The world health organization declared one year ago that the coronavirus outbreak is a pandemic. After knowing this, the whole world has been in a state of frustration, anxiety, uncertainty and loss throughout the year. Still, it’s feeling like it’s not going to end. We all have lost many lives. And we have to find many ways of fighting with it. Many people are getting vaccinated against the Coronavirus, so there is hope that it may not be a pandemic anymore. In this segment, we have written the answers of five experts on what they have learned after one year of COVID-19?. Their responses have been reported after editing so that you may get the perception of their views.
What has surprised them over the COVID-19 outburst?
Rajesh Gandhi:
He is an infectious disease physician at Harvard medical school and Massachusetts general hospital in Boston. He said that we were not prepared for this outburst. However, there were certain assumptions and predictions about its onset. But we did not try to prepare ourselves for it.
Damir Huremovic:
He is a psychiatrist at North-well health in Manhasset. He said that I am angry with myself that I could not realize the risky factors of this situation. People have delusions about the phenomenon of the Coronavirus. They think that immunization on vaccines is not limited. From a psychiatric perspective, people believe that it’s delusional. But it’s a real-time issue. It’s completely universal. People think that this pandemic is a hoax. But it is not.
Maimuna Majumdar:
She is a computational epidemiologist at Boston’s children hospital and also at Harvard medical college. She said that there are plenty of things left to unearth about COVID-19, but it’s good to see how this pandemic has increased the speed of research for saving human lives. It is a record-breaking point for researchers.
Kimberly Prather:
She is an atmospheric chemist at the University of California and Scripps institution of oceanography. She said that when everyone was saying that it is in the air. The air is polluted with this virus. If it’s in the air, then we have so many alternatives to solve this problem. But we are unable to solve this situation, and this thing is killing me.
Jonna Mazet:
She is an epidemiologist and executive director of the UC Davis one heath institute. She said that health is politicized many times by nations. Under some influences, people are making different and risky choices for themselves. I did not want to anticipate that issue.
What have you learnt for the second year of a pandemic?
Our next question was about learning related to the coming year of pandemic. Their answers are as follows;
Rajesh Gandhi:
He answered that for dealing with pandemics, clinical trials are significant. Without doing lots of pf clinical trial, it’s impossible to have a better conclusion. You can not know what works or what’s not.
Damir Huremovic:
He said that we need to redevelop and redefine epidemiology, at least in behavioural sciences. We cannot stop the virus from replicating, but we can focus on humans’ behaviours, attitudes, values, and actions, providing mediums for the virus to replicate. It’s not just the virus that is causing harm but also the human attitudes that are causing them to repeat more and more.
Maimuna Majumdar:
She answered that having multiple vaccines can help us better in fighting this situation. Trying out different vaccines against this deadly virus can lead us to save many lives in the coming year.
Kimberly Prather:
She said that one of the most important things that we should do about Coronavirus is that we should tell people that they have to take it seriously. It’s in the air. People have to wear masks, and they have to do the ventilation of air and filtration properly. Other than this, we should provide people with better metrics to fight this deadly virus.
Jonna Mazet:
She answered that we should come up together for fighting out this deadly virus. Situations like climate change, increasing population growth, and many pollutants are causing an additional stressor in spreading the Coronavirus. We all should deal with this too.
