Progress in the fight against Covid-19

This was written in Late 2020.

Covid-19 has been devastating. It has impacted billions of people in one way or the other because of its infectivity and the quarantine measures put into place to stop the spread. Covid-19 is believed to have originated from a Chinese wet market where a bat or pangolin transmitted the disease to humans. According to LiveScience, the first Covid-19 case was recorded in November of 2019. In August 19 2020, there were approximately 22.2 million cases confirmed worldwide and 783,000 deaths. This is an incredibly large amount of cases and deaths in less than a year. Countries have taken many precautions like limiting travel, testing for the virus, and requiring wearing masks in order to slow the spread. 

Quarantine: 

Quarantine is perhaps the most important weapon against Covid-19 while a reliable vaccine is being made. Staying home and staying away from others is a better way to stay safe than wearing masks in public. Though masks are definitely a must if one goes to a public space, quarantine is a guaranteed way to not contract Covid. According to the CDC, people should quarantine if they think they have been close to someone with Covid-19 or you have recovered from symptoms. Research has shown that the virus can stay in the body for up to 3 months after recovery. So quarantine is the best way to play it safe and not risk the lives of others.

Testing:

Getting tested for Covid-19 is another example of progress being made to control the virus. According to the CDC there are currently two types of tests: viral tests and antibody tests. A viral test tells you if you are currently infected. An antibody test tells you if you have been infected in the past. Getting tested is completely safe and helps stop the spread of the virus by identifying people that are currently infected so that they can take the necessary measures to keep others safe.

Vaccine: 

Currently, there is no reliable vaccine being produced to cure Covid. However, Russia recently approved the world’s first vaccine named Sputnik 5. The virus is completely safe according to Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia but many others including scientists are skeptical of its safety. There hasn’t been any evidence regarding the safety of the vaccine and large scale production has not begun so we have yet to see where Russia’s vaccine will go. Meanwhile, most research efforts in other parts of the world are also focused on creating a vaccine for the virus. A main player in the vaccine race is Moderna, a U.S. biotech company who made one 1 of 3 vaccines that were cleared for Phase 3 of testing by the U.S. government. Other two are European companies from England and Germany.

Citations

https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker

https://www.livescience.com/first-case-coronavirus-found.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html