A SEQUEL TO A PANDEMIC: A MUST-NEEDED AWARENESS FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE

 02/08/2022

A SEQUEL TO A PANDEMIC: A MUST-NEEDED AWARENESS FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE

        

INTRODUCTION

        

 A pandemic is what the world fears for, as everything merges into a condemning catastrophe leading to a severe loss of peoples’ lives and revenues too eventually. In late 2019, the coronavirus also known as the Wuhan virus having originated from the Huanan seafood wholesale market emerged and scattered all around the world through people coming in contact with each other with a high transmissible rate. The symptoms were identified as nausea, fever, fatigue, dry cough, and gastrointestinal problems.  As the Chinese government did not alert the world earlier than when it was needed, the virus took a major breakdown in people's lives all over the world. The coronavirus seemed to be another version of the SARS virus which took over Guangdong province in China and several other countries in 2002, taking down the lives of many people. 

A greater approach was needed to bring down the spread of the virus across the globe. Vaccines creating antibodies were required to be produced in huge numbers to overcome the fatality rate. The pathogen of the virus that came out in the year 2002 seemed to have emerged from bats and transferred to Humans. While the responsible pathogen of SARS-COV-2 was not accurate enough to showcase globally, the Huanan seafood wholesale market was suspected as the man who bought goods from the market had the first case having pneumonia-like symptoms.

DIFFERENT STAGES OF COVID-19 OUTBREAK

The outbreak of covid has been further divided into 4 stages based on their times of emergence, virulence, and mode of infection for the betterment of researchers to study the virus efficiently.

                        

1ST STAGE ( IMPORTED AND SPORADIC CASES)

 In this stage, the talk is about the emergence of covid 19, where the incident took place in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in China, back in December 2019. China alerted WHO(World Health Organisation) to several cases of what it called 'unusual pneumonia". The virus was believed to emerge from the “Huanan seafood wholesale market” confirmed by the health experts. Soon after the market was then shut down, but it was a little too late. But the mystery prolongs as the virus that is infecting humans remains undiscovered.

The pneumonia-like symptoms were first reported on December 1st,2019,7 days later, when a patient sought medical help. Local hospitals in the Hubei province reported  4 cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology. The SARS was first noted in Guangdong province in China in November  2002  where the viruses were believed to be transferred from bats. Most cases were in Asia, a total number of 26 countries worldwide reported more than 8000 cases, with several 774 deaths. Then 17 years later on 1st December 2019, China reported a cluster of pneumonia in people living in Wuhan, coronavirus being the responsible pathogen. As per WHO, in this stage, there are no cases while according to ICMR in this stage, the disease is introduced to the population. People who have a travel history to affected countries became the carriers of the virus in India. 

DEATH OF THE WHISTLEBLOWERS

 On January 25th,2020 a Doctor in Hubei province died after being affected by the Wuhan virus. Following this, on February 7th Dr. Li Wenliang died in China, one of the 8th whistleblowers. On December 30th,2019 he sent a message to his fellow doctors in a chat group to wear protective clothes, where he thought the virus looked like SARS, another deadly coronavirus. But later he was harassed by authorities and was asked to stop making false comments and spreading false rumors. The death of the heroic doctor sparked outrage on Chinese social media. Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology and "we want freedom of speech" started trending but the hashtags were quickly censored. However, China could not bury the truth about the Wuhan virus.

                                   

Dr. Wenliang's death sparkled and outraged Chinese people as he died fighting the coronavirus, receiving threats from the Chinese authorities about spreading the information about the virus.

The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about the coronavirus, last edited on 6 February 2020,   <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51364382 >, accessed on 15  July 2022.

2ND STAGE(LOCAL TRANSMISSION)

 In this stage, the virus is virulent and spreads from one person to another person via contact. When people come in contact with those who have a travel history to countries affected by the coronavirus, it is the second stage. The virus was starting to infect people whoever comes in contact with the virus through person-to-person contact and major precautions and advice were announced by the Indian government and health workers.

• People were told to maintain distances of about 1-2 metres from each other.

• Mask was mandatory to be worn while going out of the house.

• It was important to wash hands and sanitize things that have come in contact with the outside environment.

• People's work hours were brought to half of their full working time and were divided among the staff to lessen the possibility of virus transmission.

• People with covid symptoms were taken to hospitals to test including the RT-PCR test, antigen self-test, etc.

People are seen wearing masks, as a safety measure

3RD STAGE ( COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION)

 This is the stage when the virus has taken a faster pace of positive cases in India and globally. Community transmission happens when the infected person has not come in contact with anyone who has a travel history to the countries affected by a coronavirus. The large-scale spread of the virus takes place in this stage. However, it was taken into consideration that the virus in India has not reached the level of community transmission instead it was believed that India was still in the local transmission phase but at a community level, as claimed by the experts.

 People were advised to stay at home under home quarantine for 14 days as the virus was spreading unpredictably. This was the stage when researchers concluded that the virus might take a rapid progress turn.

Swab collection for the covid test

4TH STAGE (ENDEMIC)

 This is the last stage of an outbreak. This is what happened in China when large masses got infected and there was an exponentially rising number of confirmed cases as well as deaths globally. India as well has taken a big turn with a huge peak of covid transmission between the citizens at first pace. This was the stage when the government could not stay idle watching the people dying in huge numbers due to short of medical facilities and services. Then the government took a bigger step to putting a nationwide lockdown from march 25th, 2020 onwards.

• People were put in complete isolation from one another, making the streets quite empty as there was no movement of humans.

• Offices, colleges, schools, and other workplaces were put in complete shut down for quite a long period.

• The lockdown was extended multiple times as there was no decline in covid cases and deaths.

• Transport facilities including railway stations and airports were not seen in function as traveling was restricted.

 Indian roads are seen empty  as the whole of India  is under lockdown

Coronavirus: The four stages of a global pandemic, last edited on 30 march 2020  < https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/coronavirus-the-four-stages-of-a-global-pandemic/pandemic/slideshow/74884293.cms >  accessed on 10 July 2022

IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN IN INDIA AND ON ITS PEOPLE   

The impact of complete lockdown in India has affected people and the economy miserably. Migrant workers who have come from different rural areas to work in cities for earnings have faced the most problems as there were no vehicles to travel, as traveling was restricted. They all had to travel several kilometers to reach their destinations, while some had drastic changes in their health and some even passed away on their way home while traveling on foot. The aftermath we observed was miserable and full of desperation. The sudden lockdown has affected the people from all sides, as there was not much time to prepare themselves to overcome the world’s greatest lockdown.    

 The Indian economy faced a 15.7% fall down drastically in the initial lockdown period, as there was no functional work that was being run and no trade and exchange of imports and exports due to the complete lockdown that was announced by the Indian government to stop the spread of the Wuhan virus. Overall, India has faced the most drastic downfall in all fields being a developing country.

Migrant workers walking on foot amid the lockdown traveling toward their hometowns

Effects of COVID-19 lockdown phases in India: an atmospheric perspective. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021;23(8):12044-12055.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-01156-4 

COVID VACCINES AND VACCINATION PROGRAMME

 India began to introduce covid-19 vaccines on 16 January 2021. The first vaccine that was approved by India was the oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine also termed covishield prepared under license by Serum Institute Of India. And covaxin was the second vaccine to get introduced by Bharat Biotech. Soon these vaccines are joined by several other vaccines that are undergoing local clinical approval trials namely Sputnik V, ZyCoV-D, Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and Moderna vaccines.

As of July 9, 2022,7:00 AM IST reports, India has a population of 1,38,94,19,783 as of the 2021 census projection, about 1,01,62,33,960 people have taken the first dose, and when 2nd dose was initiated to be given several 92,10,29,506 people were registered with the second dose which marked as insecurities and non-initiative nature of people to fight the virus and bring it to an end, as the amount of the number of people taking 1st dose and second dose showed a major difference in population number. People were given booster doses to promote higher immunity for people 5 years of age and above with a total number of 40,175 in the population. Overall the cumulative doses administered toll 17, 56,677 in the Indian population.

If we see the overall people who have taken the first dose of covid vaccine, has the percentage of 61% only taking a percentage of 1st dose administered all over India which is generally a low percentile. It is obvious that the other 39% 0f the human population did not take what is called vaccines till now. However, after administering covid vaccines to more than half of the total population in India, India has shown a huge decline in people's death and positive cases. Thus releasing a mind state of relief on Indians. 

Registration of vaccines, as a vital measure towards the recovery from the Wuhan virus

Covid-19 vaccination in India, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_India > accessed on 20 July 2022.

COVID VARIANTS

What is a covid-19 variant?

A covid variant is a variation of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which might have changed by undergoing some genetic changes in its RNA strand as a result of an error or to get adapted to the host cell. Without changing the working mechanism of the covid virus.

How do different variants originate?

Coronavirus has a genetic material called RNA which is the major material that brings changes in its structure and causes different versions of the same virus as a result of copying mistake which occurs when they are inside the host cell. The change or the different versions created known as variants are termed "mutations".

The mutated virus doesn't bring many changes in its working mechanism. Thus, not differentiating much from the original ones.

Coronavirus variants

Some earlier variants were mutated from the SARS-COV-2 virus. They are listed below:-

1. Alpha (B.1.1.7):- This variant originates due to mutation on its spike protein and the virus variant was first discovered in people living in southeastern  England in 2020. The variant seemed to be more contagious having a 70%  more transmissible rate and causing more deaths. The covid vaccines created usually target the spike protein by making antibodies for all the spike proteins, thus declining the effectiveness of the alpha variant.

2. Beta (B.1.351):-This variant was found in South Africa and Nigeria including many other countries. The variant also showed its contagious nature having a more transmissible rate than the original variant but seemed to have less effect on humans.

3. Gamma (P.1):-In  January 2021 this variant was spotted in Brazil, which had a travel history to Japan.TH virus was found to re-infecting people who had already recovered from the covid virus that caught them first.

4. Delta (B.1.617.2):-This variant was first spotted in India in December 2020. The scientists suggested that the changes in the spike protein might make the variant more contagious. They even said that the virus old makes people more serious or hard to battle who haven't taken a single dose of covid vaccine. While they also mentioned that the virus would also infect the people who had covid vaccine shots but they claimed that it would not cause many serious health problems to them.

5. Mu(B.1.621):-This variant was discovered in January 2021 in countries like Columbia and also in South America and Europe continent later.

6. R.1. :-This variant was spread by a  non-vaccinated health worker who passed down the virus to other 45 medical staff in Kentucky Nursing Home in March 2021.

7. There are other variants of interest including the Epsilon, Theta, and Zeta which are under monitoring surveillance.

 

Omicron Variants:

Omicron like many other variants has many variants and sub-variants including BA.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5, and are listed as a variant of concern by the  Centre Of Disease Control And Prevention (CDC). Omicron also has the ability to re-infect people who have suffered and recovered from covid before, having a contagious nature with a high transmissible rate. But it has less severity to deal with as it may result in mild fever only. But people with other health problems might face serious illnesses which can eventually lead to death. 

Covid Variants <https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-strains#2 > ,accessed on 20 july, 2022.

PROS AND CONS OF COVID LOCKDOWN

Humans have faced varieties of problems related to stress in all fields yet many have died on the long go fighting the virus. But believe it or not many people also have developed some new habits in the lockdown. 

PROS:-

• During the lockdown besides having home quarantine and isolation, people found quality time to spend with their family members in the busy time of today's generation.

• People must have developed some new habits and adopted good skills to make use of their time, which was not possible in today's busy world.

• People also have seen major changes in the climate and quality of the air index, due to the lockdown, as transportation and industries producing pollution and chemicals were restricted and shut down for a long time.

• People also learned to appreciate the dedication and hard work of the doctors and medical health workers who fought the virus and treated people continuously in the hospital for 24 hours.

     Cons:-

• The lockdown has taken down the lives of people, especially the lives of the daily workers who could not find a way to earn and live a normal life, leaving a shower of sorrowful moments in every corner of the world.

• People were seen as stressed as all the offices, schools, and colleges were shut down during the lockdown leaving people in crisis financially and academically.

• Most downfalls in the economies were due to the lockdown only.

Pros and cons of covid  lockdown, < https://mbaroi.in/blog/lockdown-how-it-is-helpful-in-prevention-of-corona-virus-impacts-pros-and-cons/ > accessed on 23 July 2022

 

REFERENCES:-

1. Coronavirus: The four stages of a global pandemic, last edited on 30 march 2020  < https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/coronavirus-the-four-stages-of-a-global-pandemic/pandemic/slideshow/74884293.cms >  accessed on 10 July 2022.

2. The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about the coronavirus, last edited on 6 February 2020,   <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51364382 >, accessed on 15  July 2022.

3. Soni P. Effects of COVID-19 lockdown phases in India: an atmospheric perspective. Environ Dev Sustain. 2021;23(8):12044-12055. doi: 10.1007/s10668-020-01156-4.

4. Covid-19 vaccination in India, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_India > accessed on 20 July, 2022.

5. Covid Variants <https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-strains#2 >, accessed on 20 July 2022.

6. Pros and cons of covid lockdown, < https://mbaroi.in/blog/lockdown-how-it-is-helpful-in-prevention-of-corona-virus-impacts-pros-and-cons/ > accessed on 23 July 2022.