News Roundup 11/22/20
The development of COVID-19
COVID-19 has been the most impactful event in history since the past viruses. It was developed in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in Dec. 2019. The Spanish flu occurred during World War 1, meaning that soldiers were traveling and spreading the virus around the world. Bubonic plague was from a bacteria found in fleas and small mammals. The 1918 and 2009 influenza was developed from pigs. Ebola was developed through bats such as the COVID-19. There are different types of transmission occurring through flea bites, respiratory droplets, infected surfaces and infected blood. COVID-29 has had 35.5 million cases by Oct. 5, 2020 and 1.04 million deaths by Oct. 5. It's the fastest growing and seems to be getting higher in death rates.
Source: Medical News
Data Obtained
Swine flu such as the Spanish flu didn't require many individuals to become hospitalized. The Spanish had killed about 18,500 people and could have been higher. The virus was stated to be mild but all of the reported deaths were not accurate. The Spanish flu was particularly hitting the young and healthy. The average who died were around 20-40 years old and 99% of deaths were under the age of 65. Similar to the Asian Flu, COVID-19 impacted mainly the people over 65 years old. Asian flu had caused schools to become closed and pubic gathering were to be banned. Social distancing is a very used technique during pandemics and have shown a difference at times.
Source: Gavi
Definition of pandemic and history
The definition of a pandemic is a contagious infectious disease that has spread to multiple geographic areas or continents. An epidemic disease is one affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent. COVID-19 is extremely contagious and spreads easily from person to person and sexual contact. HIV is another virus that has continued to take toll on the population with around 43,800,000 deaths and counting. The novel COVID-19 has already killed more than 4,600 people in China, 32,300 in Italy and 27,800 in Spain. California has become one of the most states to have a rising rate.
Source: Business Insider
Science behind the spreading
There have been over 40 COVID-19 and the ones affected mostly are animals. The amount stated by scientists of COVID-19 that affect humans is seven. All COVID-19 are zoonotic. Zoonotic are caused by germs that spread between animals and people. They start off in animals and can then, following mutation, recombination and adaptation, be passed on to humans. COVID-19 has shown some changes from the past pandemic. The observed central nervous system symptoms were more pronounced during this epidemic than in other influenza outbreaks. Studies have shown that spikes in infections occur during the winter and early spring months. The possibility of contacting the virus has also become easier at those times.
Source: The Conversation