COVID-19

names
Department of Computer Science

Introduction

COVID-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus) is a new trace of coronavirus first identified in Wuhan,
China, at the end of December 2019. Subsequently the chinese health centers reported groups of
patients pneumonia from an unknown cause. Chinese officials would later link this virus to a
seafood market possibly emerging from bat meat (However, this hypothesis has been challenged
by several international organizations and governments claiming that the virus has been
synthesized in a lab[1]).

The virus itself

In a Journal article, Li and colleagues [2] analyzed 425 confirmed cases reported until January
22, 2020, from the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, China. This analysis provides a picture of
the characteristics of the cases; thus helping us gain insight on how best to avoid the virus and
isolate particularly sensitive patients. They report that the median age was 59 years of whom
56% were males. The average incubation period, the time interval between exposure to the virus
and visibility of symptoms was 5.2 days while the rate of increase of the epidemic was found to
be doubling every 7.4 days. The investigation also yielded that infected individuals spread the
infection to, on average, 2.2 other individuals. As of 13 February 2020, the fatality rate of covid-
19 has been approximately 2.2%. To put this ratio into perspective, the SARS-CoC epidemic and
the MERS-CoV epidemic fatality rates were 9.6% and 34.4% respectively[3].

The most common symptoms were fever and cough [4]. Other symptoms are nasal congestion,
fatigue and other signs of upper respiratory tract infections. These infections can elevate to more
serious chest symptoms as observed in approximately 75% of patients. The more common
symptoms of fast spreading pneumonia include low oxygen levels, blood gas variations, and
developments seen through chest x-rays.

Handling of the Covid-19 virus by governments

When covid-19 first broke out, few governments could predict the severity of the disease,
coupled with the fact that it was a new strain of virus, research on which was very less. Some
governments suffered more than others. To deal with an epidemic, the joint effort of the
government, the medical personnel, and the cooperation and trust of the people are fundamental.
Takis Pappas (2020) contrasts the two mediterranean countries; Greece and Spain, both of whom
having similar social climate, suffered different fates during the early phase of the crisis.[5]
Pappas first observes Italy, which suffered at a catastrophic level and extrapulates lessons that
should be considered for future outbreaks. He reports that Italy’s first announcement of a
lockdown came after 16 days of the first death within the country. Only a few days later Italy had
become the country with the highest number of confirmed deaths in the world. Pappas reasons
that Spain having failed to learn the importance of imposing a lockdown, from Italy, suffered a
worse fate. Spain imposed its first lockdown one month after the first death. Greece however
imposed its lockdown just a few days after its first death. This exemplary action, coupled with
continuous support from its people, including the opposition party of the government resulted in
less than one-fourth numbers in all three columns; active cases, infections, and mortality.

As of the writing of the summary, the highest number of cases per 100K appears to be from the
United States, central and south South America and west Europe. The highest number of deaths
is from the United States followed by India and Brazil.

Economy

Covid-19 not only spread physical human suffering worldwide, it also spread economic
suffering. Travel bans, social distancing, prohibitions from large gatherings, reduced workforce,
etc have contributed to significant economic distress to the world as a whole. Maria and
colleagues [6] gather examples of several setbacks among the sectors of the economy. Countries
around the world have reduced the ability for regular shopping, leading to expiration of vast
quantities of perishable food items. While at the same time, the reduced mobility and the
avoidance of unnecessary travel has placed a strain on food availability on certain parts of the
world[6.2.1]. On the consumer end, panic buying fueled a large stockpiling of tin foods that gave
rise to a scarcity of mobile food. This has also impacted food banks as their donations have
reduced, an ill outcome for the financially handicapped during the pandemic.
The tourism sector is one of the hardest hit by the outbreak of covid-19. This is obvious given
the restrictions on travel that has been placed both locally and even further so internationally.
This in turn has affected the aviation industry that has to grapple with the unprecedented number
of ticket cancellations[6.4.4.3]. To add salt to the injury, many countries published a list of
countries with a travel ban causing the complete stoppage of several airlines.

Education

COVID-19 was one of the biggest challenges that the education system ever faced, at least in
recent decades. Nations all over the world had to drastically change the traditional system of
teaching inorder to adapt to the situation. Governments across the globe had to impose
lockdown, causing institutions such as schools and universities to be closed. Even though many
institutions were upgrading their facilities and teaching methodology to digital ones for the years
to come, the sudden overnight switch to virtual education and online teaching was hard for both
teachers and students. [7]

The majority countries around the world had final exams suspended due to the pandemic, thus
creating anxiety among the students. It heavily affected those who were moving from schools to
universities and from universities to career as the entire procedure got disrupted. Almost every
student faced the difficulty of this sudden change to virtual learning, which was without any real
social interaction among peers and the teachers. Many of them are worried that this disruption
can have long term disadvantages in their academic career when compared to those who
graduated earlier without any havoc. Therefore, the institutions prioritized reassurance for the
parents and the students, by frequent communications with the teachers and academic
counsellors on the updated admission procedures and rescheduled examinations and its methods.
Both mental and psychological challenges were addressed both inside and outside the school
systems. [7]

Asynchronous learning was adopted by most of the educational institutions for virtual teaching,
as it was the current most superior way in the digital formats. There was no requirement of
participants communicating with each other simultaneously and also offered teachers flexibility
in creating learning materials, creating a hassle free environment for both. But teachers faced
much difficulty in keeping the interest level of the participants as there is no real interaction
anymore. The syllabus and assessments were therefore designed in such a manner so that the
class is interactive and students are enthusiastic. Another problem faced was the divide caused
due to the economic backgrounds. Virtual learning did require some added resources that weren’t
accessible for all the students across the globe such as an electronic device and a decent enough
internet connection. [7]

Vaccine

As the death rates have increased and people were getting more and more ill, there was an urge
to create a vaccine that can help people to fight against covid-19. The first covid-19 vaccine was
given to testing on 16th march 2020. Many organizations like Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) were working with global health authorities and other vaccine
developers to create vaccines. Vaccines were made by choosing the best from many factors such
as DNA, mRNA, Virus-like particles etc. There were 52 active vaccines developed by private
industries and 22 were developed by non-profit organizations and public sectors, the majority of
the active vaccines were developed in North America. The effort of global vaccine R&D to fight
covid-19 by creating vaccines in high scale and this speed was highly commendable. By early
2021 Vaccines were available for emergency use and similar protocols. There must be strong
international coordination and cooperation between all public health bodies, vaccine developers
to ensure the manufacturing in high scale and complete and equitable reach of vaccines to all
affected areas. Earlier the vaccines were available for emergency use but now due to high scale
manufacturing and the efforts put out by vaccine developing industries there are vaccines
available for people of all ages and almost all countries have made it mandatory for everyone to
take vaccines. [8]

Currently the most recognized vaccines are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen, all three of
which are approved by the FDA in the United States.

Conclusion

We’ve discussed what the virus is, how the world handled it, the impact on various sectors and
aspects of mankind and what kind of vaccines we can take.

References

1. JOSH ROGIN (2021) Citing electronic sources od information [WWW]. Available from: In
2018, Diplomats Warned of Risky Coronavirus Experiments in a Wuhan Lab. No One
Listened. - POLITICO

2 Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, et al. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel

coronavirus–infected pneumonia. N EnglJ Med 2020; 382: 1199-207.

3. World Health Organization. WHO 2019, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
(MERS-CoV). (Available from:https://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/.)

4. Guan W, Ni Z, Yu H, et al.Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in

China. medRxiv preprint posted online on Feb. 9, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.
02.06.20020974.

5. Takis Pappas (2020), Why Greece Succeeded as Italy, Spain Failed to Tackle Coronavirus
Weblog [Online] 5th April 2020. Available from: https://greekreporter.com/2020/04/05/why-
greece-succeeded-as-italy-spain-failed-to-tackle-coronavirus/ [Accessed 05/04/2020]

6. Nicola M, Alsafi Z, Sohrabi C, et al. The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus

pandemic (COVID-19): A review. Int J Surg. 2020;78:185-193. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.018

7. Daniel, S.J. Education and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects 49, 91–96 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3

8. Schaffer DeRoo S, Pudalov NJ, Fu LY. Planning for a COVID-19 Vaccination Program.
JAMA. 2020;323(24):2458–2459. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.8711