations to deliver the intended verbal or written information (Crombie, 2014). These messengers were the most likely form of communication that authorities used to educate people on what caused the pandemic, update them on the level of spread and mortality and teach them how to protect themselves.

The Influenza pandemic of 1918 was relatively different due to the inventions in print media and radio. According to Mathews (2014), this influenza pandemic started at the end of WW1 with its effects being felt even after the war. With the war facilitating movement and mobilization of people, Europeans connected easily with Asians, Americans and Africans. Not only did they connect through movement but also through radio. Even though the general public was not allowed to use radios during the war, the introduction of radio broadcasting in 1918 facilitated communication between army bases and the public as well, which coincided with the beginning and spread of the pandemic. However, radio coverage was limited. Alternatively, officials also used newspapers, where people would receive information after several days.

More recently, during the worldwide AIDS pandemic, communication and education of the masses about this disease have been through press briefings, televisions, radio, brochures and pamphlets (Bertozzi et al., 2006). These modes have enabled the relaying of information to most people owing to the developments in television and radio broadcasting that have increased the number of media houses and an increased literacy rate where people can read and write.

In the current outbreak, however, key advancements have been achieved in telecommunication, which facilitates the transfer of messages through the internet, television and mobile phones. As such, global organizations and governments to televise information of the COVID-19 or issue live updates through official websites. For instance, the WHO has been updating the world about key preventive and testing measures through televised briefings. Additionally, the Italian Prime Minister instructed the close of shops to control the spread of COVID-19 through a televised address to his country (Mayberry et al., 2020).

Unlike in the earlier pandemics such as the Black Plague and the Influenza pandemic...