By: Reagan LaPage, grade 10 at G. Ray Bodley High School
And just like that the world went on pause. Towards the end of November and beginning of December in 2019, one of the deadliest viruses to ever be confirmed began to spread. It started in Wuhan, China and left to European countries such as France and spread to neighboring countries. Then it travelled across the North Atlantic to the Americas and began to spread rapidly among countries.
Before we knew it, this virus had travelled all across the entire world and was killing people along its path. This deadly and horrific virus, known as the coronavirus, has managed to put millions of people into fear and has taken so many lives. The coronavirus has put the world almost on pause as many countries are prohibiting people from travelling and even leaving their house. Countries have told many businesses to close their doors after being deemed as non-essential businesses.
Currently with the death toll being around 171,810 people around the world and in the United States having the death toll being around 44,120 citizens, there seems to be no flattened curve in the number of deaths nationally. Although many people are home, self isolating and maintaining social distancing, there are many more essential workers risking their lives by continuing to work.
Essential workers such as nurses, doctors, postal workers, grocery store employees and more continue to work as they are deemed as being essential workers and businesses. This puts their lives and those around them in jeopardy as the spreading of the coronavirus is so rapid that they could catch it themselves and spread it to loved ones. These workers though, must continue to work as it is their job and others depend on them to complete everyday life.
It may just be a coincidence but it seems like every generation goes through many challenges that affect their lives and many others just like the coronavirus has affected ours. Some examples could be 9/11, where the Twin Towers in New York City were struck down by terrorists along a plane crashing in an open field in Pennsylvania. On this horrible day, almost 3,000 people lost their lives that day, most being essential workers such as police officers, firemen or other business workers.
Another day that will go down into history was the bombing of Pearl Harbor where 2,403 people perished. Both 9/11 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor both represented instances of mass casualties within a short time frame. The coronavirus proves to be a different type of enemy, it indiscriminately spreads over time, and has resulted in nearly a month of every day mass casualties thus far. The bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 was an event where we could fight back, knowing our enemy, and its weaknesses. The coronavirus is a phenomenon where we are fighting an invisible war that the United States and the world was not prepared for.
One of the most popular comparisons that could be made to the coronavirus is the 1918 Spanish Flu. This deadly pandemic killed about 50 million people and infected about a third of the world population at the time. This virus had such an effect on the world at the time just like the coronavirus. One plus is during this time, many medications and scientific findings that can help save peoples lives were not found yet while nowadays there are many scientific findings that can help better people.
There are so many other examples of events that have challenged American citizens in history but not one can compare to the coronavirus. Many events happened so quickly and led our country to fight back. But the coronavirus is something new where we can not fight an opposing country, it is something that we as Americans must fight on our own, together. Just like the Spanish Flu, there is currently no vaccine currently to help fight against the coronavirus, so time will tell what will happen in the future.
For me personally, watching these events are sometimes scary but I choose to stay as positive as possible. I could look at myself being stuck home all the time and not being able to see my friends. I could look at my community wearing face masks and become frightened or hear about the large number of people that are passing due to this horrible virus and become worried.
I could become negative but I choose not to because that is all I would ever think about. I want to think positively and have hope that this will be over soon. I also want people to know that what you are feeling is normal and other people are having the same emotions. I want others to stay positive and know that it may take time and a lot of patience but this will be over. This is something that has affected so many people and will without a doubt go down into history.
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