What is happening? Why is it happening?
In the last two days, San Francisco has been on a lockdown that has no definite end. The city is surrounded by shelter-in-place restrictions. (Ingram) said, On Tuesday, “San Francisco force millions of people to stay home and stay put except for essential needs like groceries and medications which is quite particular regarding their stands to this virus.”
This city is taking the most extreme measure nationwide. This inspired New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in considering the same actions taken in San Francisco. San Francisco bans any activities like drinking bars, no hair cuts and outdoor exercise. All restaurants in San Francisco only do takeout and delivery. I bet gym trainers are so excited about this.
However, what makes this story so interesting is the connections with our cases like in the past. In 2009, the swine flu emerged in the United States which was traced to virus pig farms in Mexico. Experts warned again and again that a longer game planned was needed. Like most Americans, we ignored their warning. Let’s move onto the panic in 2014 when Ebola tore through West Africa. After President Obama established the emergency fund to improve to help high-risk, low-income countries. Although, they contain the outbreak the office was disbanded which led to the virus to emerge in the Republic of Congo.
Here we are again the SARS-CoV-2 made the leap from animals to humans. (Bergen) said, “The cycle has now continued to infect more than 83,000 people across more than 50 countries. Nearly 3,000 people have died.” It’s unclear how bad things might get this time around, the disease caused by this new virus appears to be between seven and 20 times more deadly than seasonal flu. The question is why have we been ignoring the signs? We could have contained the virus but in some cases, things don’t get real until they hit home. Where do we go from here? The scary part about it the world may never know.
Sources:
Ingram, D. (2020, March 19). ‘Everything is out of our control’: San Francisco eases into lockdown. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/everything-out-our-control-san-francisco-eases-lockdown-n1163376
Bergen, P. (2020, March 19). Americans are going to demand to know why US wasn’t prepared for this pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/opinions/coronavirus-commission-investigation-opinion-bergen/index.html
Sy Barnes 