an essay about covid 19

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Covid 19 Essay in English

Essay on Covid -19: In a very short amount of time, coronavirus has spread globally. It has had an enormous impact on people's lives, economy, and societies all around the world, affecting every country. Governments have had to take severe measures to try and contain the pandemic. The virus has altered our way of life in many ways, including its effects on our health and our economy. Here are a few sample essays on ‘CoronaVirus’.

100 Words Essay on Covid 19

200 words essay on covid 19, 500 words essay on covid 19.

COVID-19 or Corona Virus is a novel coronavirus that was first identified in 2019. It is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but it is more contagious and has caused more severe respiratory illness in people who have been infected. The novel coronavirus became a global pandemic in a very short period of time. It has affected lives, economies and societies across the world, leaving no country untouched. The virus has caused governments to take drastic measures to try and contain it. From health implications to economic and social ramifications, COVID-19 impacted every part of our lives. It has been more than 2 years since the pandemic hit and the world is still recovering from its effects.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has been impacted in a number of ways. For one, the global economy has taken a hit as businesses have been forced to close their doors. This has led to widespread job losses and an increase in poverty levels around the world. Additionally, countries have had to impose strict travel restrictions in an attempt to contain the virus, which has resulted in a decrease in tourism and international trade. Furthermore, the pandemic has put immense pressure on healthcare systems globally, as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Lastly, the outbreak has led to a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, as people are fearful of contracting the disease.

My Experience of COVID-19

I still remember how abruptly colleges and schools shut down in March 2020. I was a college student at that time and I was under the impression that everything would go back to normal in a few weeks. I could not have been more wrong. The situation only got worse every week and the government had to impose a lockdown. There were so many restrictions in place. For example, we had to wear face masks whenever we left the house, and we could only go out for essential errands. Restaurants and shops were only allowed to operate at take-out capacity, and many businesses were shut down.

In the current scenario, coronavirus is dominating all aspects of our lives. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc upon people’s lives, altering the way we live and work in a very short amount of time. It has revolutionised how we think about health care, education, and even social interaction. This virus has had long-term implications on our society, including its impact on mental health, economic stability, and global politics. But we as individuals can help to mitigate these effects by taking personal responsibility to protect themselves and those around them from infection.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Education

The outbreak of coronavirus has had a significant impact on education systems around the world. In China, where the virus originated, all schools and universities were closed for several weeks in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. Many other countries have followed suit, either closing schools altogether or suspending classes for a period of time.

This has resulted in a major disruption to the education of millions of students. Some have been able to continue their studies online, but many have not had access to the internet or have not been able to afford the costs associated with it. This has led to a widening of the digital divide between those who can afford to continue their education online and those who cannot.

The closure of schools has also had a negative impact on the mental health of many students. With no face-to-face contact with friends and teachers, some students have felt isolated and anxious. This has been compounded by the worry and uncertainty surrounding the virus itself.

The situation with coronavirus has improved and schools have been reopened but students are still catching up with the gap of 2 years that the pandemic created. In the meantime, governments and educational institutions are working together to find ways to support students and ensure that they are able to continue their education despite these difficult circumstances.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Economy

The outbreak of the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the global economy. The virus, which originated in China, has spread to over two hundred countries, resulting in widespread panic and a decrease in global trade. As a result of the outbreak, many businesses have been forced to close their doors, leading to a rise in unemployment. In addition, the stock market has taken a severe hit.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Health

The effects that coronavirus has on one's health are still being studied and researched as the virus continues to spread throughout the world. However, some of the potential effects on health that have been observed thus far include respiratory problems, fever, and coughing. In severe cases, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death can occur. It is important for people who think they may have been exposed to the virus to seek medical attention immediately so that they can be treated properly and avoid any serious complications. There is no specific cure or treatment for coronavirus at this time, but there are ways to help ease symptoms and prevent the virus from spreading.

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Essay On Covid-19: 100, 200 and 300 Words

Updated on
Apr 30, 2024

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is a global pandemic that has affected people all around the world. It first emerged in a lab in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and quickly spread to countries around the world. This virus was reportedly caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since then, it has spread rapidly to many countries, causing widespread illness and impacting our lives in numerous ways. This blog talks about the details of this virus and also drafts an essay on COVID-19 in 100, 200 and 300 words for students and professionals.

Table of Contents

1 Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words
2 Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words
3 Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words
4 Short Essay on Covid-19

Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a global pandemic. It started in late 2019 and has affected people all around the world. The virus spreads very quickly through someone’s sneeze and respiratory issues.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our lives, with lockdowns, travel restrictions, and changes in daily routines. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we should wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash our hands frequently.

People should follow social distancing and other safety guidelines and also learn the tricks to be safe stay healthy and work the whole challenging time.

Also Read: National Safe Motherhood Day 2023

Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words

COVID-19 also known as coronavirus, became a global health crisis in early 2020 and impacted mankind around the world. This virus is said to have originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019. It belongs to the coronavirus family and causes flu-like symptoms. It impacted the healthcare systems, economies and the daily lives of people all over the world.

The most crucial aspect of COVID-19 is its highly spreadable nature. It is a communicable disease that spreads through various means such as coughs from infected persons, sneezes and communication. Due to its easy transmission leading to its outbreaks, there were many measures taken by the government from all over the world such as Lockdowns, Social Distancing, and wearing masks.

There are many changes throughout the economic systems, and also in daily routines. Other measures such as schools opting for Online schooling, Remote work options available and restrictions on travel throughout the country and internationally. Subsequently, to cure and top its outbreak, the government started its vaccine campaigns, and other preventive measures.

In conclusion, COVID-19 tested the patience and resilience of the mankind. This pandemic has taught people the importance of patience, effort and humbleness.

Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a serious and contagious disease that has affected people worldwide. It was first discovered in late 2019 in Cina and then got spread in the whole world. It had a major impact on people’s life, their school, work and daily lives.

COVID-19 is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets produced and through sneezes, and coughs of an infected person. It can spread to thousands of people because of its highly contagious nature. To cure the widespread of this virus, there are thousands of steps taken by the people and the government.

Wearing masks is one of the essential precautions to prevent the virus from spreading. Social distancing is another vital practice, which involves maintaining a safe distance from others to minimize close contact.

Very frequent handwashing is also very important to stop the spread of this virus. Proper hand hygiene can help remove any potential virus particles from our hands, reducing the risk of infection.

In conclusion, the Coronavirus has changed people’s perspective on living. It has also changed people’s way of interacting and how to live. To deal with this virus, it is very important to follow the important guidelines such as masks, social distancing and techniques to wash your hands. Getting vaccinated is also very important to go back to normal life and cure this virus completely.

Also Read: Essay on Abortion in English in 650 Words

Short Essay on Covid-19

Please find below a sample of a short essay on Covid-19 for school students:

Also Read: Essay on Women’s Day in 200 and 500 words

to write an essay on COVID-19, understand your word limit and make sure to cover all the stages and symptoms of this disease. You need to highlight all the challenges and impacts of COVID-19. Do not forget to conclude your essay with positive precautionary measures.

Writing an essay on COVID-19 in 200 words requires you to cover all the challenges, impacts and precautions of this disease. You don’t need to describe all of these factors in brief, but make sure to add as many options as your word limit allows.

The full form for COVID-19 is Corona Virus Disease of 2019.

Simran Popli

An avid writer and a creative person. With an experience of 1.5 years content writing, Simran has worked with different areas. From medical to working in a marketing agency with different clients to Ed-tech company, the journey has been diverse. Creative, vivacious and patient are the words that describe her personality.

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How to write an essay on coronavirus (COVID-19)

(Last updated: 10 November 2021)

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With the coronavirus pandemic affecting every aspect of our lives for the last 18 months, it is no surprise that it has become a common topic in academic assignments. Writing a COVID-19 essay can be challenging, whether you're studying biology, philosophy, or any course in between.

Your first question might be, how would an essay about a pandemic be any different from a typical academic essay? Well, the answer is that in many ways it is largely similar. The key difference, however, is that this pandemic is much more current than usual academic topics. That means that it may be difficult to rely on past research to demonstrate your argument! As a result, COVID-19 essay writing needs to balance theories of past scholars with very current data (that is constantly changing).

In this post, we are going to give you our top tips on how to write a coronavirus academic essay, so that you are able to approach your writing with confidence and produce a great piece of work.

1. Do background reading

Critical reading is an essential component for any essay, but the question is – what should you be reading for a coronavirus essay? It might seem like a silly question, but the choices that you make during the reading process may determine how well you actually do on the paper. Therefore, we recommend the following steps.

First, read (and re-read) the assignment prompt that you have been given by the instructor. If you write an excellent essay, but it is off topic, you’ll likely be marked down. Make notes on the words that explain what is being asked of you – perhaps the essay asks you to “analyse”, “describe”, “list”, or “evaluate”. Make sure that these same words actually appear in your paper.

Second, look for specific things you have been instructed to do. This might include using themes from your textbook or incorporating assigned readings. Make a note of these things and read them first. Remember to take good notes while you read.

Once you have done your course readings, the question then becomes: what types of external readings are you going to need? Typically, at this point, you are going to be left with newspapers/websites, and a few scholarly articles (books on coronavirus might not be readily available at this stage, but could still be useful!). If it is a research essay, you are likely going to need to rely on a variety of sources as you work through this assignment. This might seem different than other academic writing where you would typically focus on only peer-reviewed articles or books. With coronavirus essays, there is a need for a more diverse set of sources, including;

Newspaper articles and websites

Just like with academic articles, not all newspaper articles and/or websites are created equal. Further, there are likely to be a variety of different statistics released, as the way that countries calculate coronavirus cases, deaths, and other components of the virus are not always the same.

Try to pick sources that are reputable. This might be reports done by key governmental organisations or even the World Health Organisation. If you are reading through an article and can identify obvious areas of bias, you may need to find alternate readings for your paper.

Academic articles

You may be surprised to discover the variety of articles published so far on COVID-19 - a lot can be achieved over multiple lockdowns! The research that has been done has been fairly extensive, covering a broad range of topics. Therefore, when preparing to write your academic essay, make sure to check the literature frequently as new publications are being released all the time.

If you do a search and you cannot find anything on the coronavirus specifically, you will have to widen your search. Think about the topic more widely. Are there theories that you have learned about in your classes that you can link to academic articles? Surely the answer must be yes! Just because there is limited research on this topic does not mean that you should avoid academic articles all together. Relying solely on websites or newspapers can lead you to a biased piece of writing, which usually is not what an academic essay is all about.

2. Plan your essay

Brainstorming.

Taking the time to brainstorm out your ideas can be the first step in a super successful essay. Brainstorming does not have to take a lot of time, and can be done in about 20 minutes if you have already done some background reading on the topic.

First, figure out how many points you need to identify. Each point is likely to equate to one paragraph of your paper, so if you are writing a 1500-word essay (and you use 300 words for the introduction and conclusion) you will be left with 1200 words, which means you will need between 5-6 paragraphs (and 5-6 points).

Start with a blank piece of paper. In the middle of the paper write the question or statement that you are trying to answer. From there, draw 5 or 6 lines out from the centre. At the end of each of these lines will be a point you want to address in your essay. From here, write down any additional ideas that you have.

It might look messy, but that’s OK! This is just the first step in the process and an opportunity for you to get your ideas down on paper. From this messiness, you can easily start to form a logical and linear outline that will soon become the template for your essay.

Creating an outline

Once you have a completed brainstorm, the next step is to put your ideas into a logical format The first step in this process is usually to write out a rough draft of the argument you are attempting to make. In doing this, you are then able to see how your subsequent paragraphs are addressing this topic (and if they are not addressing the topic, now is the time to change this!).

Once you have a position/argument/thesis statement, create space for your body paragraphs, but numbering each section. Then, write a rough draft of the topic sentence that you think will fit well in that section. Once you have done this, pull up the coronavirus articles, data, and other reports that you have read. Determine where each will fit best in your paper (and exclude the ones that do not fit well). Put a citation of the document in each paragraph section (this will make it easier to construct your reference list at the end).

Once every paragraph is organised, double check to make sure they are all still on track to address your main thesis. At this point you are ready to write an excellent and well-organised COVID-19 essay!

3. Structure your paragraphs

When structuring an academic essay on COVID-19, there will be a need to balance the news, evidence from academic articles, and course theory. This adds an extra layer of complexity because there are just so many things to juggle.

One strategy that can be helpful is to structure all your paragraphs in the same way. Now, you might be thinking, how boring! In reality, it is likely that the reader will appreciate the fact that you have carefully thought out your process and how you are going to approach this essay.

How to design your essay paragraphs

Create a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a sentence that presents the main idea for the paragraph. Usually it links back to your thesis, argument, or position.
Start to introduce your evidence. Use the next sentence in your introduction as a bridge between the topic sentence and the evidence/data you are going to present.
Add evidence. Take 2-4 sentences to give the reader some good information that supports your topic sentence. This can be statistics, details from an empirical study, information from a news article, or some other form of information.
Give some critical thought. It is essential to make a connection for the reader between your evidence and your topic sentence. Tell the reader why the information you have presented is important.
Provide a concluding sentence. Make sure you wrap up your argument or transition to the next one.

4. Write your essay

Keep it academic.

There is a lot of information available about the coronavirus, but because much of it is coming from newspaper articles, the evidence that you might use for your paper can be skewed. In order to keep your paper academic, it is best to maintain a professional and academic style.

Present statistics from reputable sources (like the World Health Organisation), rather than those that have been selected by third parties. Furthermore, if you are writing a COVID-19 essay that is about a specific region (e.g. the United Kingdom), make sure that your statistics and evidence also come from this region.

Use up-to-date sources

The information on coronavirus is constantly changing. By now, everyone has seen the exponential curve of cases reoccurring all over the world at different times. Therefore, what was true last month may not necessarily be the case now. This can be challenging when you are planning an essay, because your outline from a previous week may need to be modified.

There are a number of ways you can address this. One way is, obviously, to continue going back and refreshing the data. Another way, which can be equally useful, is to outline the scope of the problem in your paper, writing something like, “data on COVID-19 is constantly changing, but the data presented was accurate at the time of writing”.

Avoid personal bias or opinion (unless asked!)

Everybody has an opinion – this opinion can often relate to how you or your family members have been affected by the pandemic (and the government response to this). People have lost jobs, have had to avoid family/friends, or have lost someone as a result of this pandemic. Life, for many, is very different.

While all of this is extremely important, it may not necessarily be relevant for an academic essay. One of the more challenging components of this type of academic paper is to try and remove yourself from the evidence you are providing. Now… there are exceptions. If you are writing a COVID-19 reflective essay, then it is your responsibility to include your opinion; otherwise, do your best to remain objective.

Avoid personal pronouns

Along the same lines as avoiding bias, it is also a good idea to avoid personal pronouns in your academic essay (except in a reflection, of course). This means avoiding words like “I, we, our, my”. While you may agree (or disagree) with the sentiment you are presenting, try and present your information from a distanced perspective.

Proofread carefully

Finally (and this is true of any essay), make sure that you take the time to proofread your essay carefully. Is it free from spelling errors? Have you checked the grammar? Have you made sure that your references are correct and in order? Have you carefully reviewed the submission requirements of your instructor (e.g. font, margins, spacing, etc.)? If the answer is yes, it sounds as if you are finally ready to submit your essay.

Final thoughts

Writing an essay is not easy. Writing an essay on a pandemic while living in that same pandemic is even more difficult.

A good essay is appropriately structured with a clear purpose and is presented according to the recommended guidelines. Unless it is a personal reflection, it attempts to present information as if it were free from bias.

So before you start to panic about having to write an essay about a pandemic, take a breath. You can do this. Take all the same steps as you would in a conventional academic essay, but expand your search to include relevant and up-to-date information that you know will make your essay a success. Once you have done this, make sure to have your university writing centre or an academic at Oxbridge Essays check it over and make suggestions! Now, stop reading and get writing! Good luck.

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

Vox is starting a book club. Come read with us!

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID-19: science, history, culture and imagination

Interface focus has recently published a new issue that discusses the covid-19 pandemic from a wide variety of perspectives. we spoke to the organiser to find out more..

A vial of a Covid-19 vaccine. Science Museum Group Images

COVID-19 has had a dramatic, worldwide impact. A new Interface Focus issue examines the pandemic from a number of perspectives including epidemiology, research funding, public engagement, and the medical humanities.

We spoke to the issue organiser, Dr Roger Highfield , about the aims of the issue; the role of museums in providing a space for the pandemic to be processed and understood; and the historical legacy of COVID-19.

1. Please can you explain the aims of this issue?

For the first time, we are bringing together scientists doing COVID-19 research with curators who are collecting around their work to make sense of the greatest medical emergency for a generation. As the Science Director of the Science Museum Group, I was keen to take a step back from scientific studies of the COVID-19 pandemic to air broader issues since everyone has been affected in some way, and because the shockwaves sent out by the virus have spread to all aspects of life and culture. There are also many curatorial perspectives, whether from the viewpoint of the 1918 influenza pandemic, the impact on cancer research, or the role of science fiction.

2. This issue examines the COVID-19 pandemic through a multidisciplinary lens – including epidemiology, policymaking, funding, and medical humanities. How does taking such a broad perspective help enrich our understanding of the pandemic?

Because the pandemic touched so many people and so many aspects of our lives, it raised many broader issues: how science is done; how funding mechanisms evolved; the extent to which scientific advice sways governments; how modelling by epidemiologists fared in the pandemic; the extent to which we have learned the lessons of the 1918 influenza pandemic; and how the arguments about the efficacy of face coverings shed light on the relative importance of empiricism and mechanistic understanding. Among many other perspectives we examine how the hunt for antivirals at pandemic speed could be accelerated by blending machine learning and physics-based methods; the use of AI to inform public health strategies and the impact of the pandemic on sleep.

3. How do you think museums are positioned to inform the public about COVID-19 at the present and in the future?

Museum collections, events and scholarship reveal the lessons of the past, such as the historic debates over the benefits and risks of vaccination. Moreover, through collecting contemporary objects, along with staging exhibitions and events, museums can help illuminate how science can shape our future, and how we, in turn, can shape science. When it comes to the Science Museum, we held high profile events to engage with the public, involving leading figures such as Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the US President and Sarah Gilbert of the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford. I wrote more than 120,000 words about COVID-19 in blogs that aimed to share the latest expert knowledge with the public, and the Science Museum hosted the world’s first Global Vaccine Confidence Summit and an NHS vaccination centre, where thousands of people were inoculated, including the Health Secretary and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The museum group has a major COVID-19 collecting project under way and my colleagues provide all sorts of perspectives: Katie Dabin looks at the impact of COVID-19 on cancer research and care in the context of our new exhibition, Cancer Revolution, which opens in October in Manchester; Natasha McEnroe and Stewart Emmens describe the challenges faced by curators when trying to collect and preserve objects that convey the impacts of COVID-19 while in the grip of the pandemic; Katy Barrett and Geoff Belknap consider the history of image-making in medicine and Glyn Morgan discusses how, in these unprecedented times, science fiction can offer a ‘creative space’ to prompt new ways to think and learn.

The pandemic has also driven the evolution of museums, compelling them along with many other organisations to engage with audiences online and to go beyond traditional ‘material culture’, where stories are told through objects, to find new ways to inform audiences about the threat posed by this invisible enemy and the scientific response.

4. What do you think the historical legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic will be?

The legacy will be huge and important because pandemics always pose questions about how we should act in future, not least when the next pandemic comes along. My colleagues Natasha McEnroe and Stewart Emmens examine why the 1918 influenza pandemic left behind so little material culture, in contrast with polio and tuberculosis. Perhaps this reflects how people did not want to be reminded of the trauma and death, perhaps much of the equipment continued to be used, or perhaps it was thought highly infectious, and discarded. That won’t happen with COVID-19. In perhaps the largest effort of its kind, the Science Museum Group has a substantial COVID-19 project under way, and we are working on an exhibition about the extraordinary global effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, which will open simultaneously in the UK, India, and China in November 2022, then go on tour in all three countries.

Image credit: A vial of a Covid-19 vaccine. Science Museum Group Images

Keep up to date with the latest issues of Interface Focus by signing up for article alerts, and browse previous theme issues on the journal website.

Jessica Miller

Editorial Coordinator, the Royal Society

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

Writing about COVID-19 in your college admission essay

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

Are my experiences different from others’?
Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
Am I aware of my privilege?
Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

Grading scales and policies
Graduation requirements
Instructional methods
Schedules and course offerings
Testing requirements
Your academic calendar
Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

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Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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The complexity of managing COVID-19: How important is good governance?

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Alaka m. basu , amb alaka m. basu professor, department of global development - cornell university, senior fellow - united nations foundation kaushik basu , and kaushik basu nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development @kaushikcbasu jose maria u. tapia jmut jose maria u. tapia student - cornell university.

November 17, 2020

13 min read

This essay is part of “ Reimagining the global economy: Building back better in a post-COVID-19 world ,” a collection of 12 essays presenting new ideas to guide policies and shape debates in a post-COVID-19 world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of public health systems worldwide, casting a shadow that we could not have imagined even a year ago. As the fog of confusion lifts and we begin to understand the rudiments of how the virus behaves, the end of the pandemic is nowhere in sight. The number of cases and the deaths continue to rise. The latter breached the 1 million mark a few weeks ago and it looks likely now that, in terms of severity, this pandemic will surpass the Asian Flu of 1957-58 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968-69.

Moreover, a parallel problem may well exceed the direct death toll from the virus. We are referring to the growing economic crises globally, and the prospect that these may hit emerging economies especially hard.

The economic fall-out is not entirely the direct outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic but a result of how we have responded to it—what measures governments took and how ordinary people, workers, and firms reacted to the crisis. The government activism to contain the virus that we saw this time exceeds that in previous such crises, which may have dampened the spread of the COVID-19 but has extracted a toll from the economy.

This essay takes stock of the policies adopted by governments in emerging economies, and what effect these governance strategies may have had, and then speculates about what the future is likely to look like and what we may do here on.

Nations that build walls to keep out goods, people and talent will get out-competed by other nations in the product market.

It is becoming clear that the scramble among several emerging economies to imitate and outdo European and North American countries was a mistake. We get a glimpse of this by considering two nations continents apart, the economies of which have been among the hardest hit in the world, namely, Peru and India. During the second quarter of 2020, Peru saw an annual growth of -30.2 percent and India -23.9 percent. From the global Q2 data that have emerged thus far, Peru and India are among the four slowest growing economies in the world. Along with U.K and Tunisia these are the only nations that lost more than 20 percent of their GDP. 1

COVID-19-related mortality statistics, and, in particular, the Crude Mortality Rate (CMR), however imperfect, are the most telling indicator of the comparative scale of the pandemic in different countries. At first glance, from the end of October 2020, Peru, with 1039 COVID-19 deaths per million population looks bad by any standard and much worse than India with 88. Peru’s CMR is currently among the highest reported globally.

However, both Peru and India need to be placed in regional perspective. For reasons that are likely to do with the history of past diseases, there are striking regional differences in the lethality of the virus (Figure 11.1). South America is worse hit than any other world region, and Asia and Africa seem to have got it relatively lightly, in contrast to Europe and America. The stark regional difference cries out for more epidemiological analysis. But even as we await that, these are differences that cannot be ignored.

To understand the effect of policy interventions, it is therefore important to look at how these countries fare within their own regions, which have had similar histories of illnesses and viruses (Figure 11.2). Both Peru and India do much worse than the neighbors with whom they largely share their social, economic, ecological and demographic features. Peru’s COVID-19 mortality rate per million population, or CMR, of 1039 is ahead of the second highest, Brazil at 749, and almost twice that of Argentina at 679.

Similarly, India at 88 compares well with Europe and the U.S., as does virtually all of Asia and Africa, but is doing much worse than its neighbors, with the second worst country in the region, Afghanistan, experiencing less than half the death rate of India.

The official Indian statement that up to 78,000 deaths 2 were averted by the lockdown has been criticized 3 for its assumptions. A more reasonable exercise is to estimate the excess deaths experienced by a country that breaks away from the pattern of its regional neighbors. So, for example, if India had experienced Afghanistan’s COVID-19 mortality rate, it would by now have had 54,112 deaths. And if it had the rate reported by Bangladesh, it would have had 49,950 deaths from COVID-19 today. In other words, more than half its current toll of some 122,099 COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided if it had experienced the same virus hit as its neighbors.

What might explain this outlier experience of COVID-19 CMRs and economic downslide in India and Peru? If the regional background conditions are broadly similar, one is left to ask if it is in fact the policy response that differed markedly and might account for these relatively poor outcomes.

Peru and India have performed poorly in terms of GDP growth rate in Q2 2020 among the countries displayed in Table 2, and given that both these countries are often treated as case studies of strong governance, this draws attention to the fact that there may be a dissonance between strong governance and good governance.

The turnaround for India has been especially surprising, given that until a few years ago it was among the three fastest growing economies in the world. The slowdown began in 2016, though the sharp downturn, sharper than virtually all other countries, occurred after the lockdown.

On the COVID-19 policy front, both India and Peru have become known for what the Oxford University’s COVID Policy Tracker 4 calls the “stringency” of the government’s response to the epidemic. At 8 pm on March 24, 2020, the Indian government announced, with four hours’ notice, a complete nationwide shutdown. Virtually all movement outside the perimeter of one’s home was officially sought to be brought to a standstill. Naturally, as described in several papers, such as that of Ray and Subramanian, 5 this meant that most economic life also came to a sudden standstill, which in turn meant that hundreds of millions of workers in the informal, as well as more marginally formal sectors, lost their livelihoods.

In addition, tens of millions of these workers, being migrant workers in places far-flung from their original homes, also lost their temporary homes and their savings with these lost livelihoods, so that the only safe space that beckoned them was their place of origin in small towns and villages often hundreds of miles away from their places of work.

After a few weeks of precarious living in their migrant destinations, they set off, on foot since trains and buses had been stopped, for these towns and villages, creating a “lockdown and scatter” that spread the virus from the city to the town and the town to the village. Indeed, “lockdown” is a bit of a misnomer for what happened in India, since over 20 million people did exactly the opposite of what one does in a lockdown. Thus India had a strange combination of lockdown some and scatter the rest, like in no other country. They spilled out and scattered in ways they would otherwise not do. It is not surprising that the infection, which was marginally present in rural areas (23 percent in April), now makes up some 54 percent of all cases in India. 6

In Peru too, the lockdown was sudden, nationwide, long drawn out and stringent. 7 Jobs were lost, financial aid was difficult to disburse, migrant workers were forced to return home, and the virus has now spread to all parts of the country with death rates from it surpassing almost every other part of the world.

As an aside, to think about ways of implementing lockdowns that are less stringent and geographically as well as functionally less total, an example from yet another continent is instructive. Ethiopia, with a COVID-19 death rate of 13 per million population seems to have bettered the already relatively low African rate of 31 in Table 1. 8

We hope that human beings will emerge from this crisis more aware of the problems of sustainability.

The way forward

We next move from the immediate crisis to the medium term. Where is the world headed and how should we deal with the new world? Arguably, that two sectors that will emerge larger and stronger in the post-pandemic world are: digital technology and outsourcing, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

The last 9 months of the pandemic have been a huge training ground for people in the use of digital technology—Zoom, WebEx, digital finance, and many others. This learning-by-doing exercise is likely to give a big boost to outsourcing, which has the potential to help countries like India, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Globalization may see a short-run retreat but, we believe, it will come back with a vengeance. Nations that build walls to keep out goods, people and talent will get out-competed by other nations in the product market. This realization will make most countries reverse their knee-jerk anti-globalization; and the ones that do not will cease to be important global players. Either way, globalization will be back on track and with a much greater amount of outsourcing.

To return, more critically this time, to our earlier aside on Ethiopia, its historical and contemporary record on tampering with internet connectivity 9 in an attempt to muzzle inter-ethnic tensions and political dissent will not serve it well in such a post-pandemic scenario. This is a useful reminder for all emerging market economies.

We hope that human beings will emerge from this crisis more aware of the problems of sustainability. This could divert some demand from luxury goods to better health, and what is best described as “creative consumption”: art, music, and culture. 10 The former will mean much larger healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

But to take advantage of these new opportunities, nations will need to navigate the current predicament so that they have a viable economy once the pandemic passes. Thus it is important to be able to control the pandemic while keeping the economy open. There is some emerging literature 11 on this, but much more is needed. This is a governance challenge of a kind rarely faced, because the pandemic has disrupted normal markets and there is need, at least in the short run, for governments to step in to fill the caveat.

Emerging economies will have to devise novel governance strategies for doing this double duty of tamping down on new infections without strident controls on economic behavior and without blindly imitating Europe and America.

Here is an example. One interesting opportunity amidst this chaos is to tap into the “resource” of those who have already had COVID-19 and are immune, even if only in the short-term—we still have no definitive evidence on the length of acquired immunity. These people can be offered a high salary to work in sectors that require physical interaction with others. This will help keep supply chains unbroken. Normally, the market would have on its own caused such a salary increase but in this case, the main benefit of marshaling this labor force is on the aggregate economy and GDP and therefore is a classic case of positive externality, which the free market does not adequately reward. It is more a challenge of governance. As with most economic policy, this will need careful research and design before being implemented. We have to be aware that a policy like this will come with its risk of bribery and corruption. There is also the moral hazard challenge of poor people choosing to get COVID-19 in order to qualify for these special jobs. Safeguards will be needed against these risks. But we believe that any government that succeeds in implementing an intelligently-designed intervention to draw on this huge, under-utilized resource can have a big, positive impact on the economy 12 .

This is just one idea. We must innovate in different ways to survive the crisis and then have the ability to navigate the new world that will emerge, hopefully in the not too distant future.

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How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many -- a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

[ Read: How to Write a College Essay. ]

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

[ Read: What Colleges Look for: 6 Ways to Stand Out. ]

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them -- and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

[ Read: The Common App: Everything You Need to Know. ]

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic -- and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.

Students’ Essays on Infectious Disease Prevention, COVID-19 Published Nationwide

As part of the BIO 173: Global Change and Infectious Disease course, Professor Fred Cohan assigns students to write an essay persuading others to prevent future and mitigate present infectious diseases. If students submit their essay to a news outlet—and it’s published—Cohan awards them with extra credit.

As a result of this assignment, more than 25 students have had their work published in newspapers across the United States. Many of these essays cite and applaud the University’s Keep Wes Safe campaign and its COVID-19 testing protocols.

Cohan, professor of biology and Huffington Foundation Professor in the College of the Environment (COE), began teaching the Global Change and Infectious Disease course in 2009, when the COE was established. “I wanted very much to contribute a course to what I saw as a real game-changer in Wesleyan’s interest in the environment. The course is about all the ways that human demands on the environment have brought us infectious diseases, over past millennia and in the present, and why our environmental disturbances will continue to bring us infections into the future.”

Over the years, Cohan learned that he can sustainably teach about 170 students every year without running out of interested students. This fall, he had 207. Although he didn’t change the overall structure of his course to accommodate COVID-19 topics, he did add material on the current pandemic to various sections of the course.

“I wouldn’t say that the population of the class increased tremendously as a result of COVID-19, but I think the enthusiasm of the students for the material has increased substantially,” he said.

To accommodate online learning, Cohan shaved off 15 minutes from his normal 80-minute lectures to allow for discussion sections, led by Cohan and teaching assistants. “While the lectures mostly dealt with biology, the discussions focused on how changes in behavior and policy can solve the infectious disease problems brought by human disturbance of the environment,” he said.

Based on student responses to an introspective exam question, Cohan learned that many students enjoyed a new hope that we could each contribute to fighting infectious disease. “They discovered that the solution to infectious disease is not entirely a waiting game for the right technologies to come along,” he said. “Many enjoyed learning about fighting infectious disease from a moral and social perspective. And especially, the students enjoyed learning about the ‘socialism of the microbe,’ how preventing and curing others’ infections will prevent others’ infections from becoming our own. The students enjoyed seeing how this idea can drive both domestic and international health policies.”

A sampling of the published student essays are below:

Alexander Giummo ’22 and Mike Dunderdale’s ’23 op-ed titled “ A National Testing Proposal: Let’s Fight Back Against COVID-19 ” was published in the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn.

They wrote: “With an expansive and increased testing plan for U.S. citizens, those who are COVID-positive could limit the number of contacts they have, and this would also help to enable more effective contact tracing. Testing could also allow for the return of some ‘normal’ events, such as small social gatherings, sports, and in-person class and work schedules.

“We propose a national testing strategy in line with the one that has kept Wesleyan students safe this year. The plan would require a strong push by the federal government to fund the initiative, but it is vital to successful containment of the virus.

“Twice a week, all people living in the U.S. should report to a local testing site staffed with professionals where the anterior nasal swab Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, used by Wesleyan and supported by the Broad Institute, would be implemented.”

Kalyani Mohan ’22 and Kalli Jackson ’22 penned an essay titled “ Where Public Health Meets Politics: COVID-19 in the United States ,” which was published in Wesleyan’s Arcadia Political Review .

They wrote: “While the U.S. would certainly benefit from a strengthened pandemic response team and structural changes to public health systems, that alone isn’t enough, as American society is immensely stratified, socially and culturally. The politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that individualism, libertarianism and capitalism are deeply ingrained in American culture, to the extent that Americans often blind to the fact community welfare can be equivalent to personal welfare. Pandemics are multifaceted, and preventing them requires not just a cultural shift but an emotional one amongst the American people, one guided by empathy—towards other people, different communities and the planet. Politics should be a tool, not a weapon against its people.”

Sydnee Goyer ’21 and Marcel Thompson’s ’22 essay “ This Flu Season Will Be Decisive in the Fight Against COVID-19 ” also was published in Arcadia Political Review .

“With winter approaching all around the Northern Hemisphere, people are preparing for what has already been named a “twindemic,” meaning the joint threat of the coronavirus and the seasonal flu,” they wrote. “While it is known that seasonal vaccinations reduce the risk of getting the flu by up to 60% and also reduce the severity of the illness after the contamination, additional research has been conducted in order to know whether or not flu shots could reduce the risk of people getting COVID-19. In addition to the flu shot, it is essential that people remain vigilant in maintaining proper social distancing, washing your hands thoroughly, and continuing to wear masks in public spaces.”

An op-ed titled “ The Pandemic Has Shown Us How Workplace Culture Needs to Change ,” written by Adam Hickey ’22 and George Fuss ’21, was published in Park City, Utah’s The Park Record .

They wrote: “One review of academic surveys (most of which were conducted in the United States) conducted in 2019 found that between 35% and 97% of respondents in those surveys reported having attended work while they were ill, often because of workplace culture or policy which generated pressure to do so. Choosing to ignore sickness and return to the workplace while one is ill puts colleagues at risk, regardless of the perceived severity of your own illness; COVID-19 is an overbearing reminder that a disease that may cause mild, even cold-like symptoms for some can still carry fatal consequences for others.

“A mandatory paid sick leave policy for every worker, ideally across the globe, would allow essential workers to return to work when necessary while still providing enough wiggle room for economically impoverished employees to take time off without going broke if they believe they’ve contracted an illness so as not to infect the rest of their workplace and the public at large.”

Women’s cross country team members and classmates Jane Hollander ’23 and Sara Greene ’23 wrote a sports-themed essay titled “ This Season, High School Winter Sports Aren’t Worth the Risk ,” which was published in Tap into Scotch Plains/Fanwood , based in Scotch Plains, N.J. Their essay focused on the risks high school sports pose on student-athletes, their families, and the greater community.

“We don’t propose cutting off sports entirely— rather, we need to be realistic about the levels at which athletes should be participating. There are ways to make practices safer,” they wrote. “At [Wesleyan], we began the season in ‘cohorts,’ so the amount of people exposed to one another would be smaller. For non-contact sports, social distancing can be easily implemented, and for others, teams can focus on drills, strength and conditioning workouts, and skill-building exercises. Racing sports such as swim and track can compete virtually, comparing times with other schools, and team sports can focus their competition on intra-team scrimmages. These changes can allow for the continuation of a sense of normalcy and team camaraderie without the exposure to students from different geographic areas in confined, indoor spaces.”

Brook Guiffre ’23 and Maddie Clarke’s ’22 op-ed titled “ On the Pandemic ” was published in Hometown Weekly, based in Medfield, Mass.

“The first case of COVID-19 in the United States was recorded on January 20th, 2020. For the next month and a half, the U.S. continued operating normally, while many other countries began their lockdown,” they wrote. “One month later, on February 29th, 2020, the federal government approved a national testing program, but it was too little too late. The U.S. was already in pandemic mode, and completely unprepared. Frontline workers lacked access to N-95 masks, infected patients struggled to get tested, and national leaders informed the public that COVID-19 was nothing more than the common flu. Ultimately, this unpreparedness led to thousands of avoidable deaths and long-term changes to daily life. With the risk of novel infectious diseases emerging in the future being high, it is imperative that the U.S. learn from its failure and better prepare for future pandemics now. By strengthening our public health response and re-establishing government organizations specialized in disease control, we have the ability to prevent more years spent masked and six feet apart.”

In addition, their other essay, “ On Mass Extinction ,” was also published by Hometown Weekly .

“The sixth mass extinction—which scientists have coined as the Holocene Extinction—is upon us. According to the United Nations, around one million plant and animal species are currently in danger of extinction, and many more within the next decade. While other extinctions have occurred in Earth’s history, none have occurred at such a rapid rate,” they wrote. “For the sake of both biodiversity and infectious diseases, it is in our best interest to stop pushing this Holocene Extinction further.”

An essay titled “ Learning from Our Mistakes: How to Protect Ourselves and Our Communities from Diseases ,” written by Nicole Veru ’21 and Zoe Darmon ’21, was published in My Hometown Bronxville, based in Bronxville, N.Y.

“We can protect ourselves and others from future infectious diseases by ensuring that we are vaccinated,” they wrote. “Vaccines have high levels of success if enough people get them. Due to vaccines, society is no longer ravaged by childhood diseases such as mumps, rubella, measles, and smallpox. We have been able to eradicate diseases through vaccines; smallpox, one of the world’s most consequential diseases, was eradicated from the world in the 1970s.

“In 2000, the U.S. was nearly free of measles, yet, due to hesitations by anti-vaxxers, there continues to be cases. From 2000–2015 there were over 18 measles outbreaks in the U.S. This is because unless a disease is completely eradicated, there will be a new generation susceptible.

“Although vaccines are not 100% effective at preventing infection, if we continue to get vaccinated, we protect ourselves and those around us. If enough people are vaccinated, societies can develop herd immunity. The amount of people vaccinated to obtain herd immunity depends on the disease, but if this fraction is obtained, the spread of disease is contained. Through herd immunity, we protect those who may not be able to get vaccinated, such as people who are immunocompromised and the tiny portion of people for whom the vaccine is not effective.”

Dhruvi Rana ’22 and Bryce Gillis ’22 co-authored an op-ed titled “ We Must Educate Those Who Remain Skeptical of the Dangers of COVID-19 ,” which was published in Rhode Island Central .

“As Rhode Island enters the winter season, temperatures are beginning to drop and many studies have demonstrated that colder weather and lower humidity are correlated with higher transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” they wrote. “By simply talking or breathing, we release respiratory droplets and aerosols (tiny fluid particles which could carry the coronavirus pathogen), which can remain in the air for minutes to hours.

“In order to establish herd immunity in the US, we must educate those who remain skeptical of the dangers of COVID-19. Whether community-driven or state-funded, educational campaigns are needed to ensure that everyone fully comprehends how severe COVID-19 is and the significance of airborne transmission. While we await a vaccine, it is necessary now more than ever that we social distance, avoid crowds, and wear masks, given that colder temperatures will likely yield increased transmission of the virus.”

Danielle Rinaldi ’21 and Verónica Matos Socorro ’21 published their op-ed titled “ Community Forum: How Mask-Wearing Demands a Cultural Reset ” in the Ewing Observer , based in Lawrence, N.J.

“In their own attempt to change personal behavior during the pandemic, Wesleyan University has mandated mask-wearing in almost every facet of campus life,” they wrote. “As members of our community, we must recognize that mask-wearing is something we are all responsible and accountable for, not only because it is a form of protection for us, but just as important for others as well. However, it seems as though both Covid fatigue and complacency are dominating the mindsets of Americans, leading to even more unwillingness to mask up. Ultimately, it is inevitable that this pandemic will not be the last in our lifespan due to global warming creating irreversible losses in biodiversity. As a result, it is imperative that we adopt the norm of mask-wearing now and undergo a culture shift of the abandonment of an individualistic mindset, and instead, create a society that prioritizes taking care of others for the benefit of all.”

Shayna Dollinger ’22 and Hayley Lipson ’21 wrote an essay titled “ My Pandemic Year in College Has Brought Pride and Purpose. ” Dollinger submitted the piece, rewritten in first person, to Jewish News of Northern California . Read more about Dollinger’s publication in this News @ Wesleyan article .

“I lay in the dead grass, a 6-by-6-foot square all to myself. I cheer for my best friend, who is on the stage constructed at the bottom of Foss hill, dancing with her Bollywood dance group. Masks cover their ordinarily smiling faces as their bodies move in sync. Looking around at friends and classmates, each in their own 6-by-6 world, I feel an overwhelming sense of normalcy.

“One of the ways in which Wesleyan has prevented outbreaks on campus is by holding safe, socially distanced events that students want to attend. By giving us places to be and things to do on the weekends, we are discouraged from breaking rules and causing outbreaks at ‘super-spreader’ events.”

An op-ed written by Luna Mac-Williams ’22 and Daëlle Coriolan ’24 titled “ Collectivist Practices to Combat COVID-19 ” was published in the Wesleyan Argus .

“We are embroiled in a global pandemic that disproportionately affects poor communities of color, and in the midst of a higher cultural consciousness of systemic inequities,” they wrote. “A cultural shift to center collectivist thought and action not only would prove helpful in disease prevention, but also belongs in conversation with the Black Lives Matter movement. Collectivist models of thinking effectively target the needs of vulnerable populations including the sick, the disenfranchised, the systematically marginalized. Collectivist systems provide care, decentering the capitalist, individualist system, and focusing on how communities can work to be self-sufficient and uplift our own neighbors.”

An essay written by Maria Noto ’21 , titled “ U.S. Individualism Has Deadly Consequences ,” is published in the Oneonta Daily Star , based in Oneonta, N.Y.

She wrote, “When analyzing the cultures of certain East Asian countries, several differences stand out. For instance, when people are sick and during the cold and flu season, many East Asian cultures, including South Korea, use mask-wearing. What is considered a threat to freedom by some Americans is a preventive action and community obligation in this example. This, along with many other cultural differences, is insightful in understanding their ability to contain the virus.

“These differences are deeply seeded in the values of a culture. However, there is hope for the U.S. and other individualistic cultures in recognizing and adopting these community-centered approaches. Our mindset needs to be revolutionized with the help of federal and local assistance: mandating masks, passing another stimulus package, contact tracing, etc… However, these measures will be unsuccessful unless everyone participates for the good of a community.”

A published op-ed by Madison Szabo ’23 , Caitlyn Ferrante ’23 ran in the Two Rivers Times . The piece is titled “ Anxiety and Aspiration: Analyzing the Politicization of the Pandemic .”

John Lee ’21 and Taylor Goodman-Leong ’21 have published their op-ed titled “ Reassessing the media’s approach to COVID-19 ” in Weekly Monday Cafe 24 (Page 2).

An essay by Eleanor Raab ’21 and Elizabeth Nefferdorf ’22 titled “ Preventing the Next Epidemic ” was published in The Almanac .

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8 Lessons We Can Learn From the COVID-19 Pandemic

BY KATHY KATELLA May 14, 2021

Rear view of a family standing on a hill in autumn day, symbolizing hope for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic

Note: Information in this article was accurate at the time of original publication. Because information about COVID-19 changes rapidly, we encourage you to visit the websites of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and your state and local government for the latest information.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed life as we know it—and it may have changed us individually as well, from our morning routines to our life goals and priorities. Many say the world has changed forever. But this coming year, if the vaccines drive down infections and variants are kept at bay, life could return to some form of normal. At that point, what will we glean from the past year? Are there silver linings or lessons learned?

“Humanity's memory is short, and what is not ever-present fades quickly,” says Manisha Juthani, MD , a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist. The bubonic plague, for example, ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages—resurfacing again and again—but once it was under control, people started to forget about it, she says. “So, I would say one major lesson from a public health or infectious disease perspective is that it’s important to remember and recognize our history. This is a period we must remember.”

We asked our Yale Medicine experts to weigh in on what they think are lessons worth remembering, including those that might help us survive a future virus or nurture a resilience that could help with life in general.

Lesson 1: Masks are useful tools

What happened: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its masking guidance for those who have been fully vaccinated. But when the pandemic began, it necessitated a global effort to ensure that everyone practiced behaviors to keep themselves healthy and safe—and keep others healthy as well. This included the widespread wearing of masks indoors and outside.

What we’ve learned: Not everyone practiced preventive measures such as mask wearing, maintaining a 6-foot distance, and washing hands frequently. But, Dr. Juthani says, “I do think many people have learned a whole lot about respiratory pathogens and viruses, and how they spread from one person to another, and that sort of old-school common sense—you know, if you don’t feel well—whether it’s COVID-19 or not—you don’t go to the party. You stay home.”

Masks are a case in point. They are a key COVID-19 prevention strategy because they provide a barrier that can keep respiratory droplets from spreading. Mask-wearing became more common across East Asia after the 2003 SARS outbreak in that part of the world. “There are many East Asian cultures where the practice is still that if you have a cold or a runny nose, you put on a mask,” Dr. Juthani says.

She hopes attitudes in the U.S. will shift in that direction after COVID-19. “I have heard from a number of people who are amazed that we've had no flu this year—and they know masks are one of the reasons,” she says. “They’ve told me, ‘When the winter comes around, if I'm going out to the grocery store, I may just put on a mask.’”

Lesson 2: Telehealth might become the new normal

What happened: Doctors and patients who have used telehealth (technology that allows them to conduct medical care remotely), found it can work well for certain appointments, ranging from cardiology check-ups to therapy for a mental health condition. Many patients who needed a medical test have also discovered it may be possible to substitute a home version.

What we’ve learned: While there are still problems for which you need to see a doctor in person, the pandemic introduced a new urgency to what had been a gradual switchover to platforms like Zoom for remote patient visits.

More doctors also encouraged patients to track their blood pressure at home , and to use at-home equipment for such purposes as diagnosing sleep apnea and even testing for colon cancer . Doctors also can fine-tune cochlear implants remotely .

“It happened very quickly,” says Sharon Stoll, DO, a neurologist. One group that has benefitted is patients who live far away, sometimes in other parts of the country—or even the world, she says. “I always like to see my patients at least twice a year. Now, we can see each other in person once a year, and if issues come up, we can schedule a telehealth visit in-between,” Dr. Stoll says. “This way I may hear about an issue before it becomes a problem, because my patients have easier access to me, and I have easier access to them.”

Meanwhile, insurers are becoming more likely to cover telehealth, Dr. Stoll adds. “That is a silver lining that will hopefully continue.”

Lesson 3: Vaccines are powerful tools

What happened: Given the recent positive results from vaccine trials, once again vaccines are proving to be powerful for preventing disease.

What we’ve learned: Vaccines really are worth getting, says Dr. Stoll, who had COVID-19 and experienced lingering symptoms, including chronic headaches . “I have lots of conversations—and sometimes arguments—with people about vaccines,” she says. Some don’t like the idea of side effects. “I had vaccine side effects and I’ve had COVID-19 side effects, and I say nothing compares to the actual illness. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.”

Dr. Juthani hopes the COVID-19 vaccine spotlight will motivate people to keep up with all of their vaccines, including childhood and adult vaccines for such diseases as measles , chicken pox, shingles , and other viruses. She says people have told her they got the flu vaccine this year after skipping it in previous years. (The CDC has reported distributing an exceptionally high number of doses this past season.)

But, she cautions that a vaccine is not a magic bullet—and points out that scientists can’t always produce one that works. “As advanced as science is, there have been multiple failed efforts to develop a vaccine against the HIV virus,” she says. “This time, we were lucky that we were able build on the strengths that we've learned from many other vaccine development strategies to develop multiple vaccines for COVID-19 .”

Lesson 4: Everyone is not treated equally, especially in a pandemic

What happened: COVID-19 magnified disparities that have long been an issue for a variety of people.

What we’ve learned: Racial and ethnic minority groups especially have had disproportionately higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 than non-Hispanic white people in every age group, and many other groups faced higher levels of risk or stress. These groups ranged from working mothers who also have primary responsibility for children, to people who have essential jobs, to those who live in rural areas where there is less access to health care.

“One thing that has been recognized is that when people were told to work from home, you needed to have a job that you could do in your house on a computer,” says Dr. Juthani. “Many people who were well off were able do that, but they still needed to have food, which requires grocery store workers and truck drivers. Nursing home residents still needed certified nursing assistants coming to work every day to care for them and to bathe them.”

As far as racial inequities, Dr. Juthani cites President Biden’s appointment of Yale Medicine’s Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS , as inaugural chair of a federal COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. “Hopefully the new focus is a first step,” Dr. Juthani says.

Lesson 5: We need to take mental health seriously

What happened: There was a rise in reported mental health problems that have been described as “a second pandemic,” highlighting mental health as an issue that needs to be addressed.

What we’ve learned: Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, MD, PhD , a behavioral neurologist and neuropsychiatrist, believes the number of mental health disorders that were on the rise before the pandemic is surging as people grapple with such matters as juggling work and childcare, job loss, isolation, and losing a loved one to COVID-19.

The CDC reports that the percentage of adults who reported symptoms of anxiety of depression in the past 7 days increased from 36.4 to 41.5 % from August 2020 to February 2021. Other reports show that having COVID-19 may contribute, too, with its lingering or long COVID symptoms, which can include “foggy mind,” anxiety , depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder .

“We’re seeing these problems in our clinical setting very, very often,” Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “By virtue of necessity, we can no longer ignore this. We're seeing these folks, and we have to take them seriously.”

Lesson 6: We have the capacity for resilience

What happened: While everyone’s situation is different (and some people have experienced tremendous difficulties), many have seen that it’s possible to be resilient in a crisis.

What we’ve learned: People have practiced self-care in a multitude of ways during the pandemic as they were forced to adjust to new work schedules, change their gym routines, and cut back on socializing. Many started seeking out new strategies to counter the stress.

“I absolutely believe in the concept of resilience, because we have this effective reservoir inherent in all of us—be it the product of evolution, or our ancestors going through catastrophes, including wars, famines, and plagues,” Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “I think inherently, we have the means to deal with crisis. The fact that you and I are speaking right now is the result of our ancestors surviving hardship. I think resilience is part of our psyche. It's part of our DNA, essentially.”

Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh believes that even small changes are highly effective tools for creating resilience. The changes he suggests may sound like the same old advice: exercise more, eat healthy food, cut back on alcohol, start a meditation practice, keep up with friends and family. “But this is evidence-based advice—there has been research behind every one of these measures,” he says.

But we have to also be practical, he notes. “If you feel overwhelmed by doing too many things, you can set a modest goal with one new habit—it could be getting organized around your sleep. Once you’ve succeeded, move on to another one. Then you’re building momentum.”

Lesson 7: Community is essential—and technology is too

What happened: People who were part of a community during the pandemic realized the importance of human connection, and those who didn’t have that kind of support realized they need it.

What we’ve learned: Many of us have become aware of how much we need other people—many have managed to maintain their social connections, even if they had to use technology to keep in touch, Dr. Juthani says. “There's no doubt that it's not enough, but even that type of community has helped people.”

Even people who aren’t necessarily friends or family are important. Dr. Juthani recalled how she encouraged her mail carrier to sign up for the vaccine, soon learning that the woman’s mother and husband hadn’t gotten it either. “They are all vaccinated now,” Dr. Juthani says. “So, even by word of mouth, community is a way to make things happen.”

It’s important to note that some people are naturally introverted and may have enjoyed having more solitude when they were forced to stay at home—and they should feel comfortable with that, Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “I think one has to keep temperamental tendencies like this in mind.”

But loneliness has been found to suppress the immune system and be a precursor to some diseases, he adds. “Even for introverted folks, the smallest circle is preferable to no circle at all,” he says.

Lesson 8: Sometimes you need a dose of humility

What happened: Scientists and nonscientists alike learned that a virus can be more powerful than they are. This was evident in the way knowledge about the virus changed over time in the past year as scientific investigation of it evolved.

What we’ve learned: “As infectious disease doctors, we were resident experts at the beginning of the pandemic because we understand pathogens in general, and based on what we’ve seen in the past, we might say there are certain things that are likely to be true,” Dr. Juthani says. “But we’ve seen that we have to take these pathogens seriously. We know that COVID-19 is not the flu. All these strokes and clots, and the loss of smell and taste that have gone on for months are things that we could have never known or predicted. So, you have to have respect for the unknown and respect science, but also try to give scientists the benefit of the doubt,” she says.

“We have been doing the best we can with the knowledge we have, in the time that we have it,” Dr. Juthani says. “I think most of us have had to have the humility to sometimes say, ‘I don't know. We're learning as we go.’"

Information provided in Yale Medicine articles is for general informational purposes only. No content in the articles should ever be used as a substitute for medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Always seek the individual advice of your health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition.

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http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1512-4471 Emily Long 1 ,
Susan Patterson 1 ,
Karen Maxwell 1 ,
Carolyn Blake 1 ,
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-4566 Raquel Bosó Pérez 1 ,
Ruth Lewis 1 ,
Mark McCann 1 ,
Julie Riddell 1 ,
Kathryn Skivington 1 ,
Rachel Wilson-Lowe 1 ,
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601 Kirstin R Mitchell 2
1 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
2 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health & Wellbeing , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
Correspondence to Dr Emily Long, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G3 7HR, UK; emily.long{at}glasgow.ac.uk

This essay examines key aspects of social relationships that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses explicitly on relational mechanisms of health and brings together theory and emerging evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to make recommendations for future public health policy and recovery. We first provide an overview of the pandemic in the UK context, outlining the nature of the public health response. We then introduce four distinct domains of social relationships: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy, highlighting the mechanisms through which the pandemic and associated public health response drastically altered social interactions in each domain. Throughout the essay, the lens of health inequalities, and perspective of relationships as interconnecting elements in a broader system, is used to explore the varying impact of these disruptions. The essay concludes by providing recommendations for longer term recovery ensuring that the social relational cost of COVID-19 is adequately considered in efforts to rebuild.

inequalities

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated or analysed for this essay.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216690

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Introduction

Infectious disease pandemics, including SARS and COVID-19, demand intrapersonal behaviour change and present highly complex challenges for public health. 1 A pandemic of an airborne infection, spread easily through social contact, assails human relationships by drastically altering the ways through which humans interact. In this essay, we draw on theories of social relationships to examine specific ways in which relational mechanisms key to health and well-being were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Relational mechanisms refer to the processes between people that lead to change in health outcomes.

At the time of writing, the future surrounding COVID-19 was uncertain. Vaccine programmes were being rolled out in countries that could afford them, but new and more contagious variants of the virus were also being discovered. The recovery journey looked long, with continued disruption to social relationships. The social cost of COVID-19 was only just beginning to emerge, but the mental health impact was already considerable, 2 3 and the inequality of the health burden stark. 4 Knowledge of the epidemiology of COVID-19 accrued rapidly, but evidence of the most effective policy responses remained uncertain.

The initial response to COVID-19 in the UK was reactive and aimed at reducing mortality, with little time to consider the social implications, including for interpersonal and community relationships. The terminology of ‘social distancing’ quickly became entrenched both in public and policy discourse. This equation of physical distance with social distance was regrettable, since only physical proximity causes viral transmission, whereas many forms of social proximity (eg, conversations while walking outdoors) are minimal risk, and are crucial to maintaining relationships supportive of health and well-being.

The aim of this essay is to explore four key relational mechanisms that were impacted by the pandemic and associated restrictions: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy. We use relational theories and emerging research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response to make three key recommendations: one regarding public health responses; and two regarding social recovery. Our understanding of these mechanisms stems from a ‘systems’ perspective which casts social relationships as interdependent elements within a connected whole. 5

Social networks

Social networks characterise the individuals and social connections that compose a system (such as a workplace, community or society). Social relationships range from spouses and partners, to coworkers, friends and acquaintances. They vary across many dimensions, including, for example, frequency of contact and emotional closeness. Social networks can be understood both in terms of the individuals and relationships that compose the network, as well as the overall network structure (eg, how many of your friends know each other).

Social networks show a tendency towards homophily, or a phenomenon of associating with individuals who are similar to self. 6 This is particularly true for ‘core’ network ties (eg, close friends), while more distant, sometimes called ‘weak’ ties tend to show more diversity. During the height of COVID-19 restrictions, face-to-face interactions were often reduced to core network members, such as partners, family members or, potentially, live-in roommates; some ‘weak’ ties were lost, and interactions became more limited to those closest. Given that peripheral, weaker social ties provide a diversity of resources, opinions and support, 7 COVID-19 likely resulted in networks that were smaller and more homogenous.

Such changes were not inevitable nor necessarily enduring, since social networks are also adaptive and responsive to change, in that a disruption to usual ways of interacting can be replaced by new ways of engaging (eg, Zoom). Yet, important inequalities exist, wherein networks and individual relationships within networks are not equally able to adapt to such changes. For example, individuals with a large number of newly established relationships (eg, university students) may have struggled to transfer these relationships online, resulting in lost contacts and a heightened risk of social isolation. This is consistent with research suggesting that young adults were the most likely to report a worsening of relationships during COVID-19, whereas older adults were the least likely to report a change. 8

Lastly, social connections give rise to emergent properties of social systems, 9 where a community-level phenomenon develops that cannot be attributed to any one member or portion of the network. For example, local area-based networks emerged due to geographic restrictions (eg, stay-at-home orders), resulting in increases in neighbourly support and local volunteering. 10 In fact, research suggests that relationships with neighbours displayed the largest net gain in ratings of relationship quality compared with a range of relationship types (eg, partner, colleague, friend). 8 Much of this was built from spontaneous individual interactions within local communities, which together contributed to the ‘community spirit’ that many experienced. 11 COVID-19 restrictions thus impacted the personal social networks and the structure of the larger networks within the society.

Social support

Social support, referring to the psychological and material resources provided through social interaction, is a critical mechanism through which social relationships benefit health. In fact, social support has been shown to be one of the most important resilience factors in the aftermath of stressful events. 12 In the context of COVID-19, the usual ways in which individuals interact and obtain social support have been severely disrupted.

One such disruption has been to opportunities for spontaneous social interactions. For example, conversations with colleagues in a break room offer an opportunity for socialising beyond one’s core social network, and these peripheral conversations can provide a form of social support. 13 14 A chance conversation may lead to advice helpful to coping with situations or seeking formal help. Thus, the absence of these spontaneous interactions may mean the reduction of indirect support-seeking opportunities. While direct support-seeking behaviour is more effective at eliciting support, it also requires significantly more effort and may be perceived as forceful and burdensome. 15 The shift to homeworking and closure of community venues reduced the number of opportunities for these spontaneous interactions to occur, and has, second, focused them locally. Consequently, individuals whose core networks are located elsewhere, or who live in communities where spontaneous interaction is less likely, have less opportunity to benefit from spontaneous in-person supportive interactions.

However, alongside this disruption, new opportunities to interact and obtain social support have arisen. The surge in community social support during the initial lockdown mirrored that often seen in response to adverse events (eg, natural disasters 16 ). COVID-19 restrictions that confined individuals to their local area also compelled them to focus their in-person efforts locally. Commentators on the initial lockdown in the UK remarked on extraordinary acts of generosity between individuals who belonged to the same community but were unknown to each other. However, research on adverse events also tells us that such community support is not necessarily maintained in the longer term. 16

Meanwhile, online forms of social support are not bound by geography, thus enabling interactions and social support to be received from a wider network of people. Formal online social support spaces (eg, support groups) existed well before COVID-19, but have vastly increased since. While online interactions can increase perceived social support, it is unclear whether remote communication technologies provide an effective substitute from in-person interaction during periods of social distancing. 17 18 It makes intuitive sense that the usefulness of online social support will vary by the type of support offered, degree of social interaction and ‘online communication skills’ of those taking part. Youth workers, for instance, have struggled to keep vulnerable youth engaged in online youth clubs, 19 despite others finding a positive association between amount of digital technology used by individuals during lockdown and perceived social support. 20 Other research has found that more frequent face-to-face contact and phone/video contact both related to lower levels of depression during the time period of March to August 2020, but the negative effect of a lack of contact was greater for those with higher levels of usual sociability. 21 Relatedly, important inequalities in social support exist, such that individuals who occupy more socially disadvantaged positions in society (eg, low socioeconomic status, older people) tend to have less access to social support, 22 potentially exacerbated by COVID-19.

Social and interactional norms

Interactional norms are key relational mechanisms which build trust, belonging and identity within and across groups in a system. Individuals in groups and societies apply meaning by ‘approving, arranging and redefining’ symbols of interaction. 23 A handshake, for instance, is a powerful symbol of trust and equality. Depending on context, not shaking hands may symbolise a failure to extend friendship, or a failure to reach agreement. The norms governing these symbols represent shared values and identity; and mutual understanding of these symbols enables individuals to achieve orderly interactions, establish supportive relationship accountability and connect socially. 24 25

Physical distancing measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 radically altered these norms of interaction, particularly those used to convey trust, affinity, empathy and respect (eg, hugging, physical comforting). 26 As epidemic waves rose and fell, the work to negotiate these norms required intense cognitive effort; previously taken-for-granted interactions were re-examined, factoring in current restriction levels, own and (assumed) others’ vulnerability and tolerance of risk. This created awkwardness, and uncertainty, for example, around how to bring closure to an in-person interaction or convey warmth. The instability in scripted ways of interacting created particular strain for individuals who already struggled to encode and decode interactions with others (eg, those who are deaf or have autism spectrum disorder); difficulties often intensified by mask wearing. 27

Large social gatherings—for example, weddings, school assemblies, sporting events—also present key opportunities for affirming and assimilating interactional norms, building cohesion and shared identity and facilitating cooperation across social groups. 28 Online ‘equivalents’ do not easily support ‘social-bonding’ activities such as singing and dancing, and rarely enable chance/spontaneous one-on-one conversations with peripheral/weaker network ties (see the Social networks section) which can help strengthen bonds across a larger network. The loss of large gatherings to celebrate rites of passage (eg, bar mitzvah, weddings) has additional relational costs since these events are performed by and for communities to reinforce belonging, and to assist in transitioning to new phases of life. 29 The loss of interaction with diverse others via community and large group gatherings also reduces intergroup contact, which may then tend towards more prejudiced outgroup attitudes. While online interaction can go some way to mimicking these interaction norms, there are key differences. A sense of anonymity, and lack of in-person emotional cues, tends to support norms of polarisation and aggression in expressing differences of opinion online. And while online platforms have potential to provide intergroup contact, the tendency of much social media to form homogeneous ‘echo chambers’ can serve to further reduce intergroup contact. 30 31

Intimacy relates to the feeling of emotional connection and closeness with other human beings. Emotional connection, through romantic, friendship or familial relationships, fulfils a basic human need 32 and strongly benefits health, including reduced stress levels, improved mental health, lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease. 32 33 Intimacy can be fostered through familiarity, feeling understood and feeling accepted by close others. 34

Intimacy via companionship and closeness is fundamental to mental well-being. Positively, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered opportunities for individuals to (re)connect and (re)strengthen close relationships within their household via quality time together, following closure of many usual external social activities. Research suggests that the first full UK lockdown period led to a net gain in the quality of steady relationships at a population level, 35 but amplified existing inequalities in relationship quality. 35 36 For some in single-person households, the absence of a companion became more conspicuous, leading to feelings of loneliness and lower mental well-being. 37 38 Additional pandemic-related relational strain 39 40 resulted, for some, in the initiation or intensification of domestic abuse. 41 42

Physical touch is another key aspect of intimacy, a fundamental human need crucial in maintaining and developing intimacy within close relationships. 34 Restrictions on social interactions severely restricted the number and range of people with whom physical affection was possible. The reduction in opportunity to give and receive affectionate physical touch was not experienced equally. Many of those living alone found themselves completely without physical contact for extended periods. The deprivation of physical touch is evidenced to take a heavy emotional toll. 43 Even in future, once physical expressions of affection can resume, new levels of anxiety over germs may introduce hesitancy into previously fluent blending of physical and verbal intimate social connections. 44

The pandemic also led to shifts in practices and norms around sexual relationship building and maintenance, as individuals adapted and sought alternative ways of enacting sexual intimacy. This too is important, given that intimate sexual activity has known benefits for health. 45 46 Given that social restrictions hinged on reducing household mixing, possibilities for partnered sexual activity were primarily guided by living arrangements. While those in cohabiting relationships could potentially continue as before, those who were single or in non-cohabiting relationships generally had restricted opportunities to maintain their sexual relationships. Pornography consumption and digital partners were reported to increase since lockdown. 47 However, online interactions are qualitatively different from in-person interactions and do not provide the same opportunities for physical intimacy.

Recommendations and conclusions

In the sections above we have outlined the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted social relationships, showing how relational mechanisms key to health have been undermined. While some of the damage might well self-repair after the pandemic, there are opportunities inherent in deliberative efforts to build back in ways that facilitate greater resilience in social and community relationships. We conclude by making three recommendations: one regarding public health responses to the pandemic; and two regarding social recovery.

Recommendation 1: explicitly count the relational cost of public health policies to control the pandemic

Effective handling of a pandemic recognises that social, economic and health concerns are intricately interwoven. It is clear that future research and policy attention must focus on the social consequences. As described above, policies which restrict physical mixing across households carry heavy and unequal relational costs. These include for individuals (eg, loss of intimate touch), dyads (eg, loss of warmth, comfort), networks (eg, restricted access to support) and communities (eg, loss of cohesion and identity). Such costs—and their unequal impact—should not be ignored in short-term efforts to control an epidemic. Some public health responses—restrictions on international holiday travel and highly efficient test and trace systems—have relatively small relational costs and should be prioritised. At a national level, an earlier move to proportionate restrictions, and investment in effective test and trace systems, may help prevent escalation of spread to the point where a national lockdown or tight restrictions became an inevitability. Where policies with relational costs are unavoidable, close attention should be paid to the unequal relational impact for those whose personal circumstances differ from normative assumptions of two adult families. This includes consideration of whether expectations are fair (eg, for those who live alone), whether restrictions on social events are equitable across age group, religious/ethnic groupings and social class, and also to ensure that the language promoted by such policies (eg, households; families) is not exclusionary. 48 49 Forethought to unequal impacts on social relationships should thus be integral to the work of epidemic preparedness teams.

Recommendation 2: intelligently balance online and offline ways of relating

A key ingredient for well-being is ‘getting together’ in a physical sense. This is fundamental to a human need for intimate touch, physical comfort, reinforcing interactional norms and providing practical support. Emerging evidence suggests that online ways of relating cannot simply replace physical interactions. But online interaction has many benefits and for some it offers connections that did not exist previously. In particular, online platforms provide new forms of support for those unable to access offline services because of mobility issues (eg, older people) or because they are geographically isolated from their support community (eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youth). Ultimately, multiple forms of online and offline social interactions are required to meet the needs of varying groups of people (eg, LGBTQ, older people). Future research and practice should aim to establish ways of using offline and online support in complementary and even synergistic ways, rather than veering between them as social restrictions expand and contract. Intelligent balancing of online and offline ways of relating also pertains to future policies on home and flexible working. A decision to switch to wholesale or obligatory homeworking should consider the risk to relational ‘group properties’ of the workplace community and their impact on employees’ well-being, focusing in particular on unequal impacts (eg, new vs established employees). Intelligent blending of online and in-person working is required to achieve flexibility while also nurturing supportive networks at work. Intelligent balance also implies strategies to build digital literacy and minimise digital exclusion, as well as coproducing solutions with intended beneficiaries.

Recommendation 3: build stronger and sustainable localised communities

In balancing offline and online ways of interacting, there is opportunity to capitalise on the potential for more localised, coherent communities due to scaled-down travel, homeworking and local focus that will ideally continue after restrictions end. There are potential economic benefits after the pandemic, such as increased trade as home workers use local resources (eg, coffee shops), but also relational benefits from stronger relationships around the orbit of the home and neighbourhood. Experience from previous crises shows that community volunteer efforts generated early on will wane over time in the absence of deliberate work to maintain them. Adequately funded partnerships between local government, third sector and community groups are required to sustain community assets that began as a direct response to the pandemic. Such partnerships could work to secure green spaces and indoor (non-commercial) meeting spaces that promote community interaction. Green spaces in particular provide a triple benefit in encouraging physical activity and mental health, as well as facilitating social bonding. 50 In building local communities, small community networks—that allow for diversity and break down ingroup/outgroup views—may be more helpful than the concept of ‘support bubbles’, which are exclusionary and less sustainable in the longer term. Rigorously designed intervention and evaluation—taking a systems approach—will be crucial in ensuring scale-up and sustainability.

The dramatic change to social interaction necessitated by efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 created stark challenges but also opportunities. Our essay highlights opportunities for learning, both to ensure the equity and humanity of physical restrictions, and to sustain the salutogenic effects of social relationships going forward. The starting point for capitalising on this learning is recognition of the disruption to relational mechanisms as a key part of the socioeconomic and health impact of the pandemic. In recovery planning, a general rule is that what is good for decreasing health inequalities (such as expanding social protection and public services and pursuing green inclusive growth strategies) 4 will also benefit relationships and safeguard relational mechanisms for future generations. Putting this into action will require political will.

Ethics statements

Patient consent for publication.

Not required.

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Twitter @karenmaxSPHSU, @Mark_McCann, @Rwilsonlowe, @KMitchinGlasgow

Contributors EL and KM led on the manuscript conceptualisation, review and editing. SP, KM, CB, RBP, RL, MM, JR, KS and RW-L contributed to drafting and revising the article. All authors assisted in revising the final draft.

Funding The research reported in this publication was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/1, MC_UU_00022/3) and the Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU11, SPHSU14). EL is also supported by MRC Skills Development Fellowship Award (MR/S015078/1). KS and MM are also supported by a Medical Research Council Strategic Award (MC_PC_13027).

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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The COVID-19 pandemic as a scientific and social challenge in the 21st century

Vassilios zoumpourlis.

1 Biomedical Applications Unit, Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), 11635 Athens, Greece

Maria Goulielmaki

Emmanouil rizos.

2 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, 2nd Department of Psychiatry, University ‘ATTIKON’ General Hospital, 12462 Athens, Greece

Stella Baliou

Demetrios a. spandidos.

3 Laboratory of Clinical Virology, Medical School, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece

Associated Data

Not applicable.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has spread around the globe with unprecedented consequences for the health of millions of people. While the pandemic is still in progress, with new incidents being reported every day, the resilience of the global society is constantly being challenged. Under these circumstances, the future seems uncertain. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has spread panic among civilians and insecurity at all socio-political and economic levels, dramatically disrupting everyday life, global economy, international travel and trade. The disease has also been linked to the onset of depression in many individuals due to the extreme restriction measures that have been taken for the prevention of the rapid spreading of COVID-19. First, the socio-economic, political and psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. Substantial evidence is provided for the consequences of the pandemic on all aspects of everyday life, while at the same time we unravel the role and the pursuits of national regimes during this unforeseen situation. The second goal of this review is related to the scientific aspect of the pandemic. Hence, we explain why SARS-CoV-2 is not a so-called ‘invisible enemy’, and also attempt to give insight regarding the origin of the virus, in an effort to reject the conspiracy theories that have arisen during the pandemic. Finally, rational strategies were investigated for successful vaccine development. We are optimistic that this review will complement the knowledge of specialized scientists and inform non-specialized readers on basic scientific questions, and also on the social and economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Introduction

What we have experienced during the current pandemic is an unprecedented situation with World War characteristics. For younger generations who have heard about the World War II only through the stories of our parents and grandparents, books, movies and documentaries, the current situation will be recorded in our memories as a modern form of a new World War.

2. Death and the solitude of the dead

For many people, this period of the pandemic will be recorded in their memory as a tragedy, as they have lost either loved ones or their jobs and look forward to the future with great uncertainty. ‘ Everyone dies like dogs, like pigs, I'm not ashamed to admit that. It's not fair that dad died like that. People say they were old, they were sick. But he was my father, he was not old and he was not sick […]. Here in Val Seriana you can only hear the sirens of ambulances and the bells of mourning ’ ( 1 ). This was the testimony of a young lady from the tormented Italian city of Bergamo. Italy is one the seven largest International Monetary Fund (IMF)-advanced economies in the world, which comprise the Group of 7 (G7). Such a ‘major advanced economy’ could not provide its doctors with safe masks, such a ‘great industrial power’ ran out of gloves and consumables, like most other affluent countries in the world, resulting in the infection and death of doctors and nurses, the frontline fighters who had been discredited and insulted before the pandemic and praised and applauded during its progression. Tragedies were the suicides of nurses due to their inability to cope with the insurmountable pressure and the burden of many patient deaths. Furthermore, lamentable news of unclaimed dead people in USA and Italy reminded the inhumanity of the society. The sense of unbearable solitude has been overwhelming as if their death did not matter to anyone. No one cared, at least not enough to pay their last respects to the dead.

3. Many questions arise from the words ‘cost-profit’

There are many questions concerning the frequency of zoonotic virus-related epidemics and pandemics in the last twenty years, the strengths and weaknesses of various health systems around the world and the weakness of the ‘developed’ world to cope with the ‘invisible viral invaders - enemies’ of public health, in the 21st century and during the so-called 4th industrial revolution. However, if one was to take into account all of these questions together, one basic question would emerge; how much is the life or death of a fellow human worth in the 21st century? In the era of the current pandemic, the answer to such a question, and all types of questions related to it, is defined by a ‘cost-benefit’ assessment, entangled with the existing social system. The current prevailing approach of minimising expenditure and maximising profit, limits the potential of the public health sector, with consequences that have become evident during the current pandemic.

The Latin-American revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, physician by training, stated that ‘ the life of a single human being is worth a million time more than all the property of the richest man on earth ’ and he continued: ‘ medicine will have to convert itself into a science that serves to prevent disease and orients the public toward carrying out its medical duties. Medicine should only intervene in cases of extreme urgency, to perform surgery or something else which lies outside the skills of the people ’ ( 2 ).

In the antipodes of these views, lie the statements made by the Bundestag president and former finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. While Germany was mourning the deaths of more than 5,600 people from the new coronavirus, and was yet to calculate the damage caused by the quarantine to the state's economy, Schäuble warned that the state cannot solve all the problems and argued that he did not consider politics obliged to plan everything out in order to protect human life. Referring to the relaxation of restrictive measures, Schäuble stated that ‘ we cannot trust the decision exclusively to epidemiologists, but we must also weigh the significant economic, social, psychological or other consequences. If we close everything for two years, the consequences will be terrible ’. And he concluded: ‘ When I hear that everything is receding in front of the protection of human life, I must say that this is not absolute. The basic human rights have to be restricted on both sides. If there is one absolute value in our Constitution, it is human dignity. This is inviolable. But that doesn't rule out that one day we will die ’ ( 3 ).

4. The ‘invisible enemy’ from a scientific perspective

The two-month confinement due to the restrictive measures, formed the basis for us to reflect on ourselves our friends and family and society, and appreciate the concepts of solidarity, volunteering and sacrifice. Member of the scientific community were also concerned about news reports describing the new coronavirus as an ‘invisible enemy’.

The phrase ‘invisible enemy’ sounds almost metaphysical to scientists. In a way it takes us back to the dark ages, when mankind lacked scientific knowledge and technological tools. Such expressions deconstruct rational thinking when one tries to identify the causality of a phenomenon, reinforcing conspiracy theories about new biological weapons or secret and uncontrollable forces. They support the idea that the world is falling apart and that we are unable to reverse this process and, most importantly, to envision a new world that has mankind in its focal point. They give us the impression that invisible enemy forces are conspiring against us, while the confinement measures which isolate us from the community, reinforce these existential crises. Terrifying television news reports are enhancing these effects: In Russia, civilians have been monitored by cameras in every building block and the offenders have been tracked down in real time by the nearby police ( 4 ). Dozens of robots have been released in the centre of Tunis, patrolling and checking whether civilians comply with the COVID-19 restrictive measures ( 5 ): pedestrians are no longer inspected by police officers, but by robots, the so-called P-Guards, which behave exactly like officers, stopping pedestrians and asking for personal documents. Robots, of course, function through an intercom system. The officers at the Ministry of Interior are the ones giving the orders that are executed by the robots. In the streets of Israel, armed soldiers have been inspecting whether the measures against the coronavirus are being followed by the residents ( 6 ). To many, the coronavirus pandemic serves as an excuse for a global-scale exercise, aiming to control social consciousness. A variety of weapons from the quiver are used: conspiracy theories regarding the construction of SARS-CoV-2 in a secret laboratory in Wuhan, China, a special phraseology regarding an ‘invisible enemy’, which is unfortunately adopted by some science spokesmen, the constant display of images that reinforce fear and panic by the media, the presentation of the state as consistent with its duties, and most importantly, the notion that the course of the pandemic is being defined by the responsibility of the individuals instead of the establishment of a robust public health system. The results of this exercise will be manifested in the post-epidemic era and in the context of a new global economic recession that is already taking place.

The dynamics and connotations of words and images, can influence or even transform the consciousness of each individual to a certain extent and, consequently, affect social consciousness. Rarely is a word neutral. It carries our energy and our aim with it. Modern science (neurology, biology, anthropology, linguistics, etc.) can confirm this notion, as every single word is a process of thoughts that are the result of hormonal, biochemical and metabolic alterations, and electrical charges or discharges of our neurons ( 7 ). We should not forget that the main goal of the targeter is to look indeterminable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, powerful, invincible, and invisible if possible (here we are not referring to SARS-CoV-2, but to the economic elite that define global social policies). When the root of the problem is traced within the DNA of the targeter, in our attempt to defend ourselves to survive the attack and to confront the enemy, we must come up with a plan for its total elimination. It is important to first record and then analyze the targeter's plan. We must study its purpose, what it seeks from its target, which in this case is us. Marx has already answered these questions as early as mid-19th century, with the phrase ‘ The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it ’ ( 8 ). For such a change it is necessary for the targeter to become the target and for the target to become the targeter, in the context of a scientific plan for social transformation that will move us, excite us and, as a shining star, guide us into the future. And in these imprinted thoughts we must search where they come from and where they may lead us to. Only then will we be able to understand whether they are good or bad. As Hölderlin wrote in ‘Patmos’: ‘ But where there is danger, Salvation also grows’ . It is a nice expression of the Heraclitean struggle of the opposites ( 9 ), which at the socio-political level may be translated as the struggle of the social classes.

5. Is SARS-CoV-2 indeed invisible?

The total number of publications on the new coronavirus (nCoV-2019) since the first reported case in China, is impressive. Notably, until the 16th June 2020, 22,792 articles related to COVID-19 had been published in PubMed-indexed journals ( Fig. 1 ), as well as 5,244 pre-prints in medRxiv and bioRxiv. These numbers give a very important message: The scientific community is alert, and most importantly, that SARS-CοV-2 is not ‘invisible’ and, hopefully, not invincible for too long.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is MMR-22-04-3035-g00.jpg

Graphic presentation of the total number of publications per month regarding SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentation is of the monthly number of publications that were recorded in PubMed, from the 1st of December 2019, i.e., the first recorded case, until the 16th of June 2020.

Surely, when it first emerged, the virus was unknown, and so was its relation to the human immune system, and its general pathophysiology. Today, however, following the identification of more than 11 million cases through the use of specific molecular tests and the recovery of millions of patients, we know that the immune system reacts adequately in the vast majority of the cases. The clinical manifestations of the virus and its unique behaviour towards various vulnerable groups have been recorded in detail. There are asymptomatic and slightly symptomatic people who do not get sick, but act as carriers and reservoirs for the disease. A large number of data already exists on the genetic identity of the various strains of the virus. The genomes of many thousand different viral strains have been sequenced. SARS-CoV-2 is the 7th coronavirus to be historically recorded and using bioinformatic tools, it has been classified as a member of the Coronaviridae β family ( 10 ). The coronaviruses responsible for the SARS and MERS epidemics ( 10 – 12 ), that were discovered in 2002 and 2012, respectively, also belong to the group of β-coronaviruses; SARS-CoV-2 genome is composed of 30,000 bases, harbouring approximately 10 genes, with functions that are implicated in viral structure and function ( 10 ). Viral spike proteins interact with their receptors on the surface of epithelial cells ( 10 – 12 ). A study including SARS-CoV-2 genomes from 7,666 patients with COVID-19 from around the world, identified 198 recurrent genetic mutations of the virus, which appear to have occurred independently, more than once ( 13 ). The main conclusions from this study highlight the following: i) A large portion of the global gene diversity of the new coronavirus has been recorded in all countries affected by the pandemic. This finding indicates that there has been an extensive transmission of the virus on a global scale since the very early stages of the epidemic, which also means that in most countries there has not been a single ‘patient zero’, but more likely, the virus has intruded independently several times and via different routes. ii) New phylogenetic findings confirm that the virus emerged towards the end of 2019, before it began its rapid global transmission. iii) All coronavirus genomes from patients around the world appear to have originated from a common ancestor that seemed to emerge between 6th October and 11th December 2019. At that point, the new coronavirus must have been transmitted from an animal to the first human and to have caused an infection in that human. iv) Researchers believe it is highly unlikely that the coronavirus had been circulating among humans for a long time before it was detected in Wuhan, China, last December. v) Although the number of the detected mutations is large, this cannot thus far be correlated to the virulence and the severity of the virus. Several research teams around the world, including Greece, are conducting similar studies ( 14 ). The collection of a large number of genomic data and its correlation with the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 will lead to more accurate conclusions regarding the possibility of increased virulence due to frequent mutations, to the design of safe vaccines and therapeutics, as well as to our preparation for the possibility of an impending second wave of the pandemic. vi) A large number of mutations (15 in total) have been identified in the gene that encodes for the spike protein S (the protein that comes into contact with the target cell, e.g., lung epithelial cells), while other sites are far less frequently mutated and could, according to researchers, be much better targets for the development of effective therapeutics and vaccines ( 15 ).

6. The right strategy for vaccine development

Genomic analyses and the identification of highly conserved sequences will determine the right strategy for the design of vaccines and drugs with long lasting effects, which will not be easily evaded by the virus. For this purpose, Academic professionals of various scientific expertise (Molecular Biologists, Doctors, Epidemiologists, Statisticians, Pharmacists, Immunologists, Structural Biologists, Bioinformaticians, etc.) must work together in harmony in order to achieve the best possible result, i.e., an effective treatment against the new coronavirus. It is important to determine whether the already known viral mutations are beneficial or neutral or whether they contribute to the aggressiveness of the disease. This information can be reliably deduced from collaborative studies that combine clinical and demographic data with the type of mutations, the dynamics of mutations in the structure of the S protein, and the correlation of the altered S protein structure with the receptor protein of the host cell ( 15 ). Of particular interest are the 15 already known mutations in the gene that encode for the viral spike protein S which is essentially regarded as the tip of the viral spear, the first to come in contact with the receptor of the host cell. In this battle for viral replication, i.e., in the battle of ‘opposite pursuits’, some will be victorious and some will be defeated. For the patient, this is phenotypically translated into being asymptomatic, slightly symptomatic and symptomatic (diseased). Evolutionary Biology has taught us that mutations can be either beneficial, neutral, or harmful to the organism. This depends on how the mutation affects the survival and reproduction of each organism, including the new coronavirus. A more aggressive type of the new coronavirus has been found to account for approximately 70% of the 30 analysed strains, while only 30% of the analysed strains were associated with a less aggressive viral subtype. The most aggressive and deadly strain was identified in the early stages of the Wuhan epidemic, the Chinese city that the coronavirus first appeared in, and now scientists are trying to decode all possible mutations and to determine which strains have emerged in each geographic area ( 16 ).

Based on these data, the statement that the virus is ‘unknown’ or, even worse, an ‘invisible enemy’, is at the very best a statement made out of habit or, in the worst case scenario, a statement which could become offensive to the research scientists that are working on it.

Interestingly, more than 1,000,000 scientists are currently estimated to be involved in basic and clinical-epidemiological research on the new coronavirus worldwide. Plenty of information regarding the biology and the pathophysiology of the virus has already become available and this is perhaps the most optimistic message for a rational and effective design of therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19. At least 40 putative drugs are currently under evaluation in 500 clinical trials worldwide. Remdesivir and two immunomodulatory antibodies used in other diseases are already being tested against the coronavirus, and ongoing clinical trials will undoubtedly shed more light on the effectiveness of these drugs. The clinical trials on monoclonal antibodies that target the viral proteins (mainly the S protein) and inactivate the virus are also of significant interest, as they have been proven to be effective in many pre-clinical studies.

Based on the existing experience, it seems that one cannot apply the same anti-COVID-19 treatment to all patients; the type of treatment is highly dependent on the stage of the disease. In the early stages, antiviral factors that inhibit the viral reproduction enzymes, such as remdesivir, favipiravir, EIDD-2801, as well as antibodies against the viral proteins or the viral cellular receptor, ACE2, play a major role in effectively clearing the disease before it can progress to more advanced stages. In the advanced stages of the disease, however, immunomodulatory drugs, such as antibodies against IL-6, CCR5, and C5a receptors, as well as anti-coagulation drugs and drugs used in microvascular inflammatory disease, appear to be more effective ( 17 ).

In addition to the above therapeutic approaches, immunotherapy may also constitute another effective means against COVID-19, with significant research experience already gained in this field. People who have recovered from a coronavirus infection are being encouraged to donate their plasma for the treatment of other patients. Such studies are being conducted all over the world ( 17 ).

The high degree of initiative of a significant number of companies around the globe for the development of an effective vaccine against the new coronavirus is impressive. The very form of this pandemic, with its especially devastating consequences for global economy, the uncertainty of a new disease outbreak, and the small percentage of recorded immunity in the world's population ( 18 ), have put several companies of the most developed countries in a race of relentless competition. In such cases, there can only be one winner to receive the gold medal, although the rest may actually not lose too much, as the majority of these ‘losers’ will have received state funding; in this case the tax payers' money will have been used to ‘cushion’ the imminent recession they themselves will have caused with their laws of economy. The demand for the vaccine will be huge, the profit will exceed every expectation, and will therefore provide a secure investment ‘for the sake of humanity’.

Today, on 28th June 2020, there are as many as 40 programs on vaccine development, out of which 7 vaccines are already being tested in humans all over the world. Among the leading companies are CanSino Biologics (Beijing), which uses an adenoviral vector, and Sinovac (Beijing), which uses an inactivated virus (PiCoVacc). In the United Kingdom, researchers at the University of Oxford are testing the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine which includes an adenoviral vector and the spike protein S. In the United States, Inovio Pharmaceuticals is testing a DNA type vaccine. The American company Moderna has also developed an RNA vaccine in collaboration with NIH. There is also BNT162, a four-vaccine program developed by the German biotechnological company BioNTech and Pfizer pharmaceutics; the four vaccines represent different viral mRNA antigens that are used as targets ( 17 ). In addition, in early April, Veronika Skvortsova, the head of Russia's Federal Biomedical Agency (FMBA), announced that Russia had created seven novel anti-coronavirus vaccines ready to enter clinical trials ( 19 ). Experience with influenza virus has shown that vaccines are usually effective for 40–60% of the people who get vaccinated, but this rate is sufficient to control the infection fully within the community. In addition, anti-flu vaccines are modified yearly, in an effort to effectively protect against new strains.

7. The ‘competitive nature’ of man and reality

Those who dream of another, humanistic world, know very well that if all scattered scientific forces that are currently dealing with the vaccine against the coronavirus were united for a common purpose, i.e., to serve the supreme good of human health, in a continuous exchange and sharing of scientific knowledge, the goal of the vaccine would be realised much sooner, spending much less effort and funds. Others believe that competition acts as a catalyst for the realisation of the ultimate goal, which in this case is the production of the vaccine. Many also believe that competition is a basic characteristic of human nature. But there is another apprehension. Competition is not a characteristic of human nature as projected by certain socio-biologists who like to compare, and even equate, human societies with animal communities. Competition is not something that man carries since birth as a biological evolutionary trait. It appears only when the necessary social structures and relationships are formed, when a person or a group of people may possess materials of nature and means of production and the rest of the people act as their employees. Therefore, competition should be looked for within the social structures and in the relationships between people and the means of production. In other words, competition among people is a relationship that, if it were to be ablated, the ‘original’ non-competitive intellectual man, the Nietzschean superhuman, would emerge in a course of civilisation that would allow the realisation of one Utopia after another.

The hominization process of Homo sapiens was a huge leap forward in evolution. The conquest of nature by man began with the development of manual workmanship. The development of labour helped to strengthen the bonds of mutual assistance and joint activity. Mutual working activity has contributed to the need to communicate with articulated speech and language, which has been recorded in human history as culture. Therefore, because of work, humans were able to conquer the forces of nature, obliging them to serve their purpose. On the contrary, the animals adapt to the forces of nature and are not able to consciously influence them, to tame them. This is the most essential feature that distinguishes humans from animals.

To be in the position that he is today, Man has fought against the immense forces of nature, he has managed to subdue them and emerge victorious, because he had to respond to something deeper. He responded to the necessity to improve his life, to create culture. It is not by coincidence that many inventors who defined the course of humanity through their discoveries, apart from possessing scientific knowledge, they were inspired people, devoted to the common good. After all, the great meaning of life is for all humanity to enjoy the discoveries and inventions of the inspired creators. This is now known to require another social organisation plan that people will understand, believe in and fight for its realisation.

9. The extreme rivalries among the powerful of the world may have an economic basis

In the context of the ‘invisible enemy’, extreme rivalries have emerged among the powerful of the world. Some politicians, led by the US president, have insisted that the virus is a fabrication of China's secret laboratories ( 20 , 21 ). Such statements can be taken as seriously as those made by the President of the United States… solarium and disinfectant injections to treat the coronavirus infection. Respectively, China insists on denying allegations by the US government that it has been negligent in dealing with the epidemic and in not notifying the global community early enough ( 22 ). More specifically, through the newspaper ‘People's Daily’, China poses a series of questions to the US government, substantiated as follows: they accuse the US government that after ‘inadequately dealing with the outbreak’, they are now ‘shifting the responsibilities’ to China. In particular, they provoke the US government to provide answers regarding the sudden closure of the US Army's biological weapons laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, following a pneumonia outbreak and a simultaneous H1N1 virus epidemic last July. The Chinese also point out that two months after the exercise event 201 for a global pandemic, held by various US organizations in October 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, wondering as to a possible relevance between these events ( 22 ). They report that Robert Redfield, head of the CDC (US Infectious Diseases Center), also acknowledged that some of the COVID-19 victims had been diagnosed with the seasonal flu, which has killed more than 20,000 people since last September ( 23 ). The majority know from personal experience that ‘when the buffaloes fight, the frogs pay for it’, the frogs being the humble people around the world. It is certain that in the near future the economic rivalries among the most powerful will intensify, as can be understood from the information presented in Table I .

Estimated global ranking by GDP in PPP terms (2 billion US dollars at fixed 2016 prices) ( 24 ).

	2016 Ranking		2030 Ranking		2050 Ranking

Ranking by GDP (PPP)	Country	GDP in PPP	Country	GDP in PPP	Country	GDP in PPP
1	China	21,269	China	38,008	China	58,499
2	USA	18,562	USA	23,475	India	44,128
3	India	8,721	India	19,511	USA	34,102
4	Japan	4,932	Japan	5,606	Indonesia	10,502
5	Germany	3,979	Indonesia	5,424	Brazil	7,540
6	Russia	3,745	Russia	4,736	Russia	7,131
7	Brazil	3,135	Germany	4,707	Mexico	6,863

GDP, gross domestic product; PPP, purchasing power parity.

John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC and one of the authors of the relevant report, states the following: ‘ We will continue to see a shift in the global economic power from the advanced economies to the emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere. By 2050, the E7 countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey) will produce approximately 50% of the world GDP, while the share of the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA) will marginally exceed 20% ’ ( Table I ) ( 24 ).

10. There is irrefutable evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not only contagious but also highly related to social class

While the pandemic was still in its infancy in the United States, with a reported 400,000 cases and 13,000 deaths from the new coronavirus, statistical analyses revealed the following: In Chicago, African Americans make up 30% of the population, but they seem to account for 70% of the total number of people who have died from COVID-19 in this large city. In Illinois, the African-American population is 14%, yet the death toll in this sub-group is 41%. Similarly, in Milwaukee, African-Americans make up 26% of the population but the victims exceed 80%. Surely this picture is not unrelated to the social inequalities that reflect the material basis of racism in a country where the financially less-privileged cannot have access to either (private) insurance or healthy living conditions. According to the UN's International Labor Organization, 1.25 billion workers out of the world's 3.3 billion are at high risk of suffering ‘drastic and catastrophic’ consequences, such as layoffs and pay cuts, as a result of the economic measures taken during the pandemic ( 25 ).

According to a report published in Lancet which includes tens of thousands COVID-19 cases from China, depicting mortality rates per region of the country, it appears that in areas where the population had substantial access to satisfactory health care services, the mortality rate (deaths in % of patients) was 0–0.3%, while in areas where for various reasons there was no such possibility, the mortality rate was more than tenfold higher (3–5%) ( 26 ). In an ideal situation, however, if 10% of the 7 trillion (!) monetary funds held by the 500 Croesuses who make up 0.0000066% of the world's population were committed to helping those who are less-privileged financially, we would all feel that the pandemic was just an annoying nightmare that would go away the moment we opened our eyes. The virus is therefore contagious and social class-related as the effects of the various economic measures undertaken globally have been unequally distributed on existing social class territory ( 27 ).

A recent report from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) includes statistics on the number of coronavirus-related deaths (COVID-19) and the total number of deaths recorded in Scotland in the weeks 1 to 19 of 2020. Regarding COVID-19 deaths recorded in March and April 2020, it was observed that people in the most deprived areas were 2.3 times more likely to die of COVID than those living in the least deprived areas. If an area is recognized as deprived, this may be related to low-income, but it may also mean fewer resources or opportunities, such as employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing. In week 19 (4 to 10 May), the Health Board area with the highest number of deaths involving COVID-19 was Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 126 deaths (also the highest number of COVID-19 deaths to date: 1,038). The Health Board area with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths to date has also been Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 8.8 deaths per population of 10,000 ( Fig. 2 ) ( 28 ).

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Deaths involving COVID-19 in Scotland. Registered between weeks 1 and 19 (beginning of year to 10th of May 2020), by the Health Board of residence, Scotland ( 28 ).

11. The conspiracy theories as an antidote to the scientific truth

The struggle for the ‘paternity’ of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between US and Chinese officials is indicative of the contradictions that exist between these two very powerful economic forces in the world ( 23 ).

Regardless of such statements made by political officials with powerful economic status, scientists must first and foremost use strict scientific criteria and, based on published scientific data, form an opinion as to the possibility, or not, of a laboratory construction of the virus with biological warfare purposes. Having acquired enough information on the new coronavirus, we dispel such myths and conspiracy theories.

Scenarios for a laboratory construction of the virus are based on the work entitled ‘A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence’ ( 26 ). In this report, the authors point out that the 2002–2003 emergence of SARS-CoV introduced the possibility of epidemics in human populations by viruses of animal origin and opened up a new topic for discussion in the scientific community. They also refer to influenza viruses (H5N1, H1N1, H7N9) and the MERS-CoV coronavirus, and point out that previous studies have demonstrated the existence of closely related SARS-like viral genes in Chinese bat populations. However, the authors conclude that the presence of SARS-like genes in bats alone does not mean that these are indeed SARS viruses, nor does it mean that they can infect humans. Based on these concerns, they introduced the question of whether these potentially SARS horseshoe bat viruses (mainly found in China) are capable of infecting humans and thereby of causing a new SARS epidemic ( 26 ).

The first approach, which included electronic simulation experiments, showed that no spike of the bat virus is predicted to attach to the human cell receptor. They then performed pseudotyping experiments; that is, they stripped a murine SARS virus of its genetic material, and re-coated it with the nucleocapsid of a horseshoe bat virus. In all cases, the pseudotyped viruses failed to infect both mouse and human cells. The latest experimental approach involved the use of chimeric viruses consisting of a SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone and a novel spike protein isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats, that is both the genetic material of a murine SARS virus with a bat spike protein encoding gene and a complete murine SARS virus capsid-enclosure (minus the bat spike protein). The recombinant viruses successfully managed to infect both mouse and human cells in vitro . In this case, the in vitro approaches served as an indication of what can happen in vivo . Following this, the researchers infected mice with the recombinant viruses and managed to cause SARS disease in these animals, with profound related symptoms. Young infected mice showed 10% weight loss with no reported deaths, whereas older mice presented with greater weight loss and low mortality rates. This way the research team managed to create an in vivo model to use as a platform for testing various therapeutic protocols. Antibodies to SARS-CoV (2002–2003 virus) had little or no effect on alleviating the disease in mice infected with the recombinant virus. In addition, the vaccine, developed against SARS-CoV (DIV), did not seem to offer any protection, but it produced significant side effects in these animals ( 26 ).

In their Nature Medicine report, the researchers also describe the experiments performed on the horseshoe bat virus. This virus infects both mouse and human cells but with a profound delay in viral replication. Infection of mice with the horseshoe bat virus did not seem to induce weight loss and viral replication was slow as compared to SARS-CoV. If we were to take into account all of the above experiments, i.e., the experiments with recombinant viruses and the experiments with the horseshoe bat virus, we could reach the following conclusion: in order for the horseshoe bat virus to become more infectious and to be able to infect humans, it would need to undergo additional adaptations or adjustments. Viruses can acquire these adaptations selectively, as for example when a bat virus crosses the species barrier and is passed on to an intermediate host. In the new host, the spike protein acquires the necessary adaptive mutations to facilitate improved infection and eventually the ability to infect humans. Another possibility is that humans are directly infected by the horseshoe bat virus and human contact with other animals that also carry the virus eventually leads to continuous human re-infections until, due to random mutational events, the deadly variant emerges ( 26 ).

Most likely, however, horseshoe bat viruses have the potential to infect humans. And since coronaviruses are well-known for their ability to easily recombine in nature, this recombination is suggested to take place in an intermediate host and to pass on to humans thereafter. In all cases, the best and perhaps most ideal place for this to happen is in the markets of the Far East, as indicated by the metagenomics data analysis of this review. In these places thousands of people gather in front of stalls selling all kinds of wild and domestic animals every day, from bats to pangolins, palm civets, hens, pigs, and whatever else comes to mind. These so-called wet markets, due to the animals being slaughtered on the spot, are characterized by high species interaction, which is regarded as the necessary prerequisite for continuous viral exchange (zoonoses) among these animals.

Notably, the 2015 report in Nature Medicine constituted a warning to the global scientific community, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the political powers of the world, before the emergence of the pandemic. Let it be clear to the scientific community as well as to the general public that the recombinant virus, built to fulfil the needs of the particular study, has nothing to do with COVID-19. The virus is therefore not ‘man-made’.

The genomic and bioinformatic analyses of the aforementioned studies, as well as the results of previous studies, confirm that the virus originated in bats and this way put an end to all conspiracy theories regarding this issue. In addition, despite the high sequence identity of SARS-CoV-2 to SARS-CoV and a bat coronavirus named RaTG13, it remains to be confirmed whether SARS-CoV-2 has other hosts in addition to bats ( 29 ). Of particular interest is that a Malayan pangolin-isolated coronavirus was shown to exhibit 100, 98.6, 97.8 and 90.7% amino acid identity with SARS-CoV-2 in the E, M, N and S genes, respectively, with the receptor-binding domain within the S protein of the Pangolin-CoV, in particular, being almost virtually identical to that of SARS-CoV-2 (one noncritical amino acid difference) ( 29 ). In addition, apart from the high percentage of Pangolin-CoV-infected animals (17 of 25 Malayan pangolins), circulating antibodies against Pangolin-CoV in these animals also appeared to react with the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. These results highly suggest that: i) recombination of a Pangolin-CoV-like virus with a Bat-CoV-RaTG13-like virus might have occurred as an initiating event for the formation of SARS-CoV-2; and ii) Malayan pangolins have the potential to act as the intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, thereby representing a future threat to public health if wildlife trade is not appropriately controlled ( 29 ).

In addition, Stylianos Antonarakis, the Greek professor of genetics at the University of Geneva and former president of the International Organization of the Human Genome (HUGO), has used bioinformatics tools to prove that the virus is not laboratory-made. His study was translated into a letter to Professor and Nobel-prize Laureate winner Luc Montagnier, who has repeatedly stated that the virus was man-made ( 30 ).

In his letter to Luc Montagnier, Professor Antonarakis stressed the following ( 31 ):

‘ You know very well that science is based on facts, not opinions, and therefore please forgive me for being sceptical about the accuracy of your statement. Using publicly available bioinformatics tools and virus genomes in international databases, I compared the coronavirus genome with the genome of HIV. I would like to remind the reader that the coronavirus has a genome that consists of an RNA chain and the total length of its genetic material is 29,903 ribonucleotides, which I will refer to as ‘letters’ from now on ’.

‘ To be precise, I compared the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus isolated from the city of Wuhan in China and submitted it to the public database Genbank on January 5th, 2020, with the accession number {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"MN908947.3","term_id":"1798172431","term_text":"MN908947.3"}} MN908947.3 . Please bear in mind that this is the first sequence of the new coronavirus submitted to the public database by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and the School of Public Health, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and published in the Nature journal. Comparison with the genome of the virus causing AIDS (taxid 11676) revealed a partial homology of 38 letters between the SARS-CoV-2 virus and HIV, as shown in the relevant graph ( Fig. 3 ) ’.

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Partial homology between SARS-CoV-2 virus and HIV. On the top line are the letters of the coronavirus genome (from the letters 14,366 to 14,403) and below are the homologous part of the virus causing AIDS. The vertical lines show the identical letters between the two genomes.

‘ A-ha, you will say here with emphasis, Professor Montagnier, that your conclusion is correct. However, if you analyze the data a little more extensively and carefully, I strongly argue that your conclusion is completely wrong, for the following reasons: First: This homology of genomic letters has been found in all the members of the human coronavirus family that have been studied since 2004. Therefore, this precludes a recently performed laboratory manipulation on the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In addition, the same homology has also been found in many bat-coronaviruses that have also been identified several years ago ( 31 ). Second: this homology of genomic letters is also present in thousands of other viruses (distant cousins of coronaviruses) such as the infectious virus of bronchitis, chicken and turkey viruses of infectious bronchitis, and even rabies viruses. It is therefore obvious that this homology of the very small portion of the virus genome is a remnant of the evolutionary process of viral genomes in nature and not the result of laboratory manipulation ’.

‘ My intention, Professor Montagnier, is not to diminish the importance of your previous contribution to science and humanity, but to make it clear in a public forum that a careful examination of the data definitively rules out the possibility that this new virus may be a laboratory product ’.

Notably, new evidence suggests that a significant proportion of the population, mostly people who tend to be more dependent on social media for information, are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and less likely to follow official health advice and restriction measures ( 32 ). While the majority of extreme conspiracies have been banned from a significant number of electronic platforms, a wealth of conspiratorial material still exists on the big social media sites and continues to misinform and mislead the general public. In this context, unregulated social media misinformation may pose as a significant health risk to the general public by creating a negative association between health-protective behaviours and the spreading of COVID-19 ( 33 ).

In addition to the conspiracy theories on the nature and origins of the pandemic, two major study retractions have recently left scientists skeptical not only as to the quality of scientific research, but also regarding the efficacy of the peer review process and the credibility of respected medical journals ( 34 ). The first article, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, promised that commonly prescribed blood-pressure medication was safe to use by people infected by the new coronavirus, whereas the second article, published in the Lancet, issued a warning that the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine endangered the lives of coronavirus patients. Notably, the second retracted paper claimed to rely on detailed medical records from 96,000 COVID-19 patients at nearly 700 hospitals on six continents ( 35 ), yet the scientific community had not heard of this enormous international registry. Despite claims that these admissions, which in the space of one month turned into hasty retractions, were due to an eagerness to publish helpful information during the pandemic, the editor in chief of The Lancet, Dr Richard Horton, called the paper retracted by his journal a ‘ fabrication ’ and a ‘ monumental fraud ’ ( 34 ).

It appears that research during the pandemic is taking place at an unprecedented pace, with both journal editors and research scientists who donate time in the peer reviewing process being overwhelmed with new information, trying to understand the pathophysiology of the coronavirus, or to elucidate effective treatments and vaccines. And it is during this time, when the academic system has stretched its capacity thin, that political motivation seizes the opportunity to step in. Indeed, the politicization of the pandemic is suspected to have played a role in the article published in The Lancet, if only to rebuke the US President, Mr Donald Trump, who vigorously endorsed hydroxychloroquine as both preventive and curative treatment for COVID-19 ( 34 ). This study resulted in the WHO and other health organizations halting clinical trials before substantial reviews could be conducted on the safety of these anti-malarial drugs, with immediate repercussions for many thousand patients worldwide.

12. Thoughts regarding international research on the viral origins

Ahead of the General Assembly of the WHO on May 20–28, 2020, it seems that several proposals are being reviewed as part of an international research conduct on the origins of SARS-COV-2. On the 30th of April 2020, the Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren said that Sweden is planning to ask the European Union to push for the probe, stating ‘ When the global situation of COVID-19 is under control, it is both reasonable and important that an international, independent investigation be conducted to gain knowledge about the origin and spread of the coronavirus ’ ( 36 ). Accordingly, the UN envoy to China Chen Xu expressed backing for the WHO but said an invitation for the agency's experts to visit Wuhan to look into the origins of the coronavirus must wait until after the pandemic is beaten ( 37 ). Specifically, he said: ‘ First things first: The top priority for the time being is to focus on the fight against the pandemic. We need the right focus and allocation of our resources ’. All of the above can be seen as positive messages in a coordinated global effort to tackle COVID-19. In the end, it seems that of the few things that can unite the world, even if only temporarily, are the issues relating to the consequences of the current pandemic or the pandemics that will follow with ‘mathematical precision’

13. The lack of prevention strategies against the SARS- COV-2 pandemic

The reactions of the economically powerful countries of Europe and the United States to the upcoming pandemic have seemed rather surprising, and rather disappointing, to many of us Biomedical Scientists. After the first case in Wuhan, China, Chinese scientists isolated the virus and, with the help of high-tech RNA sequencing technology, classified it as a beta-coronavirus. Therefore, both the Global Scientific Community and the political powers of this world had in their hands two important elements: i) the sequence identity of the coronavirus; and ii) previous experience in dealing with epidemics caused by similar coronaviruses of the beta-coronavirus group (SARS-COV-1 and MERS-CoV). In addition, we have all been witnesses to the strict and vertical isolation measures taken in China, in the city of Wuhan with its population of 11 million people, since January 23, 2020 ( 38 ). There was detailed daily media coverage of how an entire city was quarantined and how the Chinese government managed to build an entire hospital within 2 weeks as well as a mask manufacturing facility. Apparently, the country that was first hit by the pandemic was faced with the most difficulties. However, the Chinese government seems to have reacted with incredible speed, possibly owing to its past communist experience and centralized powers. In the Western world we have watched with admiration how well the Chinese have reacted to prevent the spreading of SARS-CoV-2, which is reflected on the relatively small number of victims. It is also worth mentioning that China's National Health Committee had acknowledged from the start that the virus can be transmitted from one person to another, as well as that the new coronavirus is similar to the virus causing SARS, but that it does not seem to be as deadly, also stressing what is already known for viruses, that they sometimes mutate and become more dangerous to human health.

The WHO, via Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, 2020, when the number of infected cases already exceeded 118,000 in 114 countries and 4,291 people had already lost their lives worldwide ( 39 ). It was also noted that the pandemic was expected to cause additional problems in a larger number of countries. From that moment on, the whole planet was and still remains alert and anxious as to the emergence of a second wave of the pandemic.

14. Critical remarks

The WHO's decision to name the disease caused by the new coronavirus COVID-19 may have been unfortunate: this description (coronavirus disease 19) is indicative of previous coronaviruses and it therefore does not represent the dangerousness of SARS-CoV-2. They may have had the noblest of intentions not to cause panic, for example, but it seems now that we are in the 6th month of the pandemic since its outbreak in China that it did not help in the preparation of the states against it.

The delay by WHO in announcing the pandemic somehow acted reassuringly for all the countries of the world. With the announcement of the pandemic, panic spread across Europe and America ( 40 ). The feeling at that point was that the virus had entered many homes and would enter many more without as much as a warning or a ‘knock on the door’.

The worst scenario in such a situation (pandemic) is to be unprepared and disorganized, and the whole developed world was blatantly unprepared for such a serious problem. This is mainly due to the tremendous downgrading of the public health system worldwide. In our country this translates to i) a shortage of 30,000 doctors and auxiliary nursing staff; ii) Greece being the third country in the EU with the worst ratio of ICUs in relation to its population ( 41 ). According to EU data, Greece has only 6 ICU beds per 100,000 residents! iii) the downgrading and closure of Primary Health Care units and hospitals during the memorandum period; iv) the lack of protective material for nursing staff (e.g., appropriate masks) and respiratory equipment for patients; and v) the lack of staff and technological equipment for molecular tests.

Asian countries have reacted more efficiently in the face of the pandemic than the rest of the world. Hong Kong, for example, has slowed down the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 through a combination of intensive monitoring, quarantine and social distancing, and not by relying solely on the strict measures employed elsewhere. In January, authorities in Wuhan, where the coronavirus epidemic began, prohibited traveling outside the city in an effort to control the spreading of COVID-19. However, Hong Kong was based on a program that included extensive testing, isolation of those who had come in contact with infected people, and distancing measures such as closing schools. When Peng Wu at Hong Kong University and her colleagues conducted a residential survey in early March, 99% said that they wore a mask in public and 85% said that they avoided crowds. Public compliance with government measures kept viral spreading relatively low in Hong Kong until the end of March 2020.

Despite the fact that the WHO insisted on extensive molecular testing for the detection of the virus, much to the surprise of us Molecular Biologists, the whole of Europe and America seemed unable to respond. Indeed, it has been extremely difficult to perform these tests on a larger scale. Nonetheless, people working in the sectors of Biological Research and Biomedical Sciences know that it may not have been as hard to perform large scale molecular testing on the virus, if the following had been put to good use: i) In January and February 2020, the existing accredited laboratories could have been employed and organized in such a way as to be fully competent in performing the tests, with the addition of more such facilities in all the major reporting hospitals and wherever else it was deemed necessary; ii) the personnel capable of performing these tests should be selected; in this respect, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers in permanent employment positions could be selected even on a voluntary basis; iii) from the moment that the coronavirus RNA sequence was submitted to a public database there was enough time to organize these in-house tests. Postgraduate and PhD students in research laboratories throughout the country could have prepared these tests reliably. iv) PCR machines do not come at a high cost, which means that additional purchases could have been made. In Greece, for example, the 30 million euros that were given to private diagnostic companies to perform these tests, and who were unable to do so, and the samples were eventually sent to the Pasteur Institute and the Medical School of Athens, could have been used to purchase 1,000 state-of-the-art PCR machines, translating to a minimum dynamic testing of 1,000 samples by each machine daily. v) Primary health services and reference hospitals could aid in the development of a network of human resources that would ensure the efficient collection of samples and their rapid transport and testing in accredited laboratories.

Seventeen years have passed since the SARS epidemic and we still do not know what makes these coronaviruses so dangerous. It is unfortunate that there have been no funding policies for the coronaviruses, both at the European level and globally. We would be much better prepared to deal with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic if, with dedication and consistency, and provided that the appropriate funds were available, there was sufficient research on this type of virus after the SARS epidemic in 2003. Significant experience has been obtained on a global scale by the research community from research conducted against the virus that causes AIDS. Characteristically, in the context of the sustainable development set by the WHO, the European Union has set a goal to eliminate AIDS and tuberculosis by the year 2030 and to continue research on hepatitis ( 42 ). Let's not forget that AIDS has left 35 million dead in its path since its appearance in 1981. Due to lack of investment in research and vaccine production for SARS, we should not overlook a defining aspect set out by the strict laws of capitalist economy. Pharmaceutical companies are often a major part of this system and often show no interest in investing in vaccines. Many of the vaccines in circulation cost between $600 million and $1 billion. The major profits in pharmaceutical companies come from drugs that cure long-term illness. For example, the sales of a single drug for hepatitis C have exceeded $10 billion in one year ( 43 ). One must also bear in mind that the vaccine market ($24 billion today) appears to be extensive, but it represents only 2.4% of the global pharmaceutical industry, which is worth $1 trillion per year ( 44 ). Vaccines, in particular, are therefore not major sources of profit for the pharmaceutical companies that specialize in them. Based on this logic one should also not overlook the lack of large investments in the production of a SARS vaccine. With the confinement of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and 2004 in some Asian countries, companies estimated that a vaccine investment would not translate to a corresponding profit margin due to the small customer market. The consequences of such a decision to public health have become more realistic during the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. If there had been research on SARS in the last 17 years since its original outbreak, we would certainly be better prepared and equipped against SARS-CoV-2.

The genetic material of both SARS and SARS-CoV-2 encodes approximately 20 proteins. Apart from the protein that looks like a crown under the microscope and which is responsible for binding to the host cell, three other proteins that structure the viral shell (nucleocapsid) and cover its genetic material, as well as a multi-protein that is responsible for the transcription and reproduction the virus, we have very little information on what the rest of the viral proteins do. Therefore, research on SARS for the appropriate characterization of these proteins should help to obtain a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and to determine the appropriate treatment strategy.

Therefore, the inaction of the global community and the lack of funding to conduct biomedical research on the first SARS virus have provided the ideal environment for the new coronavirus to reach pandemic status. The field of Molecular Virology has produced prominent scientific personalities who have been and still are dedicated to the study of RNA viruses. Columbia University professor David Ho, who has saved countless lives with the antiviral therapy for AIDS, applied for $20 million funding in order to test antivirals against SARS in his laboratory, but his request has never been met ( 45 ). It seems that various government officials and pharmaceutical companies, as we have explained above, regarded the previous epidemics as cases only pertaining to the East. Thus, in an attempt to justify the unjustified, the majority of institutional officials, with the help of several scientists, often refer to the new coronavirus as an invisible enemy and to the battle against it as an unequal war. These words sound like a cover-up of our inability to effectively deal with the pandemic and of the fact that we are ill-equipped in terms of vaccines, drugs and scientific equipment to deal with a virus that, despite being called new, is highly related to the previous SARS disease. We probably have no excuse as there have been many warnings from the scientific community in the first two decades of the 21st century about the increased incidence of epidemics and the need to fund coronavirus research. Unfortunately, the institutions chose inaction and now it appears that we must make up for the lost ground in a very short time, and suffer all the consequences that this pandemic will leave behind. Despite the delays, however, the devaluation of research on SARS since 2003 shows that the Biomedical Science Community, as we speak and as the pandemic is still ongoing, are doing their best to turn the tables in favor of humanity in the battle against COVID-19.

15. Conclusions and thoughts for a better relationship between man and the environment

Many noTable Scientists such as Professor Michael Greger, former director of Public Health and Animal Husbandry at the Humane Society of the United States, and Professor Rob Wallace, evolutionary biologist and Public Health Phylogeographer, collaborator of the Institute of International Studies at the University of Minnesota, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu and former adviser to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, have touched the basis of the root cause of the latest epidemics and the current pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. The message from this pandemic is that unequal access to natural resources must be brought to an end, so as to prevent the next pandemic that is expected to occur with mathematical accuracy ( 46 , 47 ).

The protection of public health requires a review of the relationship between man and all biological ecosystems, especially animals, and the environment in general. Available genomic data now make it clear that behind the global COVID-19 pandemic lies a virus that has most likely entered the human population via human interaction with bats or another intermediate host ( 48 ).

It seems that dealing with such pandemics requires a holistic approach that focuses on causality, i.e., the generator cause, and not solely relying on the restriction/distancing measures that should be undertaken anyway in order to prevent loss of human life. In order to achieve this, we need to redefine our relationship with the environment and the inequalities that lead to its destruction. It is estimated that 75% of all new infectious diseases are the result of contact between humans and animals ( 49 ). We have all heard of at least some of them in the last twenty years, such as Zika, Ebola, SARS, bird flu, MERS and, more recently of course, COVID-19.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) emphasizes on the main factors that are implicated in the transmission of viruses to humans: i) deforestation; ii) intensive cultivation; and iii) climate change ( 49 ). A number of studies have ascertained that the universal approach to food production, including basic agricultural and livestock products such as beef, palm oil, coffee and cocoa, makes it easier to deplete resources in poorer countries than in countries with affluent economies. The production of such goods leads to i) deforestation and ii) loss of biodiversity. These are the main factors for the transmission of diseases among species. In the majority of nations producing coffee and cocoa (sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America), 95% of production is exported to the North, mainly to North America and Europe.

In terms of climate change, the economically developed world bears the highest responsibility for the global emissions causing the greenhouse effect and for the production of other harmful pollutants. Under developed countries, being far less responsible for the greenhouse effect, suffer to a much greater extent the consequences of climate change-related diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Even very small increases in temperature seem to currently make it easier for mosquitoes to spread to new areas where people are not immune to the diseases they carry ( 50 ).

In the oppressed ecosystems of less developed countries, large predators are becoming extinct. This creates biosystem imbalances that favor the reproduction of certain species, such as bats, rats and mosquitoes, i.e., those species that usually transmit zoonoses to humans. The lack of food for these animal species in ecosystems where they lived in harmony before the violent human interventions strengthens the competition for food among them, in an attempt to meet their nutritional needs. The increased competition for food for these animals leads to their migration to more densely populated areas and to closer contact with humans ( 51 ).

COVID-19 should ring like a very loud bell to the ears of the global financial elite and of every single consumer. If global environmental, health and development issues are not addressed holistically, new pandemics will continue to emerge. Priority should be given to reducing consumption levels, eliminating trade and economic inequalities, and creating sustainable production systems for both the people and the environment, and all of this in a different socio-political system.

The current crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has provided us with a unique opportunity to very seriously reconsider our relationship with the environment. This practically means that large agri-food companies and global policies should be immediately concerned about the current industrial environment producing our food products. The current food production process is often modified by the introduction of new technologies that essentially lead to significant violations of the balance in natural ecosystems. This approach undoubtedly increases the rate of production and the size of the total product, but at the same time it greatly promotes and strengthens the necessary conditions for viral replication, so that new mutations are produced at a higher rate and with greater infectious power. Many warnings can be deduced from the pandemics that have occurred so far, yet the course of our future lies in the hands of humanity.

Despite the numerous warnings that can be derived from pandemics, as Professor Rob Wallace points out ‘ agribusiness is so focused on profits that selecting for a virus that might kill a billion people is treated as a worthy risk ’ ( 52 ). If we were to use molecular biology terminology to describe this phenomenon, it would translate as follows: the world's financial elite owning the agri-food companies are self-designated by the dominant gene of profit that determines their phenotype and their aggressive behavior both to the environment and to other people. This gene is so powerful, ‘dominant’ in the language of Biology, that no effort to convince them otherwise has had any result so far. Therefore, as is the case with the numerous work-related problems being faced on a global scale, in the emergence of every pandemic we will be faced with the same clear-cut question: is there an alternative? Of course there is, this can be easily deduced by reading Brecht's poem (53,Brecht B: In Praise of dialectics).

In Praise of Dialectics

Today injustice goes with a certain stride,

The oppressors move in for ten thousand years.

Force sounds certain: it will stay the way it is.

No voice resounds except the voice of the rulers.

And on the markets, exploitation says it out loud:

I am only just beginning.

But of the oppressed, many now say:

What we want will never happen.

Whoever is alive must never say ‘never’!

Certainty is never certain.

It will not stay the way it is.

When the rulers have already spoken

Then the ruled will start to speak.

Who dares say ‘never’?

Who's to blame if repression remains? We are.

Who can break its thrall? We can.

Whoever has been beaten down must rise to his feet!

Whoever is lost must fight back!

Whoever has recognized his condition -

how can anyone stop him?

Because the vanquished of today will be tomorrow's victors

And ‘never’ will become: ‘already today’!

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Maria Adamaki for performing the language editing of the manuscript. We thank Dr Ioannis Michalopoulos for extensively reviewing the manuscript and for selecting the appropriate bibliographic references. We also thank Professor Philip Clegg for his critical thinking and for making sure that the manuscript does not lose its meaning in translation.

No funding was received.

Availability of data and materials

Authors' contributions.

All of the authors were involved in writing, formatting and reviewing the manuscript. VZ was involved in the conception and design of the manuscript. MG designed the graphs. ER and SB performed the literature search. DAS critically analyzed the existing knowledge and contributed to editing the manuscript. All authors approved of the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Patient consent for publication, competing interests.

DAS is the Editor-in-Chief for the journal, but had no personal involvement in the reviewing process, or any influence in terms of adjudicating on the final decision, for this article. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our food systems

Joint statement by ilo, fao, ifad and who.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.

Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable because the majority lack social protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive assets. Without the means to earn an income during lockdowns, many are unable to feed themselves and their families. For most, no income means no food, or, at best, less food and less nutritious food.

The pandemic has been affecting the entire food system and has laid bare its fragility. Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures have been preventing farmers from accessing markets, including for buying inputs and selling their produce, and agricultural workers from harvesting crops, thus disrupting domestic and international food supply chains and reducing access to healthy, safe and diverse diets. The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed millions of livelihoods at risk. As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and die, the food security and nutrition of millions of women and men are under threat, with those in low-income countries, particularly the most marginalized populations, which include small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, being hardest hit.

Millions of agricultural workers – waged and self-employed – while feeding the world, regularly face high levels of working poverty, malnutrition and poor health, and suffer from a lack of safety and labour protection as well as other types of abuse. With low and irregular incomes and a lack of social support, many of them are spurred to continue working, often in unsafe conditions, thus exposing themselves and their families to additional risks. Further, when experiencing income losses, they may resort to negative coping strategies, such as distress sale of assets, predatory loans or child labour. Migrant agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable, because they face risks in their transport, working and living conditions and struggle to access support measures put in place by governments. Guaranteeing the safety and health of all agri-food workers – from primary producers to those involved in food processing, transport and retail, including street food vendors – as well as better incomes and protection, will be critical to saving lives and protecting public health, people’s livelihoods and food security.

In the COVID-19 crisis food security, public health, and employment and labour issues, in particular workers’ health and safety, converge. Adhering to workplace safety and health practices and ensuring access to decent work and the protection of labour rights in all industries will be crucial in addressing the human dimension of the crisis. Immediate and purposeful action to save lives and livelihoods should include extending social protection towards universal health coverage and income support for those most affected. These include workers in the informal economy and in poorly protected and low-paid jobs, including youth, older workers, and migrants. Particular attention must be paid to the situation of women, who are over-represented in low-paid jobs and care roles. Different forms of support are key, including cash transfers, child allowances and healthy school meals, shelter and food relief initiatives, support for employment retention and recovery, and financial relief for businesses, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. In designing and implementing such measures it is essential that governments work closely with employers and workers.

Countries dealing with existing humanitarian crises or emergencies are particularly exposed to the effects of COVID-19. Responding swiftly to the pandemic, while ensuring that humanitarian and recovery assistance reaches those most in need, is critical.

Now is the time for global solidarity and support, especially with the most vulnerable in our societies, particularly in the emerging and developing world. Only together can we overcome the intertwined health and social and economic impacts of the pandemic and prevent its escalation into a protracted humanitarian and food security catastrophe, with the potential loss of already achieved development gains.

We must recognize this opportunity to build back better, as noted in the Policy Brief issued by the United Nations Secretary-General. We are committed to pooling our expertise and experience to support countries in their crisis response measures and efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to develop long-term sustainable strategies to address the challenges facing the health and agri-food sectors. Priority should be given to addressing underlying food security and malnutrition challenges, tackling rural poverty, in particular through more and better jobs in the rural economy, extending social protection to all, facilitating safe migration pathways and promoting the formalization of the informal economy.

We must rethink the future of our environment and tackle climate change and environmental degradation with ambition and urgency. Only then can we protect the health, livelihoods, food security and nutrition of all people, and ensure that our ‘new normal’ is a better one.

Media Contacts

Kimberly Chriscaden

Communications Officer World Health Organization

Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS) and COVID-19

Why Are Some People Seemingly Immune to Covid-19? Scientists May Now Have an Answer

Researchers tracked the immune responses of 16 people intentionally exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and pinpointed a gene that seems to help resist the virus before it can take hold

Christian Thorsberg

Daily Correspondent

A female doctor in a mask and visor gives a nasal swab to a male patient.

More than four years after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic that has since totaled more than 775 million cumulative cases worldwide, scientists are shedding light on the specific immune responses that have made some people seemingly resistant to catching the virus.

New research emerging from the United Kingdom, conducted as part of the Covid-19 Human Challenge Study and the Human Cell Atlas project, has found that a combination of robust nasal cell defense and high activity of a particular gene work together to ward off the virus in some individuals before it can take hold.

The research, published last week in the journal Nature , provides clarity on the timeline of the human body’s immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases.

“These findings shed new light on the crucial early events that either allow the virus to take hold or rapidly clear it before symptoms develop,” Marko Nikolić , the study’s senior author and an honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at University College London (UCL), says in a statement . “We now have a much greater understanding of the full range of immune responses, which could provide a basis for developing potential treatments and vaccines that mimic these natural protective responses.”

Conducted in 2021, the study began with the researchers spraying a low dosage of the original SARS-CoV-2 variant up the noses of 36 healthy adult volunteers who were both unvaccinated and had never had the virus before.

From this group, researchers collected 16 volunteers’ nasal and blood samples on multiple occasions—before exposure and several times in the following 28 days—to track the spread of the virus and the participants’ immune responses. Sequencing these samples, the team produced a data set containing more than 600,000 individual cells and their behaviors before, during and after exposure.

The volunteers’ responses fell into three distinct categories. Six people became ill and displayed symptoms; three people briefly tested positive for Covid-19 but were asymptomatic, known as a transient infection; and seven people consistently tested negative and displayed no symptoms, but built up an immune response to the virus—what the team called an abortive infection.

In these latter two groups, participants showed high baseline activity of a gene called HLA-DQA2, which helps to efficiently alert the immune system to potential threats.

“These cells will take a little bit of the virus and show it to immune cells and say: ‘This is foreign: You need to go and sort it out,’” Kaylee Worlock , a molecular biologist and post-doctoral research fellow at UCL, tells the Guardian ’s Hannah Devlin.

Another common trait among people in the two latter groups related to the production of interferon, or proteins that help bolster the body’s immune system. For these volunteers, interferon was produced in the blood before it appeared in the upper nasal region.

The people with transient and abortive responses developed a quick immune response—built up within about one day—inside their noses. Meanwhile, those who tested positive for Covid-19 took an average of five days to build up a nasal immune response.

Notably, the participants were not immune to getting Covid-19—some later caught the virus in the community, after the research concluded. And now, several other variants of SARS-CoV-2 are circulating—not just the original variant that was tested. But scientists say the research offers important clues to immune resistance.

“This study serves as a unique resource of previously uninfected SARS-CoV-2 participants due to its carefully controlled design and real understanding of ‘time zero’ for when the infection took place in order to measure the immune responses that follow,” José Ordovas-Montanes , an immunologist at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute who was not involved in the research, tells New Scientist ’s Sonali Roy.

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Christian Thorsberg | READ MORE

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue , Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal .

Experts Call for “Reimagining” Public Health in the United States

The public health system in the United States needs an immediate “transformation,” two of the nation’s leading health experts write in a new appeal for change driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the politicization of public health.

The essay is the lead article in “Reimagining Public Health,” a new special issue of Health Affairs , one of the nation’s foremost health policy journals. The authors are Ross C. Brownson , the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at the Brown School and founder of the Prevention Research Center ; and Jonathan Samet , a professor and the former dean of the Colorado School of Public Health.

“No matter what label we attach to this effort, the past several years have made one thing clear: Transformation of the US public health system is needed, and needed now,” the authors conclude in their essay, “Reimagining Public Health: Mapping a Path Forward.” Brownson and Samet were co-authors four years ago of a missive in the American Journal of Public Health that called for public health change as the nation grappled with the pandemic. The current version builds on their thinking and provides more specifics, said Brownson, who hosted a podcast on the subject.

“COVID demonstrated not only the value of public health, but also how it has been politicized, and the need for focused change,” he said. He and Samet talked with nine public health leaders about their ideas on the path forward. Brownson said they were encouraged by the positive views of those leaders, even in states where criticism of public health has been substantial. “One of the things we found inspiring was how optimistic they are,” he said. “That gave us reassurance this thing can be done with focused effort, political will, leadership, and funding incentives.”

In their essay, Brownson and Samet note that the decentralized public health system in the U.S. is administrated and distributed across approximately 3,000 state and local health departments, encompassing governmental public health; community-based organizations; the health care sector; and the education, training, and research of academic public health and medical enterprises. While that far-flung group offers opportunities for using local data in policy and practice, it also can result in an uneven allocation of resources and decision-making.

Public-health experts had been calling for a revamping of the American system even before COVID, but the pandemic “laid bare the deficiencies of the existing public health system and heightened the politicization of public health along partisan lines to an unworkable level in some jurisdictions,” the authors wrote, and highlighted the need for global collaboration.

The essay makes recommendations in seven areas of focus to guide public health transformation:

Accountability: Provide as much transparency as possible in government actions, and share decisionmaking, budgeting and communication with community members.
Politicization and polarization: Identify areas where there is consensus/common ground, make better use of local data and messengers, and establish legal protections from violence against public health workers.
Climate change: Make climate change a core priority, develop ways to track its effects, and advocate for policies to address the root causes.
Equity: Make health equity a core value of public health agencies, build skills among staff, fully engage the public and policymakers and address health and social needs in marginalized populations.
Data sciences: Support the harmonization of data sets and repositories, enhance capacity, engage communities and develop real-time surveillance system to detect and monitor threats to public health.
Workforce: Develop training in new areas, including resilience, communication, systems thinking and entrepreneurship.
Communication: Identify distinct audiences, create messages that are positive and show benefits, translate evidence into easily understood stories, and identify “superspreaders” of misinformation.

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What readers have to say about long Covid, FDA and diversity, and more

By Patrick Skerrett June 29, 2024

Illustration of a large open envelope with many symbols of healthcare and science pouring out, on a purple background

F irst Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and maybe even provocative articles about the life sciences writ large, written by biotech insiders, health care workers, researchers, and others.

To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them. You can submit a Letter to the Editor here , or find the submission form at the end of any First Opinion essay.

“Long Covid feels like a gun to my head,” by Rachel Hall-Clifford

As someone living with chronic illness, I just want to a) applaud the author and everyone else out there who continues surviving and fighting for answers about long Covid and other post-viral syndromes and b) want to provide a bit of a public service announcement:

It’s well known amongst the community of people living with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) at this juncture that long Covid is largely a trauma/virus induced dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (aka dysautonomia), specifically POTS. Many of us have lived with the symptoms of “long Covid” long before there was Covid. Folks genetically predisposed to autoimmunity and other precursors to POTS were extremely likely triggered by the coronavirus. It pains me that this is still not common knowledge for sufferers. Please seek out help from a POTS specialist and continue digging into your underlying condition, when you have the energy, so that you can eventually regain a fuller life. It’s not easy and takes a tremendous amount of time and will. But it will be worth it. Be as well as possible!

— Sandra Ivanov

“FDA: Don’t rush publishing your diversity guidance plan. Take your time and do it right,” by Tamei Elliott and Maria Vassileva

“Equity” in clinical trial participation doesn’t mean that trials “look like America,” but rather that they “look like the therapeutic population.” But it’s got to be more than just about clinical trial participants. What’s equally important is that we must also expand diversity in clinical trial designers, recruiters, principal investigators, FDA review teams, and advisory committee members — and not just patient representatives. This isn’t the end, it is only the beginning, and the goal mustn’t be diversity for diversity’s sake, but to facilitate better trials leading to better data, better agency reviews, better and more precise labeling, resulting in and better patient options and outcomes.

— Peter Pitts, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

“AI and rural health care: A paradigm shift in America’s heartland,” by Bill Gassen

I found some of AI’s potential cures misleading. While the article states AI does not save clinician time reducing cognitive burden, the burden of responding to patients is not lifted by text prompts. And those fully transcribed clinical encounters have to be fully reviewed. Without knowing the why of higher rates of later-stage cancers, risk calculators and reminders may not deliver on their supposed promise. Much of what AI promises is to repair the unintended consequences of the last great idea, electronic health records.

Can AI make inroads into the disparities of care for our rural citizens? Perhaps. But this, like many other articles, is more about vested interests looking at the newest shiny object that promises to “move fast, break things, and apologize later.”

— Charles Dinerstein, American Council on Science and Health

About the Author Reprints

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Acting First Opinion Editor

Patrick Skerrett is filling in as editor of First Opinion , STAT's platform for perspective and opinion on the life sciences writ large, and host of the First Opinion Podcast .

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2024 Winning Scholarship Essay: The Unforeseen Journey: Online Learning and Its Impact on My Educational Experience

YuJa recently hosted its annual scholarship essay contest. Dozens of students submitted essays on the following topic: "How has online learning impacted your educational journey? Reflect on your experience with online education and discuss how it has influenced your learning style, study habits, and overall academic performance." A panel of judges selected Dylan Jiddou as the winner. Dylan is a student at Wayne State University, where he is majoring in Neuroscience.

The Unforeseen Journey: Online Learning and Its Impact on My Educational Experience

By dylan jiddou, winner of the 2024 yuja scholarship essay contest.

In the spring of my sophomore year of high school, the world as we knew it came to an abrupt halt. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us into lockdown, and our schools soon became empty. The excitement of seeing my peers every day in a face-to-face learning environment was replaced by the cold, impersonal screens of online classes. This transition was not only difficult for me and my peers, but also for millions of others across the globe going through the same, unexpected changes.

The Sophomore Struggle: Navigating Online Learning During COVID-19

The shift to online learning during the pandemic was a big change. Talking with friends between classes, participating in classroom discussions, and extracurricular activities were all put on hold. Instead, we found ourselves isolated, each in our own homes, staring at our computer screens for several hours a day. The initial excitement of a change to online classes and time away from school quickly wore off, and was replaced by a sense of boredom and monotony.

Online classes lacked the structure and engagement of in-person classrooms. The constant technical issues, the impersonal nature of virtual classes, and the overwhelming feeling of isolation took a toll on my motivation and especially my mental health. At times, I found it really hard to concentrate, and my usual hunger for learning was gone. My study habits declined, as I struggled to adapt to this new mode of learning, and my grades started to suffer as a result. I was not alone in this struggle, as online learning had a similar effect on some of my friends and classmates, which only added to the collective feeling of depression and hopelessness.

A Senior Year of Resilience: Battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Just as the world had finally started to go back to “normal”, my personal journey took another unexpected turn. In the fall of my senior year, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The diagnosis was a devastating blow, and the following months were a series of doctor appointments, chemotherapy sessions, and radiation treatments. With my newly weakened immune system, my doctors told me that attending school in person was completely out of the question, and I found myself back out of the classrooms, and back into the world of online learning.

Returning to online classes under these circumstances was especially challenging. The memories of my sophomore year struggles weighed heavily on my mind, and the thought of missing out on the high school senior year experience took a toll on me. While my friends attended prom, participated in senior activities, and celebrated their final year of high school, I was stuck in my house battling cancer and trying to find a light at the end of this dark tunnel of isolation and online schooling.

Finding Strength in Adversity

Despite these challenges, I was determined not to let my circumstances ruin my high school experience. I found a new approach to attack my senior year with a renewed sense of purpose and resilience. I knew that maintaining a positive outlook and staying focused on my academics were crucial not only for my own personal educational goals, but especially for the sake of my mental health.

I began to follow a specific daily routine, which included setting specific times for attending virtual classes, completing assignments, and studying. This routine helped me create some sense of normalcy and control in the chaos of my illness and treatment. I also utilized different online resources and tools to help improve my learning experience, such as educational websites, virtual study groups, and many YouTube videos. These resources provided me with the additional support that I needed and helped me understand hard subjects more effectively. I also made an effort to actively participate in virtual class discussions and reach out to my teachers for help when needed. Their support and understanding meant a lot to me, and their encouragement motivated me to keep fighting.

Thriving Against the Odds

My hard work and determination paid off. Despite the numerous obstacles I faced, I excelled in my academics, finishing my senior year with an impressive 4.5 GPA. This achievement was a testament to my resilience and commitment to my education no matter what I am going through. It also brought my cumulative high school GPA to a 4.38, which is a reflection of my consistent mindset to strive for academic excellence, especially when faced with adversity.

Looking back, my journey through online learning during these challenging times has helped improve my learning style, study habits, and overall academic performance. It taught me the importance of versatility, self-discipline, and perseverance. I learned to be proactive in reaching out for various resources and support, to stay organized and focused, and to have a positive mindset even when faced with seemingly impossible challenges.

Inspiring Others Through My Experience

Over the past year, I have been working as president of my own non-profit organization, MDOS (Metro Detroit Operation Smile), in order to help young adults like myself going through life threatening illnesses. Recently, I have been working on an app that allows young adults going through these illnesses to talk to one another, as I was able to see first-hand just how special it would have been to be able to talk with another person my age who was going through the same struggle. I have actually spoken with Beaumont Health about my app, who said that they would love to use it once we finish its development. My hope is that my app will help others not feel as lonely as I did during this tough time in their lives.

In retrospect, I am very thankful for all of my experiences with online learning, particularly during my battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which has given me a unique perspective on the importance of resilience and staying positive. It has shown me that with determination and a positive outlook, it is possible to overcome even the most challenging obstacles. I hope that my story can inspire others who are facing their own challenges, whether in their educational journeys or in other aspects of their lives.

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The COVID-19 crisis has affected societies and economies around the globe and will permanently reshape our world as it continues to unfold. This collection of essays draws on the diverse insights of the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report Advisory Board to look ahead and across a broad range of issues.
8 Lessons We Can Learn From the COVID-19 Pandemic
The CDC reports that the percentage of adults who reported symptoms of anxiety of depression in the past 7 days increased from 36.4 to 41.5 % from August 2020 to February 2021. Other reports show that having COVID-19 may contribute, too, with its lingering or long COVID symptoms, which can include "foggy mind," anxiety, depression, and post ...
COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social relationships and health
This essay examines key aspects of social relationships that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses explicitly on relational mechanisms of health and brings together theory and emerging evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to make recommendations for future public health policy and recovery. We first provide an overview of the pandemic in the UK context, outlining the ...
An Introduction to COVID-19
A novel coronavirus (CoV) named '2019-nCoV' or '2019 novel coronavirus' or 'COVID-19' by the World Health Organization (WHO) is in charge of the current outbreak of pneumonia that began at the beginning of December 2019 near in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China [1-4]. COVID-19 is a pathogenic virus. From the phylogenetic analysis ...
The COVID-19 pandemic as a scientific and social challenge in the 21st
Go to: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has spread around the globe with unprecedented consequences for the health of millions of people. While the pandemic is still in progress, with new incidents being reported every day, the resilience of the global society is constantly being ...
Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our food
Reading time: 3 min (864 words) The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty ...
Why Are Some People Seemingly Immune to Covid-19? Scientists May Now
Six people became ill and displayed symptoms; three people briefly tested positive for Covid-19 but were asymptomatic, known as a transient infection; and seven people consistently tested negative ...
Introduction: Pandemic TV, Then and Now
This essay serves as the introduction to TVNM's special issue on "Pandemic TV," an analysis of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected principally anglophone television and television-watching in 2020 to 2021 (including television's response to corresponding events such as the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings and the fall 2020 U.S. presidential election).
Experts Call for "Reimagining" Public Health in the United States
The public health system in the United States needs an immediate "transformation," two of the nation's leading health experts write in a new appeal for change driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the politicization of public health. The essay is the lead article in "Reimagining Public Health," a new special issue of Health Affairs, one of
First Opinion readers respond to essays on long Covid and more
To encourage robust, good-faith discussion about issues raised in First Opinion essays, STAT publishes selected Letters to the Editor received in response to them. ... Covid-19. diversity and ...
Emerging AI in Healthcare and its Impacts on the Modern World
By Dylan Jiddou, Winner of the 2024 YuJa Scholarship Essay Contest. In the spring of my sophomore year of high school, the world as we knew it came to an abrupt halt. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us into lockdown, and our schools soon became empty.