Pandemic Essay
Ernesto Cea
Prof. Andrews
World History
10 May 2020
What is a pandemic? Google’s definition is a prevalent disease over a whole country or the world. A pandemic can be big or small, disease’s such as the common flu can be technically called a pandemic since it is prevalent around the world. Pandemics do not mean that the whole world is going to shut down, like for COVID-19. I just simply means that the disease has spread to multiple countries and continents. The disease does not need to impact the entire world because even the most harmless of diseases can be classified as a pandemic if it present in multiple countries and continents. The P in pandemic can be seen as P for a passport as an epidemic is a disease that has not spread throughout continent or countries.
The Spanish flu was the most prevalent pandemic in the modern era as it spread to every continent. The flu was a global pandemic that occurred during World War 1 that killed an estimated 100 million people throughout the world. The pandemic was easily transmitted as trench warfare created a perfect breeding ground for disease, plus the close contact made it easy to spread. An estimated 36 percent of the United States Army was infected with the flu, killing more American soldiers than the war itself. The public was the most vulnerable due to a lack of information. Censorship throughout the war was instituted so that morale would not dip. This control of information allowed the flu to spread in the public as the world governments did not inform the public.
The name Spanish Flu came about because Spain was one of the only countries covering the pandemic, as allied leaders did not want to cause unnecessary fear to the troops. As the world thought Spain was the only place experiencing a deadly epidemic, the spread of the flu was further transmitted as people were ill-prepared in treating possible patients, due to the lack of information given to the public. Many people who were immitted to the hospital were treated at first like normal patients allowing for transmission to happen easily
The Spanish Flu and COVID-19 pandemic have been handled in very similar ways. Censorship and inaccurate media coverage have caused mass panic and confusion and people are not sure what charts to believe. China has been a perfect example of this, by silencing there scientific community and downplaying the outbreak when it first began. The media has a huge part to play, as they virtually lost all their credibility with there deliberate fear-mongering and spread of false information. The coronavirus has exposed how malice the mainstream media is. Their true colors have been exposed as it clear the truth is no longer a priority for them. Instead, they feed headlines and fear in hopes of clicks and ad revenue. The biggest thing I have learned the past few weeks is how scummy the news is. They have truly failed the world providing biased inaccurate information. Personally I believe they should be held accountable for there actions as they have done a disservice to the world when the world relied on them the most. Unlike the Spanish Flu, the government is not deliberately censoring the media, but instead, the media itself is creating hysteria, by inaccurately covering the virus. Politics and journalism should never be intertwined and the coronavirus has done a good job of exposing this corruption. During the Spanish Flu the government failed the people, during COVID the media has failed the people. Journalism is a joke today as majority of articles are extremely biased with the way they present information.
Sources:
Comments
Post a Comment