Essay Example on COVID-19: Emergence from Wuhan of a Global Disease Affecting Humans & Animals

Introduction

The emergence of COVID-19 has significantly caused international havoc resulting in fear, anxiety, and the development of unsubstantiated conspiracies. According to the World Health Organization, the highly contagious global disease has infected approximately 550,000 individuals across the globe while claiming more than 25,000 lives. COVID-19 is a type of coronaviruses that affect both human and animals. It emerged from Wuhan, China, a city with over 11 million residents (Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi 147). Although there have been other coronaviruses outbreak like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, COVID-19 has caused fear and lockdown in many countries due to its highly contagious nature while many victims either remain asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms (Lai, Chih-Cheng et al. 2). The COVID-19 symptoms include flu-like fever, dry cough aches, fatigue, and nasal congestion. It spread through contact with the fluids of the infected persons (Lai, Chih-Cheng et al. 8). Many individuals, corporations, and governments have instigated various measures to ensure the reduced spread of the virus as the world await scientific breakthrough of its cure. However, despite the alarming rate of the spread of COVID-19, instances across the globes also denoted massive negligence among different people risking their lives and those of others. From spreading misinforming news, being careless, to converging in crowded places despite the World Health Organization advocating for acute caution to avoid crowds. Negligence encompasses intentionally engaging in activities that may cause harm to another person, which has been rampant in the case of COVID-19. Therefore, the critical assessment of COVID-19 negligence across the globe provides a detailed comprehension of the diverse elements of negligence, cause of actions, and viable defense.

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Elements of Negligence in COVID-19 Epidemic

Many people and corporations have failed to exercise appropriate moral and ethical conduct during the current devastating moments of the COVID-19 epidemic by engaging in tortious acts, civil wrong that causes harm to a claimant. For instance, regardless of the warning from the World Health Organization that people should avoid social distancing, paramount hygiene, and isolation, the COVID-19 disease has majorly spread due to total negligence of people who violates the statutory declaration from the World Health Organization. The core principle of negligence advocates for rationality and ethical actions to avoid causing foreseeable harm to people. As the COVID-19 disease increases, it causes mayhem, which has driven many people to file different lawsuits for negligence against governments, corporations, and even other individuals. As of March 13, 2020, more than 13 plaintiffs had filed cases with various law courts over the excruciating effects of the COVID-19 epidemic (Higgins). However, the allegations are only valid if they sufficiently satisfy the elements of negligence, ranging from the duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

Duty of Care

The assessment of negligence claim would ascertain the validity of the plaintiff's claim if the defendant owed the plaintiff duty of care. The legal liability of the plaintiff's claim relies on the defendant failure to perform his or her legal or social responsibility, which in turn resulted in harm or damages to the plaintiff (Peoples and Vicki 46). The law adamantly recognizes the defendant's negligence of duty after assessing and determining the defendant legal obligation. For instance, a certified medical practitioner has a legal and binding commitment to ascertain maximum quality services to patients from high-speed admission, efficient medical testing, and diagnosis to procuring effective treatment procedures. The legal relationship between the doctor and the patient requires both parties to act in a specific ethical manner and conduct to ensure a viable positive outcome. For example, in India, a father of a 10-year-old is suing the Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences for COVID-19 negligence after the hospital failed to test the boy on time despite showing concerning symptoms risking the life of the family members (Awasthi). The nurses and the hospital have a legal duty to perform timely, efficient, and effective testing and offer treatment to the 10-year old boy.

Additionally, in China, a group of Chinese business owners filed a lawsuit against the People Republic of China for allegedly failing to contain the spread of COVID-19 disease. The government of the People Republic of China has a legal obligation to ensure the safety of all its citizens and to rapidly device measures to contain any infectious epidemic (Higgins). In Miami, in the case, Douglas v. Norwegian Cruise Lines, No. 20-cv-21107, Douglas, a shareholder claim that the Norwegian Cruise Lines, through the CEO owed them provision of factual information on the effect the COVID-19 would have on their business but mispresented the facts during the February 20 Form 8-K and a February 27 Form 10-K filed with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Higgins). Therefore, as doctors owe patient timely and quality care, the government owe citizens, safety and corporations owe shareholders information, which makes them legally liable to the negligence laws.

Breach of Duty

A defendant causes a breach of duty when he or she fails to honor the legal obligation or acts contrary to the rational and ethical expectations. Courts of Law establishes the defendant's responsibility or responsible action to maintain a viable relationship with the plaintiff (Beran, 123). Valid negligence claim holds when the defendant breaches duty by engaging in activities that a "reasonably prudent person" would not if subjected under similar circumstances (Peoples and Vicki 46). For example, with a comprehensive knowledge of the impact and prevalence of the COVID-19 epidemic, all doctors and health institutions have the mandate to ensure efficient testing and sufficient admission of appropriate and available treatment without discrimination or prejudice. SKIMS in India breached its duty when it failed to test the 10-year-old boy for more than four days (Awasthi). The Norwegian Cruise Lines also breached its duty when it released misleading information to shareholders on the projected impact of COVID-19 on the business (Higgins). Possessing viable knowledge and acting contrary to the expected ethical manner, which is likely to cause harm to the plaintiff, makes a defendant legally liable for a negligence claim. The Norwegian Cruise Lines directly breached his duty against Douglas as the CEO and other executives acted on behalf of the company when releasing a mispresented statement to the stakeholders.

Causation

Consequently, despite the defendant having legal obligation and duty to the plaintiff but failing to perform the expected responsibilities, the negligence claims only hold when the defendant's actions or failure to act caused damages and injury to the plaintiff (Peoples and Vicki 46). The SKIMS failure to test the 10-year-old boy for four days risked the lives of others, who had no clue of his status since he could not be subjected to seclusion due to speculations. Whether a person or a corporation, every entity has the right to act or fail to act considering diverse circumstances or capabilities without being prejudiced. However, when direct negligence causes direct physical, emotional, psychological, or socio-economic damages, the defendant is liable to compensate the plaintiff. For instance, in the Douglas v. Norwegian Cruise Lines case, No. 20-cv-21107, the Norwegian Cruise Lines company caused direct damage when it released the wrong information to the shareholders at the SEC which resulted in financial losses and artificially deflating its stock price (Higgins).

Damages

It is not enough that the defendant was negligent when carrying out duties. However, the plaintiff must expose and ascertain the damages caused by the defendant's negligence to secure appropriate compensation (Peoples and Vicki 46). As the court assesses the negligence claim, ascertaining proof of damages beyond doubt guarantees ultimate offense against the plaintiff and the right to be accorded compensation. For instance, Douglas succumbs compassable damages when its stock rapidly deflated due to the Norwegian Cruise Lines' negligence by releasing mispresented information about the economic impact of the COVID-19 (Higgins).

Conclusion

Conclusively, the COVID-19 global epidemic continues to cause anxiety and havoc in different countries due to its contagious nature. The virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, has consequently claimed the lives of many people making various governments to enforce extreme measures such as total national lockdowns after the WHO projection. The epidemic has also caused massive lawsuit over negligence claims, with some parties taking advantage of the situation to increase profitability while other carelessly risk people's lives by engaging in activities causing rapid spread. Nevertheless, individuals, companies or governments are only liable to negligence claim when they owe a duty to the plaintiff, breach their duty by failing to act or acting contrary to the ethical expectation, which consequently causes provable damages due to the COVID-19.

Works Cited

Awasthi, Prashasti. 10-year-old-boy tested positive for COVID-19; family alleges negligence by admin. The Hindu business line. 2020. Available at https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/10-year-old-boy-tested-positive-for-covid-19-family-alleges-negligence-by-admin/article31216733.ece

Beran, Roy G. Concussion-A Question of Negligence. Medicine and law. Vol 36, no 4. 121-128. 2017. Available at https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/mlv36&div=45&id=&page=

Higgins, Donna. Roundup: first COVID-19 suits filed; states and feds weigh legislation. Thomson Reuters. 2020. Available at https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/resources/covid-19/articles/first-covid-19-suits-filed-states-and-feds-weigh-legislation.htmlz

Lai, Chih-Cheng, et al. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): The epidemic and the challenges. International journal of antimicrobial agents. Vol 55, no 3. 2020. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105924

Peoples, Lee, and Vicki Lawrence MacDougall. Negligence: Purpose, elements & evidence: The role of foreseeability in the law of each state. 1-440. 2018. Balloon Press.

Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi. The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China. Zhonghua liu xing bing xue za zhi= Zhonghua liuxingbingxue zazhi. Vol 41, no 2. P. 145-151. 2020. Available at doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0254-6450.2020.02.003.