3/13/20 Matthew Keeler PD1 (COVID-19)

The coronavirus, COVID-19, has recently caused a lot of chaos all over the world, especially here in the United States. The government is doing it’s best to keep the situation under control and make sure everyone has the proper information in order to survive this pandemic. However, the media does a really good job at making the situation seem worse and exaggerate the responses of the public. People on social media are seeing how the rest of the world is reacting to the coronavirus and think the same should transpire in the United States. 

However according to the coronavirus is not as deadly as the media is portraying it to be. For example, For most people, the immediate risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low. The virus is only really causing fatalities in people over 60 years old, but there has been a major push from teenagers to close schools to be away from the disease and to have no school. Due to the fact of the higher risks the older you get almost all major sports have been officially cancelled which has led to loads of discontent on social media, even though it is the smart move to make. The stock market has been dropping drastically Additionally, for what we know of now there is no cure, but the best thing to do is to quarantine for two weeks if you have multiple symptoms of the disease or actually have been confirmed to have the coronavirus. Although the media, which is heavily used by teens, is outpouring false truths about the virus and this causes people to wrongly judge their opinions on pandemic. 

The community response that we see today is very similar to that of an apocalypse. Recently, with the big uproar that has occurred many supermarkets are going through food supplies like crazy and people are in an epic panic. People are preparing for quarantines and state of emergencies as if this was the end of the world or a zombie apocalypse. There are some people that are reacting calm and if not directly impacting you with symptoms just living normally with precautions as to not contract the virus. Stock markets have been decreasing drastically over the past few days, all major sports have been postponed or cancelled, and mass public gatherings continue to be limited as well. The world as we know it is becoming limited as to what we can do and people are focusing on the key aspects of survival rather than the joys in life we take for granted. I do see a parallel to an apocalyptic world because some apocalypses do take place either from fictional things as zombies or vampires or maybe even real life issues such as viruses. Below are depicted images of supermarkets throughout America and how people are rushing to get the essentials they need if we do go into a lockdown that dragged deeper into a connection to apocalyptic America.

After gathering all of this information via social media, news articles, and hearsay I have formed my own opinion on the situation. I believe that with all these cancellations and warnings that are out there we should try and eliminate as many public gatherings as possible for at least two weeks, if not a month. As a sports fan it is very hard to go through this time with nearly zero sporting events transpiring. However, these are all the right decisions and I feel that we should be taking these cautionary steps to prevent an even worse situation. Currently, I do not believe that the disease is as harmful as portrayed because the media is hyping up the problems and making people panic even more. Even though children are not at risk of dying from the virus, we could be carriers and put other people in danger of contracting it. People are making the right decisions by preparing for the worst because I do believe if we keep the spread to a minimum by closing schools and eliminating mass activities in the end the world might be able to survive this pandemic.