Most of us have seen or experienced war in some form; fighting is a human way of life (or so it seems). I have only been in this world for a very short time, but I have seen my share of wars/fights and
What is Coronavirus?
The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a novel
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| Airports are empty. It's a ghost town |
As a soldier stationed in South Korea and close to the DMZ, we were used to having a curfew. We were in our barracks by 10 PM every night. This was our way of life and it never bothered us. We knew why and respected the decision. After all, we were in a war zone and we had to be ready to fight at any time. Moving back to the United States and having the freedom to roam around all day and night was a little strange to me as I had been living a restricted life in Korea for almost 5 years. Today, we have been asked to be on lockdown and most people are struggling with this. The world
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| The total number of cases around the world is alarming as of March 2020 |
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| The daily new cases have some interesting stats. |
Fact or Fiction
2. One big fear was that this virus will change its form and mutate, making it hard to develop vaccines for humans, but all the studies about the virus show a small genetic rate of changes. The small genetic changes that researchers have observed so far doesn’t appear to be changing the function of the virus. This is good news for us, but it is still too early to celebrate. If the studies that have been observed are true, then we may not see different variants of the virus emerge in the population. All viruses will mutate at some point, but the fact that this virus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads and gives us hope for the creation of a long-lasting vaccine.
3. The first case of the COVID-19 virus indeed appeared in Wuhan, a city in China, in December 2019 but I am not sure there is any real proof that this was the first time or place that this virus emerged. For example, an early hypothesis thought it may be linked to a seafood and poultry market {wet market} in Wuhan, China, but a report that was published on January 25, 2020, notes that the first person diagnosed with this virus became ill on December 1, 2019, and had no link to the wet market in question. This now has scientists struggling to trace the exact source of this virus.
It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, and just 4 days for the third 100,000 cases worldwide. As of Monday, March 30, 2020, there had been 741,030 reported cases worldwide, with 35,114 deaths. The US alone saw 141,742 total cases with 2,461 deaths and Scientists are predicting about 100,000 deaths in the US alone by the time this is all over. Is this possible? I think so. The United States had 486 deaths on March 30, 2020, alone. These numbers seem to be frightening, but let's not panic too much. Let’s look at these numbers again. On March 6, 2020, very few people had been tested in the United States. Most people got tested late in the month of March and I believe this is why we see a jump. To know if we are getting better or worse, we would have to have a baseline or know where we are at a certain point. Once we have tested more people, then we can confidently say it is getting better or worse. I am hoping by mid-April, we would have done enough tests to have a baseline or a guess-line. The statistic which I find alarming is the death rate. March 25, 2020, there were 220 deaths in the US within 18 hours. The very following day, there were 266 deaths. That is alarming and those numbers are quite high.
5. Children are not immune to this virus. This virus does not discriminate. I have also heard people saying, blacks are immune from it. This is because there are not many cases coming from Africa. This could be due to a lack of testing or probably Africa is too hot for the virus to survive if left on a surface. This could be true with other hot places outside of Africa too.
[Many blacks in the United States have been infected and many have died. This is true all over the world]
The question I have is, why are the numbers from Russia (a cold country) so low? Do they have this thing under control or are they not honest with the numbers they are reporting?
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| The spread of the virus in the United States in March 2020. Only W Virginia has no cases |
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| This chart shows the state of Pennsylvania in an 18 days spread. At the beginning of March, there were hardly any cases, but the number skyrocketed by the end of the month due to possibly more tests. |
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As the number of new cases in China has decreased, other countries have begun to experience surges in cases
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The bottom line
So many conflicting reports about this virus have surfaced in the past weeks and months that may have you doubting anything you read. I started writing down my thoughts on this blog in March 2020. So much will change from now till this is over.On the positive side of things, crime rates have gone down during this time. People are not committing crimes or shooting innocent people. Most crimes which are frequent in modern-day society seem to be at the lowest during this time. There is some evidence that suggests that domestic violence may go up during this time as people are confined to the spaces of their own homes which are sometimes hostile environments. Depression, stress, and anxiety might be at the highest points during and after this as people try to deal with such a significant change and the impact on their daily life and the continued repercussions of the
As a society, we are coming together. We are connected. We come together as one during a time like this. I have seen the country and the world come together during times of crisis. It is one time that we forget about religion, culture, race, gender,
No matter how different we think we are and how disconnected we seem to be, the truth is that our worlds are all connected. What happens in one area will affect everyone. Even if this virus stayed in China, its impact would still have affected us all. We cannot point fingers at anyone's nation or people because what someone does will affect us all. We just have to love each other; help educate everyone and hope nothing like this happens again. My belief is, our love for animals as food or pets is the main reason, we have seen all these diseases and viruses in the last few years. Our hatred for the environment and each other might be why any virus or disease that emerges turns into a disaster.
In times like this, we feel we are not very different from each other when it comes to who dies or lives. Outside times like this, our world is disconnected. Certain people think they are better than others. Other people think they are indifferent and will never be the same. A white male in the United States, for example, can roam around, drive freely with no fear. Others drive with fear of being pulled over by cops. When did we get to this point where kids or women are scared of cops? How did we get here? Times like this tell us that we are all equal. We all bleed, we can all die. The virus does not discriminate. It is one time that we all come together as one and care for each other. Love pours from the west to the east, from one part of the world to another. From across the oceans to up mountains. People forget about all hatred or disagreements for once. Politics is a thing for TV and people are worried about their health and future.
The older population might be at a higher risk, but it has taken the lives of younger people and babies too. It has infected royals, celebrities, athletes, the rich and famous, the leaders of the world, the poor, etc. It has shown us that we are not different from the next man or woman. So long as we are human, we are the same and can bleed and die as anyone else. Some people only experience oppression once in their lives. They only go through worries once in their lives and this lets them know how it feels like for those whose lives are almost always oppressed. The US, for example, will have to learn from this and be better. The US is number 1 in the number of cases as of March 26, 2020. Countries that were badly affected by Ebola or SARS were better prepared and ready for this pandemic.
History never lies. Today we are all one and there is so much love and caring, but this will all pass, and some of us will be back to our selfish judgmental and hateful ways till the next disaster. How many times have we seen the world come as one when there is a disaster just to go back to the old ways after some time? Why don’t we just stay connected as we do during crises or when we have something like the CONVID-19? We have shown that we all have a heart, we are all afraid, we are all capable to love and care.
I do believe the world will never be the same, but it could be for the better this time. If I was to look at history and our short term memories, I fear, some may forget about this and go back to their selfish ways. The way we work, travel, eat might change, but our hearts and mind might not. Regardless of what happens, I hope and pray this is a new beginning and we all have a better way of treating each other and this planet. I know we can do it as we have shown whenever we have a crisis in the world. We have chosen during this crisis to be respectful, to be caring, to love. We have shown that we are afraid and concerned about others. These are the choices we have made during this time. Can we now choose to stay this way and be even better citizens of the world?
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An interesting chart (below) I found online shows how long the virus will last on surfaces. I am not sure how interesting this is for you, but I found it interesting that it lasts a good 4 hours in copper. I wonder if this is true for hot places too.
