Coronavirus has led to 65,000 deaths worldwide, with 8,454 U.S citizens dead in the United States of America. No one is immune to the coronavirus, even some of the most influential celebrities, athletes, and politicians have tested positive for the virus such as Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II's son and the heir to the British throne, NBA player Kevin Durant as well as New York Knicks owner James Dolan.
It is not until when the disease is spiraling out of control then people start to take precaution. With such a deadly virus, the United States of America needs to take quarantine more seriously for international travelers by testing for coronavirus before they enter the United States border. Despite the fact that the U.S. is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the U.S. is extremely poor at the containment of the Coronavirus. The United States not only needs to install stricter testing methodologies for coronavirus on aircraft travelers but also use tracking devices on the international travelers to contain the virus and flatten the curve.
There needs to be an enforcement of stricter policies on unnecessary interactions and traveling to stop the spread of disease at an exponential rate before it gets more serious. To slow down the spread, international travelers need to be tested for coronavirus before they enter the border so they do not spread it to others if they go to public places. Some individuals do not feel threatened by the virus as they claim the regular flu to be similar to coronavirus. While many globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. This means that people are more susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease for lower immune systems. Scientists believe that the fatality rate for Covid-19 is somewhere between 1-3%. But the seasonal flu’s rate is even lower at 0.1% yet the flu kills around 60,000 a year in the U.S. However, if these individuals are infected by the virus and continue to meet with others they could be spreading the virus without even knowing it themselves. This is why people who have traveled internationally need to be tested before they enter the United States and strictly quarantined and even monitored to prevent them from unknowingly spreading the virus to more citizens.
The coronavirus has an incubation period ranging from 0 to 27 days while most of the incubation period falls between 2 to 14 days. Therefore individuals could show no symptoms yet still have the virus. To slow the virus down, it involves all of us, even you. To slow the virus down, you need to act as if you already have the virus. By avoiding public transportation, the office, crowded places, and even small social gatherings, you decrease your chances of both contracting the disease and spreading it. This is called social distancing. If enough of us conduct such behavior, the virus still spreads but much slower. Over time, many people might still get infected, but fewer severe cases may show up in the hospital each day, never overwhelming the system. With such precautions, the trendline will become flatter while individuals who are infected with the disease will have a chance to be treated and fewer people may die because of it. This is why there should be more enforcement on human interactions to lower the rate of infection for those who don’t take the virus seriously.
The government has applied stringent containment measures to international travelers such as staying home for 14 days. However there is no way to make sure these measures are taken by each individual. Countries like Taiwan install GPS on the traveler’s phone and if you leave your designated area for more than 1 hour, the police will show up at your door. Not only that, health organizations call the individual twice a day to ensure that they are feeling better. There should be strict enforcement and tests given to international travelers to test if they are infected by the virus before they cross the border. Although the United States has not taken this to practice, other countries such as South Korea have already taken this to action. Therefore to ensure the safety of the citizens there needs to be more strict enforcement to protect the people.
The federal government needs to set the priorities to contain the Virus and improve the testing of the virus itself. The United States has an abundance of people who are being tested for coronavirus when they are not symptomatic yet ones who are symptomatic have to wait 3-4 days to get in line for testing. The U.S. also needs to install isolation policies despite the difficulty and the disastrous effects for the economy. We need to realize that the sooner we do it the tough way, the sooner we can undo it and return to homeostasis. We need to realize that bringing the economy back is more of a reversible thing than bringing people back to life. We are all in this together, protecting others by protecting yourself.
Works Cited:
Diaz, Jonathan, and Derrick Bryson Taylor. “Celebrities, Athletes and Politicians Who Have Tests
Positive for Coronavirus.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 4 Apr.
2020. Web. 4 Apr. 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-celebrities-actors-politicians.html
Ward-Henninger, Colin, et al. “Coronavirus: Knicks owner James Dolan joins Kevin Durant, Rudy
Gobert among NBA figures who tested positive.” CBS Sports, CBS Interactive, 1 Apr.
2020. Web. 1 Apr. 2020.
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