critical analysis of a paper regarding Adherence to Covid-19 social distancing recommendations

Introduction

A novel coronavirus (CoV) named ‘2019 nCoV’ or ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘COVID 19’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) is in charge of the current outbreak of pneumonia that began at the beginning of December 2019 near in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China (Fong, Dey and Chaki, 2020). In 2019, WHO declared Covid 19  virus the agent and cause of corona virus disease. It is a fast spread virus which enter into human body either from air or touch. It can enter in the body through external respiratory organs. Virus contaminates the air when an infected person expels air from his lungs, and when a healthy person inhales the same air, virus transfers into his body and starts its cycle. SARS Cov 2 virus is responsible for the current pandemic in the world. Its symptoms include, pneumonia, fever, soar throat and in sever cases, virus attacks the lung and blocks the air passage leading to suffocation and even death. The mortality rate of Covid 19 is low but we can not ignore it due to the rate of its spread. It has taken over all the world in no time and people starts to die. The developed and advanced countries like America and Italy was more effected then the developing on.

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. The new virus was subsequently named the “COVID 19 virus” (WHO, About the virus, n.d.). Novel coronavirus is a new strain of an old. The virus was know to man but this strain was not. It was first identified in chine in Wuhan city and the whole story started from there. The new strain is much more resistant to outside environment. The spread rate is much more than the previously know strains. Furthermore, it was the first time, this strain was ever detected in human beings, that is why it was confusing for scientist at first to identify and analyze the virus. The delay further complicated the situation and the whole world fall pay to this deadly virus.

There are certain preventive measures which can be used and adopted to prevent and contain the spread of SARS Cov 2 virus. Social distancing is one of the main preventive measure that the world is emphasizing on., limiting physical contact, voiding travel, limited physical contact with people outside of one’s household, and maintaining a 1 or 2 metre distance are the key measures to prevent the spread of covid 19 virus. If we strictly follow these recommendations then spread if this virus can be contained. We have the example of China, who have managed to beat the spread of virus and in many parts of China social gatherings are allowed and masks are not amendatory. It is possible to contain the spread of virus if people take their responsibility and only use mask and keep distance from other people.

Given that there is no effective treatment or vaccine for COVID 19, it is important to identify barriers and facilitators to adherence to social distancing to inform ongoing and future public health campaigns (Coroiu, Moran, Campbell and Geller, 2020). The research article which is given for critical analysis is outdated, because now, there are plenty of vaccines available in the market for boosted immunity against SARS Cov 2 virus and Covid 19 disease. The whole world was under serious threat from the this virus, so they put their whole power to make effective vaccines against the virus so that the life on the planet could return to normal. The day I am writing this report, almost 2 billion people got vaccinated around the world and cases of Covid 19 has dropped significantly. But, we still need more concrete response if we want to eradicate this disease from the face of the earth.

Mode of transmission

Its primary mode of transmission is via respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes(Pawar, Stanam, Chaudhari and Rayudu, 2020). As it is clear from above mentioned facts that SARS Cov 2 virus is highly transferable. It can transfer from on human to another very rapidly. The primary mode of transfer is air through sneezing and tiny air droplets which contain the germs of this virus. Furthermore, SARS Cov 2 virus can enter in the body through touch as well. If we touch an infected person and virus cling to our hand, now if we put this hand in our mouth or rub our eyes with this hand, there are changes that the virus may transfer from hand to mouth or the eye and start the cycle, ultimately causing the disease.

The virus can remain viable for up to three days on plastic and stainless steel or in aerosols for upto 3 hours and is relatively more stable than the known human coronaviruses. It is stable in faeces at room temperature for at least 1 2 days and can be stable in infected patients for up to 4 days. Heat at 56°C kills the SARS coronavirus at around 10000 units per 15 minutes (Pawar, Stanam, Chaudhari and Rayudu, 2020). It is important to note that virus can survive in earth’s environment as well. The environment can also be the carrier of the virus. It can serve the purpose of the transmission agent that is why, it is being said that do not touch handles of door on restaurants and buttons in the electronic lifts in the residential apartments because in that building there may be living an infected person, who happens to ride the same lift and pressed the same button a moment ago you are pressing now. It will cause the transfer of germs from that button to your hand. The next step is the transfer of this virus from hands to mouth, ear or eyes. Then it will silently will in the human body for the 14 days. Then after 14 days, SARS Cov 2 will starts causing disease.

The temperature range is very important. If we want to fully understand transmission of the SARS Cov 2 virus then we have to understand the pattern of the spread of the virus depends upon the temperature as well. It is because of the fact that the age of the virus is different at different surfaces. They live less on one surface, thus lower the chances of coming in contact alive with any human being, thus lessen the chances of spread and causing infection. On the other hand, there are some surfaces, on which SARS Cov 2 virus can live more days thus there are more chances of infection if human beings comes in contact with such surfaces. It is true that the spread of Covid 19 pandemic was believed to be dependent on the temperature, but, it is not true so far. We have seen that the virus has infected each and every country present on the earth from the republic of Russia which is the coldest one to the countries in Africa which are considered to be the hottest in terms of their extreme weather patterns.

Epidemiological approach of SARS Cov 2 virus

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2) started from Chins and has spread almost everywhere in the world. On 31 December 2019, WHO was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan City, China. A novel coronavirus was identified as the cause by Chinese authorities on 7 January 2020 and was temporarily named “2019 nCoV” (WHO, About the virus, n.d.). The virus first identified in China. The first conformed case of this virus was also from Chine, the city of Wuhan. China was aware of the potential damage it can cause to other countries but they did not pay heed to this fact. They did not close their air space and allowed travelling in and out the country which caused further spread of the corona virus. World Health Organization was also reluctant to take any big decision in this regard because when it comes to powerful, every world institution steps back and do not take bold actions or decisions against them. This lack of responsibility give way to the spread of SARS CoV 2 in the entire world.

After China, European region had become the epicentre for the novel corona virus. European region has confirmed about 40% of the globally confirmed cases and this is not it. The increased death tool further increased the complications for  European countries. Around 63% of global mortality was reported due to Covid 19 pandemic in Europe dated back in April 2020. As the death tool raised in European countries, it alarmed the weak and developed nations as well. The next stop of the virus can be these poor countries and it can be very difficult, nearly impossible for these poor and under developed countries to fight with such devastating disease. This actually happened. If we see the situation of India then we realize that the threat was real that the spread of this virus is difficult to contain in poorer countries like India.

The spread of disease can be named as the by product of globalization. The world is so much connected together that the even developed counties was not able to contain the spread of Covid 17. Despite of the strict travelling policies devised by some developed countries after the initial few cases of Covid 19, they were unable to slow down the rate of infection. That was the biggest concern for those countries which apparently said themselves the most modern and has the ability to tackle with every problem.

The new normal

“The new normal”, is a phrase coined after the spread of novel coronavirus. The world has completely changed since the arrival of the coronavirus. The mode of communication, transportation, work and almost everything has been changed since then. The world looks like a new world when we see everyone wearing a mask on his/her face and keeping a safe distance from other human beings. It seems like a scene from some science fiction Hollywood movie where there is outbreak of virus and it turned into pandemic but no one thought that they will see such situation with their eyes.  

There is rapid change in the behavior of human beings due to the change in daily life activities. There are two types of motivations that leads to change in behavior. Self determination theory [25] suggests there are two types of motivations that drive behaviour change, intrinsic motivation, where the individual derives pleasure from the behavior, and extrinsic motivation, where external pressures are facilitating adherence to behaviour (Coroiu, Moran, Campbell and Geller, 2020). The change in behavior due to coronavirus pandemic is due to extrinsic motivation. It is the external pressure that bounds people within their homes. They are unable to go out because of the strict government policies. Most of the world is currently under strict lockdown and people are not allowed to gather at parties and at other places.

Conspiracy theories

There were and there are certain conspiracy theories about the release and spread of novel coronavirus. The paper under review do not put much light on this topic. Anyhow many scientist and politicians around the globe thinks that “SARS CoV 2” is a human made virus. Former president of America Mr. Donald Trump has said it many times in his different interviews and talk shows that it is human made virus. He doubted Chinese involvement in the manufacturing of this strain of virus.

The other group of people argues that it was America who was behind all this. America made this virus and released it in China to contain it and to tackle the threats imposed by Chinese government. They argue that American government did that on purpose to damage Chinese economy. China is growing very rapidly on economic fronts and US fears that China will out reach US in recent years that is why US did this to China. But their claim seems to have a flaw because it is America who is most effected by this pandemic. The highest number of deaths are reported in America.

If there was any force behind this happening and spread of virus, no matter who they were and from which side they belong, they are criminals of entire humanity.

Impact of policies (policy response)

The new variants of the virus are said to be more dangerous than the previous one. In this case what should authorities done to protect general public and their interest is an important question. Making useful policies can help reduce the spread. But the response rate really matters. We have witnessed it in case of America and China. China took serious action after the confirmation of novel coronavirus as a new virus. They locked down the entire city and partially locked down the whole country. The restrictions were more severe in big cities like Beijing. But in case of America, they took it as a joke. They did not pay any attention towards the damage that this virus can cause to human beings and to the country in terms of growth and economy. The results are devastating for American people and for American economy as well.

One strain – UK B.1.1.7 lineage (variant of concern 202012/1) in particular is currently sweeping the UK. A recent report has suggested that this strain has a significantly higher potential rate of transmission (R₀) compared to previous variants (van Oosterhout, Hall, Ly and Tyler, 2021). The new strain spreads much more faster then the previous one. Furthermore, the infection caused by the new one is more severe. In this changing scenario, we need a more comprehensive strategy to cope with changing situations.

Governments are negotiating a precarious balance between saving the economy and preventing COVID 19 fatalities. However, the roll out of economic stimulus packages and related activities in many countries appears to have fuelled the rate of person to person transmission (van Oosterhout, Hall, Ly and Tyler, 2021). The primary concern of governments all over the world is to somehow save their economies because they can save their human being only if they have enough resources and money. The lock down is imposing serious threats not only to local but global economy. We have seen global oil price reduction. American oil market crashed and went to negative. There were no one to buy oil due to lock down. In the world where there is oil based economy lock down is causing serious threats to economy because oil consumption diseases to drastic levels in lockdowns. Governments should devise such polices that ensure the interests of state and the general public because one without other is nothing and we have to keep balance to keep things going in a good manner.

Role of political ideologies and international agencies in corona crisis

World Health Organization (WHO)

To ensure information is correct and helpful, WHO set up a team to give everyone access to timely, accurate and easy to understand advice, from trusted sources. In addition, daily situation reports and press briefings, as well as briefings with governments, are keeping the world informed about the latest data, information and evidence (5 reasons the world needs WHO, to fight the COVID 19 pandemic, 2020). Access to right information is the biggest contribution of World Health Organization (WHO) during this pandemic. The quick response of WHO successfully avoided any chaos and misconception about the disease and its spread. WHO approached major social media sites and devised a plan with them to give access to their customers to the right information regarding Covid 19 on through their platforms and it helped a lot.

Democracies capitalism VS communists and socialism

if we compare two system which are running side by side in the world we will realize that in Covid 19 pandemic the response of communists were quick and more appropriate. We have the example of China and their socialist agenda. They used it for the welfare of its people and contained the spread in matter of days while the whole world is suffering from the last two years.

On the other hand, the democratic governments all over the world are struggling to contain the spread. Furthermore, the capitalist economic system which is the back bone of democracies took full advantage of this crisis and they made huge profits from the pockets of people. Bezoss net worth grew by $75 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index (Taylor, 2021).

Limitations of the study

The information chosen in the article under review has come limitations. The first problem is the limitation of audience through which the information is collected. These were only the online audience who took part in the survey and information is collected from them. The homogeneity of the sample is another issue as most of the participants were female.

Conclusion

World needs more cooperation and communication for better understanding. This is our world and we have to fight it together. Blame game should be stopped and governments should look forward to serve their people and they should also made sincere effort for global peace. Human centered policies should be made and implemented to protect human beings rather then giving advantages and tax relaxation to businessmen and industrialists.

Furthermore, more concrete approach should be adopted for more in depth study. Scholars should widen the sample size and all the genders must include in the data collection. These issues should be addressed to conduct more comprehensive study. The data should be collected both from primary and secondary sources. There should be proper pathway of analyzing data and making results as well.

Reference

Coroiu, A., Moran, C., Campbell, T. and Geller, A., 2020. Barriers and facilitators of adherence to social distancing recommendations during COVID 19 among a large international sample of adults. PLOS ONE, 15(10), p.e0239795.

Euro.who.int. n.d. About the virus. [online] Available at: <https://www.euro.who.int/en/health topics/health emergencies/coronavirus covid 19/novel coronavirus 2019 ncov> [Accessed 2 June 2021].

Fong, S., Dey, N. and Chaki, J., 2020. An Introduction to COVID 19. Artificial Intelligence for Coronavirus Outbreak, pp.1 22.

news.un.org. 2020. 5 reasons the world needs WHO, to fight the COVID 19 pandemic. [online] Available at: <https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061412> [Accessed 2 June 2021].

Pawar, S., Stanam, A., Chaudhari, M. and Rayudu, D., 2020. Effects of temperature on COVID 19 transmission.

Taylor, K., 2021. A chart shows how Jeff Bezoss net worth exploded by $75 billion in 2020, reaching $188 billion before he stepped down as Amazons CEO. [online] Business Insider. Available at: <https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon ceo jeff bezos net worth explodes in 2020 chart 2020 12> [Accessed 2 June 2021].

van Oosterhout, C., Hall, N., Ly, H. and Tyler, K., 2021. COVID 19 evolution during the pandemic – Implications of new SARS CoV 2 variants on disease control and public health policies. Virulence, 12(1), pp.507 508.