COVID-19 Blog

As the spread of COVID-19 becomes greater many opinions on how to respond to this global pandemic have surfaced. Just a few months ago much of the population in the United States felt unthreatened by the virus as it spread through China, being concentrated in Wuhan, and later spreading in Europe. It was not until the virus quickly erupted in the United States that we each understood the true severity of this pandemic. Now we are seeing how individuals are being greatly impacted by this virus as we are all being asked to stay home and the everyday parts of our lives have been flipped upside down. In the opinion piece about what responsibility developed countries have for helping less developed countries I both agreed and disagreed. My initial response is that if places, like the United States, are struggling with medical resources how can we even begin to be helpful in less developed countries. Hospitals all throughout the United States are beginning to have to make life or death decision when choosing where to allocate the limited medical supplies, such as ventilators. A big reason for this struggle is the fact that the United States has not faced a deadly disease like this before and does not have the resources set up to combat it. However, as the article said many less developed countries do have these emergency medical teams equipped to deal with outbreaks because of outbreaks like Ebola that hit much harder in less developed countries. So in some ways I feel that developed countries have something to learn from less developed countries. On the flip side of that, the economy is much for stable in developed countries making us more able to create the resources we need and allocate those to others in need. I believe if the United States can quickly get a handle on the situation here, then supplies can be sent to other countries and that should be part of our responsibility. However, because this pandemic is unlike something any of us or our families members have ever lived through before it is hard to decide what the best way to respond is. This just increases everyones fear because nobody knows what should happen or how long it will take to stop.

Comments

Zoey Weinstein said…
hey nice job! I like your points and perspective on foreign aid and which countries have experienced things like this in the past. I agree that we need to get a handle on the situation heres do we can help these more underdeveloped countries, who soon enough will get hit hard. The scary thing is that this has never really happened before, at least not with the current technology and knowledge we have so there is not much to refer back to in terms of solutions, which makes this a whole lot scarier. There are so many unknowns. Nice job! Stay safe :)
March 27, 2020 at 10:00 AM
Sydney Ying said…
I agree with what you are saying about gaining more control over the situation here before we can provide aid to other countries. Because of how new this is for many people, (as many have not lived through a previous pandemic) and because of how quickly COVID-19 is spreading, it is concerning how we are going to overcome this. We are lacking resources by the millions, and to think that we are all in danger of contracting the virus if we gain exposure is kind of scary. I just hope people continue to limit their exposure to the outside world and the people working hard to find a treatment are able to do so soon.
March 29, 2020 at 8:30 PM
sarah powers said…
I have to agree with Sydney. If we can't help ourselves and our citizens, how in the world are we supposed to help other countries. And, I feel as if its really not helping that our president is making stupid accusations about hoarding and hiding. I think we genuinely don't have enough supplies, I don't know who would think of hiding and stealing them. But, the image that gives other countries in need of our help can't be good. But, aside from that, as a country we all need to get on the same page and heal each other, so we are then able to do our duty of protecting others as well.
March 31, 2020 at 9:55 AM
Em said…
I agree with Sydney and Sarah. We need to help ourselves before helping others. We have the resources for helping others however, the reasoures are being used to help our country before others. As a well developed country it is important to recover faster in order to help other countries. We have only enough resources to help our country as the cases increase. America's cases have gone up faster than many other countries and we need to stay inside and distance ourselves in order to not escalate the situation and cause further damage.
April 5, 2020 at 4:03 PM
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