Since COVID 19 ‘s first appearance in late 2019, the pandemic has created fear and chaos in various countries worldwide. The virus that causes COVID 19 is named SARS – CoV -2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Shereen et. al 2020). In 2003 a similar virus SARS – CoV ‘infected 8098 individuals with a mortality rate of 9%, across 26 countries'(Shereen et. al 2020). In comparison, COVID 19 has a larger infection rate and a lower mortality rate, in July 2020 (Shereen et. al 2020).
The association between a global pandemic and a public health crisis is often mentioned simultaneously by the mass media. A crisis defined by the World Health Organization is a ” Time of danger or greater difficulty, decisive turning point”(WHO,n.d). In this sense COVID – 19 pandemics can be classified as a crisis due to the danger of the pandemic on the human population, the difficulty in controlling the pandemic, and a possible paradigm shift within various systems in the human societies.
Mcloughin’s claim of crisis as “the fundamental engine of history” (Mcloughlin, 2020) is evident in the process of encountering COVID -19 within the differentiated and new or adapted policies to the pandemic from different governmental systems worldwide. The lockdown procedures initiated by the Chinese government in Wuhan and other major cities involving 56 million people “is unprecedented in public health history” ,stated by Dr. Gauden Galea (Caduff,2020), is an example of a possible paradigm shift in the established concepts within the international public health systems. This paradigm shift is further enhanced by the implications of similar lockdown procedures by different governmental systems worldwide (Australia, Italy, UK, etc.), despite the criticism of the lockdown approach from various international media during the lockdown in China. Thus it can be argued that the paradigm shifts in the pre-established concepts and policy-making decisions in regards to encountering global pandemics in the international public health systems caused by the COVID -19 crisis, is an example of how a crisis can help the advance of history.
However, it is important to understand that the impacts of COVID – 19 is not limited to the public health systems but all systems and industries in modern society.
The impact of COVID- 19 is not only evident in politics and public health systems but also in the lifestyle of individuals within different regions. The wide use of online platforms for both work and educational purposes provides societies with new living styles. Recent articles have suggested the possibilities of remote working being more effective than office working (Boddy, 2020). Such suggestions demonstrated the possibilities of paradigm shifts within industries outside of public health, thus supports Mcloughin’s claim of a crisis as the force behind the advance of human history as the impact of crisis such as COVID-19 is applied throughout all industries in human society.
Reference list
Boddy, N. (2020) “It’s more productive to work from home”, Financial Review available from https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/careers/it-s-more-productive-to-work-from-home-20200401-p54fwc
Caduff, C (2020) ” What Went Wrong: Corona and the World after the Full Stop”, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, volume 34: 467 – 487 https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12599
Mcloufglin, J (2020) ” In Tims of Crisis”, The London Magazine, pg 25 – 31
Shereen, M, A. Khan, S. Kazmi, A. Bashir, B., Siddique, R.(2020), “COVID infection: Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses,” Journal of Advanced Research, Volume 24, Pages 91-98, ISSN 2090-1232, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2020.03.005.
Who.int. n.d. WHO | Definitions: Emergencies. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/hac/about/definitions/en/