Essay Example on COVID-19: The Global Impact of a Deadly Pandemic

Introduction

The coronavirus disease alias COVID-19 remains one of the most dreadful pandemics experienced in the history of the world (Beckworth 1). The disease has had a wide range of economic, social, political, and psychological effects across the globe, with the tremendous death of hundreds of thousands of people being the most challenging impact to bear. Various governments across the world sought to implement a plethora of evidence-based measures aimed at ensuring that they protect their citizens from this deadly disease (Nicola et al. 11). Introduction of curfews, lockdowns, social distancing, washing of hands using running water and soap, or a sanitizer alongside wearing a mask are just but a few examples of the measures taken to curb the spread COVID-19. However, lockdowns, curfews, and social distancing, which entails ensuring that everyone maintains at least a range of 1 meter from the other, remains the three approaches with an everlasting critical impact on the lives of people (Cheng et al. 1). I am also one of the victims impacted by these crucial measures. I have had to stay indoors for the last seven weeks to protect myself against contracting this dreadful pandemic. As a result, this individual reflective essay provides appropriate responses to a wide range of questions and issues associated with the effects of the coronavirus disease on my life.

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Where I was in My Life when the Pandemic Began and My Plans

The COVID-19 outbreak began when I was at the epitome of my life. I was awaiting a few months to graduate from my tertiary institution and join the outside world in search of employment. I knew that finishing my third-level education would give me a critical opportunity in life to gain employment and begin putting into practice the professional knowledge, technical skills, and the experience gained from the class. However, the advent of the coronavirus disease meant that everything goes on halt until our country realizes a significant change in its incidence as well as prevalence rates. My plans entailed graduating from the college, finding a well-paying job, and making massive investments towards ensuring that I launch a well-performing business enterprise. Surprisingly, the pandemic brought all these plans to a halt.

How Things Changed for Me and How I Coped

The pronouncement of the coronavirus diseases by the World Health Organization as a pandemic had a far-reaching transformation in my life. Things changed to the worst as the declaration halted my dreams to finish my tertiary studies and join the outside world. As a result, I had to develop new tactics to cope up with the disease. For instance, I chose to stay indoors as a strategic approach towards ensuring that I meet the curfew hours and the lockdown implemented across various regions in my country. Also, I turned to do my crucial activities, such as shopping for essentials, learning, and engaging with colleagues from multiple online platforms. Some of these platforms included Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Indeed social media became a crucial solution to numerous challenges, including the psychological stress that comes with missing colleagues that I used to meet physically from one day to another.

Consideration of Different Plans

I am yet to think about the need to consider different plans over my life. My focus is on ensuring that I strictly follow the current health guidelines provided by the government to ensure that I protect myself from the deadly virus. As a result, I always put on a mask while visiting any public place, wash my hands with soap and water, and sometimes a sanitizer to keep away the virus, and in most cases, I keep indoors.

Impact of the Pandemic Life on My Family, Friends, and I

The pandemic life has had a far-reaching impact not only on my life but also on my colleagues, friends, and family members. Firstly, some of my colleagues have had to endure the effects of losing their jobs with their previous employers due to hard economic times. Secondly, friends who were successful entrepreneurs in their lives are increasingly closing down their businesses and suffering from significant losses as a result of not operating. Thirdly, some of my colleagues were victims. Some of them went to the extent of infecting others and increasing the overall number of deaths reported across the country (Nicola et al. 13). Lastly, my family members have to follow the health guidelines, including staying indoors strictly. This approach reduces their time to interact with friends and even cater to their basic needs, such as going out to purchase essentials.

Whether I have taken up New Interests, What I Miss, and Personal Experience

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled me to take new interests. For instance, I prefer talking to my friends alongside sharing and exchanging a wide range of information via social media. This occurrence is different from my initial interests, which entailed visiting friends, going with them for swimming, and playing games physically. It is this exponential interaction with friends and family members that I miss most in my life. Also, my experience with the virus remains awful. I have had to suffer from the psychological stress and torture that comes with losing friends and colleagues as a result of contracting this deadly disease. The fact that the government also took over the process of burying such people through the mass burial exercises leaves me depressed (Beckworth 1). Spending the whole day indoors while watching the television report a tremendous increase in the number of incidences, prevalence, and mortality rates over recoveries leave me disheartened. However, I still hold a positive attitude that the world will soon defeat this pandemic.

Assessing the Nature of the World around Me

Analytically, the world around me is a quiet and boring one. The pandemic compelled me to stay away from my best friends and colleagues whom we used to meet daily and participate in a wide range of exciting activities. Today, playing games on the phone and communicating or interacting via online platforms are the only remaining options of entertainment. I am left in a melancholy mood, wondering when this dreadful life will come to an end.

Whether I Intend to Make Any Significant Changes after the Pandemic

There are various changes that I plan to make after the pandemic. First, I will ensure that I get back to my college to get updates regarding the completion of my studies. Second, I will visit the remaining family members, friends, and colleagues to not only mourn with them but also offer social, psychological, and spiritual help to cover the losses they incurred. Lastly, I intend to remain cautious throughout my life to ensure that I stay away from contracting such dreadful diseases in the future.

How the Pandemic will Influence My Generation Going Forward

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the generation going forward will be enormous. COVID-19 will have an everlasting psychological, economic, and social impact on the lives of the next generations. Indeed, some countries, including the United States, are already feeling this critical impact across their states and territories. For instance, the United States and other foreign governments are increasingly recording a tremendous rise in the rate of unemployment (Cheng et al. 1). Also, the rising number of deaths transforms into significant psychological effects among children and other family members who relied exclusively on the deceased. Lastly, the lack of physical, social interactions between people implies that many will develop emotional challenges that may even culminate in suicidal tendencies with a significant increase in trauma-related deaths. Hence, countries need to undertake appropriate strategies to address such problems.

An Overview of the Best and Worst Thing to Happen to Me

Various things are yet to happen in my life. Some of these things may be positive or negative. The worst thing I anticipate happening in my life is contracting the virus despite the significant preventive efforts undertaken. The best thing to take place in my life is not just contracting the disease but hearing that the combined efforts of our scientists have led to the discovery of a vaccine or drugs that can permanently eradicate this virus.

Conclusion

The coronavirus disease remains a vital challenge in contemporary society. People must develop counterstrategies to control adequately. Countries across the world continue to feel the economic, social, psychological, and political effects associated with this deadly pandemic. However, there are still more hopes that scientific scholars from various parts of the world will succeed in their efforts to find a vaccine or a permanent treatment of the disease to avert its current effects.

Works Cited

Beckworth, David. COVID-19 Pandemic, direct cash transfers, and the Federal Reserve. Mercatus Center, George Mason University, March 18, 2020, https://www.mercatus.org/publications/covid-19-policy-brief-series/covid-19-pandemic-direct-cash-transfers-and-federal. Accessed May 7, 2020.

Cheng, Jeffrey, Skidmore, Dave, and Wessel, David. What's the Fed doing in response to the COVID-19 crisis? What more could it do? Brookings. April 30, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/research/fed-response-to-covid19/. Accessed May 7, 2020.

Nicola, Maria, Alsafi, Zaid, Sohrabi, Catrin, Kerwan, Ahmed, Al-Jabir, Ahmed, Iosifidis, Christos, Agha, Maliha, and Aghaf, Riaz. The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic: A Review. International Journal of Surgery, vol. 1, no. 2, 2020, pp. 11-20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162753/.