Post 1 Gina
Coronavirus Evaluation November 2020
The Novel Coronavirus has been influencing people’s choices and opportunities since early in the Spring of 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) first started daily reporting of coronavirus cases on January 21, 2020; 282 total cases and the breakdown looked like this:
China
Hubei Province – 258
Guangdong – 14
Beijing – 5
Shanghai – 1
Japan – 1
Republic of Korea – 1
Thailand – 2
According to today’s (11/5/2020) information on the WHO’s website, the countries reporting covid cases is 11 pages long and indicates nearly 46,000,000 cases and 1,200,000 million deaths. The coronavirus is a rapidly spreading, highly contagious viral disease, that seems to be affecting people in a variety of ways. Elders and other individuals with underlying health issues seem to be the ones affected with the most severity. Since January people have had to decipher what to be true and accurate information regarding Coronavirus and what is false information. At one point along the covid journey I read that children were not affected, since proven to be false, another suggestion was that masks will not deter the spread of the infection, also proven to be misleading. While everyone’s opinion on what should be done as a nation to combat Coronavirus, many countries have taken seemingly drastic measures… but were they? New Zealand closed its borders to people entering their country and their number of total cases is a low 1603. Vietnam took action prior to the declaration of a pandemic on March 11, 2020 and began implementing quarantine restrictions on people entering the country, closing schools, cancelling large gatherings and performing immediate contact tracing; despite sharing a border with China, their numbers are at 1180 today. The U.S. as a whole is showing a total of 8,952,086 reported cases of covid; 548,965 coming in the last 7 days (WHO, 2020). As far as local numbers go, as an area, the upper portion of NY state had seen very few positive cases of the over 500,000 statewide, in fact my local county of Lewis had only 64 positive cases as of September 3, 2020. As of November 4, 2020 that number had drastically increased to 171. As of October 27, 2020 the NY State positivity rate was at 1.45%, while Lewis County was seeing a positivity rate of 8.2% (Russell, 2020). What happened to the small, rural county in such a short time to bring about such a change? People became careless in their behaviors and chose to not follow CDC recommended guidelines. Two events were held in Lewis County that have caused an increase in positive cases, closure of many schools to the hybrid teaching plan and a move to remote learning, return to take-out only options at some local area restaurants and a quarantine list that neared 1,000 people! A religious event that saw visitors from out of state evade NY state policy and enter our state by flying into a neighboring state and driving into our county to avoid quarantine protocol and neglecting social distancing policies by allowing close contact of a large crowd. Another event held in the same time frame saw hundreds of people attend an auction in an enclosed space.
The regulations encouraged by the CDC and WHO were put in place to safeguard the masses and not intended to violate a person’s freedoms. Wearing a mask is a simple way to protect those around you, as well as yourself from contracting the virus. There is no one fool proof way to insure safety from the covid virus, but the areas implementing restrictions and the people following guidelines seem to be the most effective manner in which to proceed at this time. The world is entering the 8th month of a global pandemic that has no real end in sight. Life has been disrupted for millions in so many ways; from changes in education, loss of personal contact, financial loss due to lost wages and lost jobs, personal loss from over 1 million deaths due to Coronavirus and countless other ways. I personally lost my job, my daughter did not get to experience her college graduation, and my son had to wait several months past his 16th birthday for the all important day of obtaining a learner’s permit for driving. We consider ourselves lucky though, as we have not had to experience the loss of any family of friends from this disease; but life is forever changed. For the first time in the history of my family, there will be no holiday gathering this year and I can only wonder how that will impact all of us for the rest of time. Will we find it easier to forgo those get-togethers in the future, will we lose contact with family from out of the area?
Covid-19 is not likely to disappear, and sadly the effects may be seen for years. The economy will take time to recover, and no one knows exactly what that will look like. The U. S. has just had a presidential election that was so close that a definite winner has yet to be proclaimed… that is a horribly sad reminder that our nation is deeply divided at this time, and the protocol on handling Coronavirus has been an issue at the forefront of that division. According to the NY Times, Coronavirus cases have averaged 91,878 per day in the U. S. for the last week and data shows that number will probably continue rising.
References:
Almukhtar, Sarah, Aufrichtig, Aliza, Barnard, Anne, Bloch, Matthew, Calderone, Julia, Collins, Keith, Conlen, Matthew, Cook, Lindsey, Gianordoli, Gabriel, Harmon, Amy, Harris, Rich, Hassan, Adeel, Huang, Jon, Issawi, Danya, Ivory, Danielle, Lai, Rebecca K. K., Lemonides, Alex, McCann, Allison, Oppel Jr., Richard A., Patel, Jugal K., Semple, Kirk, Shaver, Julie Walton, Singhvi, Anjali, Smart, Charlie, Smith, Mitch, Sun, Albert, Watkins, Derek, Williams, Timothy, Wu, Jin&Yourish, Karen, 2020, Covid in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count, NY Times, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Beaubien, Jason, 2020, The Coronavirus Crisis, Some Countries Have Brought New Cases Down to Nearly Zero. How Did They Do It?, National Public Radio (NPR), https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/23/861577367/messaging-from-leaders-who-have-tamed-their-countrys-coronavirus-outbreaks
NYSDOH, 2020, NYS-COVID 19 Tracker, https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/views/NYS-COVID19-Tracker/NYSDOHCOVID-19Tracker-Map?%3Aembed=yes&%3Atoolbar=no&%3Atabs=n
Nguyen, Trang H.D & Vu, Danh C, 2020, Summary of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Vietnam-Lessons and Suggestions, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146658/
Russell, Emily, 2020, Positive COVID test rate Surges to 8.2% in Lewis County After Large Gatherings, North Country Public Radio, https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/42562/20201026/positive-covid-test-rate-surges-to-8-2-in-lewis-county-after-large-gatherings
World Health Organization (WHO), 2020, Weekly Epidemiological Update, https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update—3-november-2020
Reply to Gina
Hello Gina. I like your post a lot, especially how you have detailed coronavirus statics. However, I would like to hear what you think these statistics can be used to predict coronavirus in the United States. For instance, the United States is one month behind South Korea and two months behind Italy; therefore, we expect the cases to peak two months later. This would give the US enough time for preparation. I concur with you that Coronavirus is likely not to disappear soon.
Post 2
Coronavirus started late last year in China. By March, the virus had spread to the United States. By March 23rd, the United States had 35,230 cases with 459 deaths. Currently the United States has reported more 9.8 million cases with nearly 237,000 deaths. World wide, there are 50 million cases with 1.2 million deaths (Tucker, Aretakis, Bacon, 2020). Why is this increase happening so quickly?
Americans are urged to use safety precautions, social distance, wash your hands, wear a mask, and quarantine yourself when need be. But, as the holidays are coming and people are missing their loved ones that they have not seen since this began, are eager to get together. Students, both college level and high school levels, are back in session and are eager to be together. Sport fans are having withdrawals (myself included) from not seeing their favorite teams play and are sick of watching old reruns. Americans are a social group and want to be together. People are sick of wearing their face and are often seen at gatherings including the past election rallies with no face coverings.
How do we get rid of this virus? According to President elect Joe Biden, this is going to be one of his first issues that he tackles when he takes over office in January. He states we need to listen to scientists and experts to work on a plan. Biden feels we can not repair the damage done to our country unless we get this virus under control (Tucker, Aretakis, Bacon, 2020).
Heather Tucker, Rachel Aretakis, & John Bacon. (2020) Coronavirus updates: US sets another record with 126,742 new cases; world surpasses 50 million cases. Retrieved from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/08/covid-news-sunday/6210911002/
Reply post 2
Hello, you have a great post. Going through your post, I can notice a lot of similarities in terms of arguments with figures. I concur with you that the virus is a threat to economic development, sports, and education. What makes your post more interesting is that you could not miss what Joe Biden said on the issue. However, there is one area that you have not talked about, using the figures to predict US impact and infection rate.
Post 3
Lindsay
The spread of Corona Virus in the United States grew much faster than any other country. We are also continuing to struggle with this even though some countries are over the virus. I believe this is due to the simple fact that people in the United States make everything political and don’t like being told what to do. It has proven in various tests that masks really do help. When quarantine was in effect the numbers were stable, however these numbers aren’t accurate to what should be the reality due to the fact that people did not social distance. If I am reading the assignment right, the numbers provided were from March in the beginning of the pandemic for the United States. The numbers then have increased a lot. During the summer, the virus did flatten for a few months however, being back in fall this past week the United States reached its new high in months. In the past twenty-four hours 86,160 people have been tested positive for COVID-19 according to the CDC. Some states are facing challenges with corona they have not faced until now. The numbers over the past few weeks have skyrocketed. However, the only good thing is currently is that the death rate is not nearly as high as in March due to what we have learned, and the virus has seemed to weaken. I do wonder how accurate these numbers that we are seeing are. My significant other works at a nursing home, recently over half of the facility tested as a false positive, so how can this test be accurate. I am also curious about the people getting ignored by doctors, my mother was told she had the virus but she was tested negative, she had an ear infection, so how do we know that all of these deaths were actually caused by COVID-19? The doctors clearly are not fully doing their jobs at this point. So, are these numbers just because doctors are taking the easy route with patients? New York State has been a mess so many people are getting sick especially due to the leadership in the city. The numbers in New York have been at the top of the chart this whole virus and will most likely stay that way. Over the next six months we can easily predict there will be a vaccine, the question is how this will be available for the entire public. We also can’t guarantee this vaccine will be perfectly effective and if everyone will be vaccinated. Politically, the virus will have a whole new perspective no matter who is elected president, I am almost positive that a lot of drama and talk about the virus is just from the election. Either way no matter what happens, there will be a vaccine, and there will be hope that maybe one day things will go back to normal. It is clear that next year won’t be much different but, things should settle. I can’t predict the numbers fully but I know during this upcoming cold and Flu season the virus will be in full swing. I know the U.S. is hoping on herd immunity. This is not possible with the various strands and the fact that immunity only lasts a few weeks. In short, I am not to sure what is real with this virus anymore but, once we get past this winter things should progress positively.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesinlast7days
https://www.bing.com/covid/local/unitedstates?form=C19ANS&timeline=1
https://www.sciencealert.com/why-herd-immunity-will-not-save-us-from-the-covid-19-pandemic
https://www.foxnews.com/us/covid-19-death-numbers-generate-debate-over-accuracy
Reply to Lindsay
Hello Lindsay, I have gone through your post, and I must say it is fantastic. I can’t entirely agree with you that some country is over this deadly disease. Even china records, as provided by Woldometers and World Health Organization, still record a few cases. Such countries also still feel the impact of the virus since it hinders international trade. You also addressed the development of a vaccine, which was confirmed today through various media. Pfizer and BioNTech have developed the vaccine. It is 90% effective. This must be a breakthrough in the fight against the coronavirus.
Post 4
Frances Utter
COVID 19
COLLAPSE
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We have learned that there is a steady rise in positive cases as a whole. On September 5th 2020 there was a 7.02% positive test rate with a fatality rate of 2.91%. As of November 3ed 2020 the positive test rate was 6.22% with a fatality rate of 2.41% With the lowest positive test rate of 6.18% and fatality rate of 2.51% on October 26th.
One would have to wonder if the death rates are true. We know that autopsy’s were not being done, how do we know for 100% that it was the true cause of death. The older folks for instance lets say they had liver diseases and they tested positive for covid, how do we know that covid was the cause of death when people can die for liver diseases.
In the unedited states as a whole the numbers are climbing more so in Iowa and out that way, but NY down to Florida and even California, the cases are lower over the last seven says then some other states. But IF we look at the Western pacific with only 750,712 cases total and as of November 4th 20220 their cases are at 4,026. With Africa a total of 1,340,843 but only 3,545 as of November 4th 2020. So what are they doing so differently over there that their numbers are significantly lower then those of the us. Yes they have been pretty consistent with only one big spike since the first.
Sources
Mayoclinic.org/coronaviruse-covid-19/map
Covid19 who.int
Nationalgeographic.com
Reply to Frances
Dear Frances, I appreciate you took your time to write such a nice post. Based on the data you have given, many people die out of the disease. You do not need to wonder if coronavirus is the true cause of death since the virus may not kill alone. People who have pre-existing conditions before the infection is at higher risk of developing severe symptoms. I know one of our family friends, who is a victim. In Africa’s case, I would argue that they are favored with a warm climate, and they also have lower testing rates.