Health system. CORONAVIRUS IS OUR FUTURE. Health, Medicine, Nursing

Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA
Running head: CORONAVIRUS IS OUR FUTURE

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Coronavirus Is Our Future: A Reflection
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CORONAVIRUS IS OUR FUTURE

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Coronavirus Is Our Future: A Reflection


I. General Reflection
In Coronavirus Is Our Future (TEDx Talks, 2020), Alanna Shaikh, a global health consultant, offers a broad overview on state of COVID-19 outbreak since first identified in December 2019. The presentation includes a brief discussion of pandemics and infectious diseases, detection and control strategies, inevitability of pandemics and medical staff response in a number of African countries. In offering insights about COVID-19, Shaikh discusses major outbreak factors including, most primarily, increasing wildlife-human contact. Shaikh is skeptic about current quarantine methods to contain COVID-19. Essentially, political maneuvering, coupled by lack of adequate data, makes containment efforts misleading, if not futile. Further, Shaikh blames current global supply chain systems for slowing down much needed fast response to pandemic outbreaks. Specifically, Shaikh is critical of overreliance on China as world’s logistics and supply chain hub. The shutdowns, implemented by many countries, argues Shaikh, have substantially crippled medical response to control COVID-19 outbreak by delaying medical supplies. The presentation concludes by a call for urgent action to invest extensively in vaccines to control and cure infectious diseases, a more balanced use of natural resources, and decreased wildlife-human contact. Overall, Coronavirus Is Our Future sounds alarms about a future of pandemics not dissimilar to, or perhaps more fatal compared to, COVID-19. If anything, current human lifestyle continues to pose serious risks to natural habitats and, consequently, accelerate animal-to-human disease infection.
II. Three Stances & Personal Opinion
CORONAVIRUS IS OUR FUTURE

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Coronavirus Is Our Future offers several insights and discusses a number of infectious disease-related matters. Three stances, I believe, are of utmost importance: (1) Climate Change, Wildlife and Increasing Human Contact, (2) Quarantines: Effective Virus Containment Strategies? and (3) Global Medical Supplies and Disease Control. The “Climate Change, Wildlife and Increasing Human Contact” stance, as expressed by Shaikh, is critical of growing, unsustainable wildlife-human contact resulting in damaging effects to natural habitats and unexpected outcomes. The “Quarantines: Effective Virus Containment Strategies?” stance, as expressed by Shaikh, questions quarantines as an effective control strategy of COVID-19. In justifying her stance, Shaikh cites political maneuvering and lack of adequate virus detection methods. The “Global Medical Supplies and Disease Control” stance, as expressed by Shaikh, lays blame on overreliance on China as world’s logistics and supply chain hub. Concentrating supplies in one country, argues Shaikh, only slows down, if not cripple, flow of medical supplies across borders. Overall, I adopt a similar logic to Shaikh’s in all stances. Specifically, I agree to Shaikh’s argument about growing wildlife-human contact as a harmful accelerator of damaging effects to natural habitats. This is justified, as discussed shortly under “Expert Opinion” section, by unsustainable practices recreation activities bring about to natural ecosystems. I also agree to Shaikh’s criticisms of world’s overreliance on China as a global supply chain hub. This opinion, I argue, is supported, as shown shortly, by growing evidence of China's manipulation of global economic order for political and economic purposes. The overconcentration of world’s supplies in one country only, particularly in so far as medical supplies are concerned, becomes, accordingly, a major risk politically, economically, and healthcare-wise. I do not agree, however, to Shaikh’s apparent confidence in inefficacy of quarantines to contain COVID-19. Given date of
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