The novel corona virus (COVID-19) has swept the nation by storm, as the United States was under prepared to handle the situation that coronavirus brought to us. The virus originates from Wuhan, China and has since spread to many parts of the world including our very own North Carolina. According to NCHHS, there has been 32 total cases in North Carolina, with 0 deaths. Yay!
However, there is still a large chance that the virus will continue to spread throughout the United States. The virus was first discovered in late 2019, around December was when it began making headlines. However here in the U.S, we were not particularly concerned. The outbreak was declared a public health emergency on January 30th, 2020. Because people were still allowed to travel into the United States and because people from the U.S had been in contact with people who may have been in contact with the virus, the virus spread in the U.S. On Febuary 24th, 2020, the FDA began doing quality insurance checks on foreign products that were being shipped to the U.S. This could mean that throughout that month between the declaration of a crisis and the FDA checks, people could have been in contact with the virus through fomites, increasing the rate of transmission of the virus.
Here in the United States, many measures have been taken quite recently to help stop the transmission of the virus. Colleges have completely shut down campus sponsored activities such as classes, events, and living in dormitories. This was the correct thing to do I believe, because despite it disrupting everyone’s lives, it will keep many more of us safe than if they hadn’t. It was hard to watch my peers travel to the exact same places they warned us to avoid, that already had many cases of the viruses and present, and feel comfortable sitting with these same classes with these people a few days later. The paranoia will get to you, especially if you know the virus won’t hurt you, but it can potentially hurt the ones you love.
As of February, 23th, 14 cases were diagnosed in the United States. Twelve of those cases were directly related to travel to China, the other two were due person-person transmission. Unfortunately all deaths that may come from this virus sweeping the nation would occur because the U.S was not taking other countries warnings about the virus and the swiftness of transmission. Yall can thank yall friend and you know who I’m talking about, no shade though.
Even with this in mind, the response on the home front has not been as strong and well organized as expected. Almost a decade ago, the U.S invested in facilities in Florida, Maryland , North Carolina and Texas to help research and create vaccines to deal with an outbreak of this capacity. According the The Washington Post, two the four facilities have decided not to participate in the creation of the vaccine. This has caused the government and many outsiders to look at federal spending on these facilities in a bad manner. This is problematic however because those facilities are not well equipped enough to safely and affordably mass produce vaccines and medications as well as handle any commercial activity.
Its very sad to watch the nation scramble to come up with a plan, when all of this could have been prevented with good hand hygiene and some self-awareness. Now people are stock piling food and drinks and household supplies because we are apparently in the apocalypse. This is why coronavirus is a boomer virus, because they do stupid stuff so the Earth was restoring the balance. I’m gonna hate being old in 30 years.
Madison's Microbiology Masterpiece 