The massive wave of COVID-19 is blasting through the community regardless of race, religion, ethnic or other backgrounds. Everyone is equal in the eyes of coronavirus. In fact, we are just a susceptible and vulnerable human being to them.
As the sixth public health emergency of international concern declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is the greatest challenge faced by all leaders since the 2nd world war in various aspects – health, social, economic, environment. While WHO is still assessing the situation of COVID-19 around the clock, there are some trends that have begun to emerge or have been emerging since the outbreak.
Check out the 3 trends to watch in the pandemic:
Photo Source: Ashkan Forouzani
1. There are still some places which will raise a white flag against the virus
As there are more countries who are taking the initiative in locking down the borders and controlling the crowd, this action does not seem to be working in every country.
Some of the worst-hit countries are intensifying their effort to contain the virus even though they have taken the approach to “lockdown”. For example, China, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
The mass quarantine is seeming like a transient effort to control the spread and these few months will be an observation period to see if we are able to “flatten the curve” in different countries with varying contexts and healthcare capacity.
Photo Source: Max Bender
2. Reopening the country is massive economics and social experiment
Will there be a second wave of infections after reopening? Will the efforts that are taken by the government and the community be granted? Can the society abide by the rules and regulations enforced by the authority?
This is an experiment that we will go through by hook or by crook while we reopen the country in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. Resurgence seems to be a matter of when, where, and degree of seriousness of the second worldwide attack. Thus, we do hope that we are able to learn and adapt to the situation from time to time and bring a positive result in the experiment.
Photo Source: Kaleidico
3. The Race in Vaccine Development
Currently, there are 13 vaccines are already in clinical trials. Surprisingly, COVID-19 has unprecedented welcomed the sharing of information and data among researchers and competitors. Some of the large pharmaceutical companies are joining hand in hand to accelerate the development of the vaccine.
For example, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Furthermore, pharmaceuticals companies are strategizing new plans and trial designs in the clinical study such as Pfizer and BioNTech are simultaneously testing four vaccines in their combined Phase I/ II study.
Photo Source: Priscilla Du Preez
While the virus continues its massive reproduction in different entities globally, efforts from various healthcare individuals from doctors, nurses, researchers, medical lab assistants, pharmaceutical company and many others have collaborated tremendously in order to conquer the pandemic.
Hopefully we will see the fruits of our efforts in trying to recover the social, economic, and healthcare aspects of our country very soon.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The future depends on what we do in the presents.” Thus we should never lose our hope and have faith that trying times will pass as they always do.
Cover Photo: Tonik || BRUNO CERVERA
