COVID-19 Blog: Sharing is Caring

During the coronavirus pandemic, I think that the most important thing for countries to do is share their medical developments in relation to the disease with one another so that we stop the pandemic as soon as possible. Since countries like China and Israel were affected much earlier than the US and Africa, at this point they have done more research on the disease, developed more tests, and are probably closer to a vaccine/cure than many other countries. Once countries get their own coronavirus spread down, I think it is crucial, as the first article talks about, to help others so that the worldwide spread stops. Since this disease spread outwards from China, it is not necessarily about developed vs. developing countries, but more about who has already hit their peak number of cases, and who is still on the rise. The more time a country has had to study the disease, the more they will know about it. Rather than make each country make the discoveries and developments for themselves though, I think that the knowledge should be shared. It is a global pandemic, so we should be making a global effort to stop it. 
On an individual level, one could argue that countries with more developed coronavirus research and tests could leverage this and gain a lot of global power from it. In my opinion, that would make this pandemic last a lot longer than necessary if countries each have to make their own discoveries regarding the virus. 

On the economic side, I think that developed countries should support developing countries, but only after they have first supported their own citizens. For example, I think the US government should find ways to financially support businesses that have had to close and people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. After this is under control, then we should use anything else we have to support developing countries medically and financially. For example, in Costa Rica, where I have lived for the last three months, 10 percent of its GDP comes from tourism, which has been shut down due to this pandemic. While the Costa Rican government is doing its best to support businesses and the unemployed, another issue they face as a developing country is less developed health care. They would be greatly aided by additional funding to further develop their healthcare during this crisis. 

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