Undoubtedly, the discussion on the effects of Covid-19 on our daily lives is one fascinating discussion I have had recently. I am particularly impressed by my fellow students’ posts and the responses they generate. I have to commend the CDC for the information it provides on Covid 19 and other health issues. I want to point out that there are many sources of information claiming to provide tips on how to fight the coronavirus. However, most of these websites have been found to contain misleading information. For instance, some sites were claiming that Covid 19 does not affect people who live in hot climates as compared to warm climates. However, the high number of coronavirus cases in Singapore indicated that the information provided by the alternative sites is wrong (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). It is for this reason that I have been getting all my Covid -19 tips from the CDC website. The other original contributing to my discussion post is the book Lessons of Disaster by Thomas Birkland. While the book is not necessarily a medical book that talks about clinical procedures and medical terms, it is an amazing read that gave me an all-round perspective of an international disaster. In particular, the concepts if possibilistic and probabilistic thinking enhanced my understanding of the likelihood of Covid 19 becoming an international disaster that will last for years (Clarke, 2007). Contrary to common belief, television series are not just meant for entertainment purposes but also for educational purposes. If you have watched the series Pandemic, you will agree with me that the producer of the series provides some jaw drooping information that can be interpreted as a prediction of the Covid-19 (Delaney, 2020). It is amazing how works of art can be made into reality. Moreover, I got a lot of information from my fellow students’ posts. For instance, were it not for one of the responses I got on my post, I would not have known about the Metropolitan Medical Response Grant Program, which is one of the most interesting health emergency programs. Moreover, I must mention the importance of the Public Health Service Act that informs us about the various responses to disasters of Covid-19’s magnitude. It bears noting that Covid-19 is not the only international health problem we have faced over the decades. The swine flu, the seasonal flu, and the Spanish flu are some of the problems we have dealt with in the past. We can, therefore, learn from the responses used to contain these diseases in our war against Covid-19. Having done the discussion on Covid 19 and had amazing conversations with my colleagues, I can confidently say that the exercise was worthwhile. It is interesting to know that we all have different information that we can share about the pandemic. Sharing this information enhances our understanding of the pandemic and helps us stay sane in these difficult times. For instance, one of the students mentioned that there is a similarity between the series Pandemic and the book Hot Zone. I have not yet read the book, but I will have to read it to add to the knowledge I have about Covbid-19. Most importantly, responses by other students indicate that the pandemic has affected different countries differently. For instance, in Taiwan, the authorities did not see the need for closing schools and colleges. Instead, they put measures in place to ensure that students’ temperature reading would be taken at least three times a day. I, however, find this strategy to be a bit ridiculous. If you know elementary school children, then you know that they cannot stay for a whole lunchbreak without talking to each other. Hence, measures being undertaken by Taiwanese authorities cannot protect the children against the deadly disease. Notably, not everyone is in agreement that masks are effective at protecting us against Covid-19. As noted in the students’ responses, some students are against the Taiwanese masks that have a cloth that can be washed regularly while other students believe that such a mask is convenient for it can be kept lean at all times. The decorum with which the students conducted themselves when responding to my post contributed to the success of the discussion. I love it when people use undisputable facts to argue with others instead of using insults and unsubstantiated information to dispute a particular fact. Moreover, the maturity with which the discussion was conducted enabled the students to learn from each other and to do more research on Covid-19. While some of the students expressed their opinions freely, others went ahead to cite their sources. This means that they took the discussion seriously and were willing to contribute to the information I provided. The main lesson I have learned from this discussion is that while it helps to get information from a textbook, class discussions are more informative and educational. I can confidently state that I have learned a lot from this exercise than I have during my personal studies. In fact, I had to go back to my research to substantiate the information I got from the discussions or to research more on a subject I did not understand. I cannot say that I faced any bumps in the road in the course of the discussion. Most importantly, it is through this discussion that I have understood the true meaning behind the phrase “we can agree to disagree.” We do not have to agree on everything. For instance, while some people deem it fit to open schools and colleges during this time, others believe that the act of opening schools is a step in the wrong direction. Both of these arguments have their merits and demerits. Therefore, it makes no sense to dismiss someone’s idea simply because he supports an idea that is contrary to ours.
Also noteworthy is the fact that no one has a monopoly over information. What may work in Taiwan may not work in the United States or in Japan. It is for this reason that these countries have taken different approaches to the Covid -19 problem. Hence, it is not right to dismiss the effectiveness of the N-95 masks just because they are not popular in our country. Lastly, I have learned that when we are using the same source of information in a discussion, we are likely to agree more than we disagree. In this discussion, the common factor was the CDC. Most of the responses I got mentioned facts obtained from the CDC. For this reason, the conversation did not digress from the main subject of discussion. What is more, all the responses were based on my original post. It is, therefore, easy to follow through the discussion and to pick a few things that I did not include in my original post.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, September 5). About Flu. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/index.html (Links to an external site.)
Clarke, L. (2007). Thinking possibilistically in a probabilistic world. Significance , 4 (4), 190–192. Retrieved from https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2007.00270.x (Links to an external site.)
Delaney, B. (2020, February 5). Pandemic: Netflix's new series about global outbreaks is eerily
timed, and moved me to tears. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/feb/05/pandemic-netflixs-new-series-about-global-outbreaks-is-eerily-timed-and-moved-me-to-tears (Links to an external site.)
