It’s December 2020. The early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States began sometime in March, putting us in the 10th month of the pandemic. The government has tried recommending that people wear face masks, wash hands frequently, socially distance, and keep gatherings of people below certain numbers. They also even tried a lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. Needless to say, none of those plans have worked as the US is at an all-time high for COVID cases, with almost 1000 people dying from COVID every single day. At over 15 million cases and 285,000 deaths in the US alone, it’s no secret that more needs to be done to get the pandemic under control. First and foremost, we believe it’s crucial that we pay attention to what the scientific research says about masks and social distancing. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that face masks greatly reduce the spread of COVID-19. While nothing is ever 100% effective, the combination of face masks and social distancing brings the infection rate almost down to 0. We think it’s important for the government to be more strict with these regulations about masks and social distancing. While wearing a mask is mandated in the state of Indiana, I’m sure we’ve all seen the people that just walk past the “mask required” signs on business doors without a mask on. This is unacceptable and defeats the purpose of a mask mandate because everyone has to participate in order for the masks to be the most effective. There’s also evidence from other countries that a strict lockdown will quickly put an end to the pandemic. Australia, for example, locked down their borders and used contact tracing to track breakouts and put a stop to them early. After this lockdown Australia was able to reopen the Sydney Opera House, have 40,000 spectators at their rugby league grand final, and have had most of their workers return to their offices. While we understand that no one wants to be locked down, there’s evidence to suggest that this approach does work. These are the policies that we think are important for the government to maybe take another look at and weigh as potential options.

Analyzing Results from Sociological Survey

As we conducted our survey regarding the public’s opinion regarding how the current COVID-19 pandemic is being handled and opinions on what we can do better, along with how it is personally affecting those around us. As we saw in our literary review, there are many factors that can still be improved in order to help curb this pandemic, and our results show that many feel this way as well.

As shown here, over 80% of our class feels that the government is not doing enough in order to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, since the taking of this survey, the United States has seen a massive spike in cases following the election season and also the Thanksgiving holiday. Many also agree that more should be done to help low income areas get masks since that would be another way to effectively slow the spread.

As related to the above question, no one in our class felt that the government should not be helping those who have been financially impacted by the pandemic and ensuing shutdown of many sectors of work.

This question shows that very few feel like the United States is doing well comparatively to other countries. This can be related to several factors but has been shown throughout the questioning in this survey with matters such as helping low income areas stop the spread or help those who have been financially impacted, especially when there are other countries around the world who are making the strides that would be able to help those we know here in our own country.

In fact, not one person in our class felt as though Americans as a whole were taking the pandemic seriously. As we’ve written about before, many are flaunting the mask mandates, or marking them as against their individual liberties, and so many feel that the pandemic is not being taken as seriously as it should be, and 50% of our class feels uncertain that the pandemic will be over anytime soon. We are nearly nine months into the lockdown now, and it is easy to see that many are starting to question when a sense of normalcy will return.

Over half our class felt as though if the mask mandate were to be lifted, they would continue to wear their masks in public spaces to help with the spread of the virus even though they were no longer mandated to do so. Nearly 90% felt as though the politicization of this pandemic has divided our country even further, while a very small minority felt as though this pandemic has not affected our country at all and we are as united as we ever were.

Everyone has had their social lives affected to some degree by this pandemic, but some don’t feel that it was very negatively impacted, since their are still ways to socially interact via technology and even going out now that many places are beginning to reopen. However, as reported by our class, very many have felt their mental health has been very negatively impacted by this pandemic. No one felt that it had been not severely impacted, and the lowest vote on our scale was a 4, with the average score being over an 8. This helps us see just how many people are being affected not just by the disease, but from the effects that come from attempting to curb it, and the prolonged staying in that is being exacerbated by those who are not taking the pandemic as seriously as many feel they need to,

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPoQ-JacaBoPEmZfYlBKz4GlffW821eRPu13brfydzRaZK3Q/viewform?usp=sf_link

A History Of Masks

A disease that not many know about. Experts disagreeing about the best way to prevent a large outbreak. Masks being highly recommended by some, and condemned by others. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s how the world was operating in 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. A newspaper in Muncie, Indiana during this time cited three different doctors, who all had varying ideas on the effectiveness of masks. Two were in favor, and one vehemently denied their ability to help prevent the spread of this flu. Masks were a divisive topic even a century ago, but the flow of information was not as rapid as it is today, meaning that differing information did not spread as rapidly as it does today, and the prevailing opinions on public health were not as challenged as they are today.

Another pandemic, the H1N1 virus pandemic of 2009, brought about many of the situations we see today with the COVID-19 pandemic. The viruses are both transmitted from person to person, have symptoms similar to the seasonal flu, and are most deadly to the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. During the 2009 pandemic the question “why should I be so worried about this when hundreds of thousands die every year from seasonal epidemics?” arose, another trend we see today with COVID-19.

The most urgent and pressing issue of dealing with a pandemic is figuring out how to stop the spread to keep people alive and healthy. This is the reason why many state governments have issued state-wide mask mandates. However, as people continue to ignore these orders, the virus only continues to spread. The World Health Organization recently put out a report stating that they believe COVID-19 has infected 10% of the global population, or about 760 million people. While that is a huge number of people that have been infected by this virus, it still leaves plenty of room for the virus to continue to spread to the other 90% of the population. That’s why following the governments orders about masks and other public safety measures is crucial right now.

There have been many arguments over whether wearing a mask is effective in stopping the spread of the virus or not. Some of these include the assumed fact that cloth masks have big enough spaces in them to make them ineffective. Cloth masks are not just one layer of cloth and are instead multiple layers, sometimes with a filter in between the layers. At the microscopic level, the thread of a cloth mask has depth so the gap between the threads is more of a tunnel than a window and with momentum, the particles emitted when we breathe, talk, eat, cough, or sneeze then run into the fiber and diverted to hit the cloth as opposed to be released into the air around. Masks are essential in stopping the spread of the virus because without those barriers, the particles would be all around in the air all of us breathe. There are still some particles that are able to penetrate the cloth but several are blocked by the cloth and that is the main goal of wearing them.

As shown in the map above, initially in the United States, cases did not start off incredibly high. However, shortly after this map came out is when cases began to spike and if you look at a map from even a month later, the cases had spiked drastically. Not long after, mask mandates were starting to be put into effect, and you can see the growth slow. More recently, the growth has begun to spike yet again because people are becoming more lax on the mandates and on the public gatherings which is letting us see a huge spike in case numbers yet again.

References

What is the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus? (2010, February 24). Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/about_disease/en/.

Smith-Schoenwalder, C. (2020, October 5). WHO Estimates Coronavirus Has Infected 10% of Global Population. US News & World Report.

Clase Physician, C., Fu MD/PhD Candidate in Clinical Epidemiology, E., & Carrero Professor of Epidemiology, J. (2020, October 12). COVID-19 masks FAQs: How can cloth stop a tiny virus? What’s the best fabric? Do they protect the wearer? Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/covid-19-masks-faqs-how-can-cloth-stop-a-tiny-virus-whats-the-best-fabric-do-they-protect-the-wearer-146822

Ugarte, R. (2020, August 13). Flu Masks in Indiana during the 1918 Epidemic. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://items.ssrc.org/covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/mediated-crisis/flu-masks-in-indiana-during-the-1918-epidemic/

COVID-19 United States Cases by County. (2020). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map

Mask Up For The Greater Good

The 2019 novel coronavirus, commonly referred to as COVID-19, is a contagious respiratory illness causing flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, loss of taste and/or smell, congestion, etc. Since the beginning of its rapid worldwide spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that citizens wear surgical face masks, cloth face masks, scarfs, bandanas, or other face coverings when in public to help slow the spread of the disease. Despite the scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of face masks as it pertains to slowing the spread of diseases, many people feel wearing a face mask is not necessary, and some even go as far as to say that requiring the use of a face mask in the United States is unconstitutional. Although supposedly effective in preventing the spread of disease from person to person, the WHO has stressed that without the participation of all citizens, COVID-19 will continue to spread rapidly throughout the country.

This closely relates to Emile Durkheim’s functionalist perspective of sociology which believes that society is greater than the sum of its parts, because each part of society is working to stabilize society as a whole. As this relates to the current pandemic, businesses and people alike have had to change how they operate in their normal activities in order to help stabilize society from the ongoing threat of a mass spread of COVID-19. From limiting how many patrons can be inside a business at once, to certain types of businesses having to shut down, to masks being mandatory in most cases, there isn’t anyone who hasn’t felt the effects of this disease. The sociological perspective, functionalism, is a big topic when it comes to public health and the current pandemic. The functionalist perspective maintains the idea that parts of a society work together to create a functioning and productive society. In March, practically the entire United States was on lockdown. Businesses were shut down, hospitals were overcrowded, nurses and doctors had to reuse personal protective equipment due to a national shortage. Now that the country has begun to reopen and attempt to adjust to the “new normal”, it’s crucial that everyone does their part to keep themselves and others healthy.