FInal Paper on Immunity and viewpoint on covid

Final Paper on Immunity and Viewpoint on COVID Essay ANTH 32101 Date Public Health and COVID-19 Pandemic Immunity is a major public health issue that deserves immediate attention. Infectious diseases have in the past been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, necessitating health interventions targeting the general public. As a result, an understanding of public health is critical in indicating its potential. Public health should be considered from a historical perspective. An evaluation of health commences from an analysis of the historical occurrences that have affected health over periods. The implementation of public health policies is a complicated process that is affected by a combination of social, cultural, political, legal, technical, and financial factors [1]. As a result, when implementing any public policy matters, including immunization, it is critical to consider the different aspects involved. Over the years, efforts have been made to improve public health. Health inequalities have marginalized and disenfranchised the people who need health most [2]. For instance, people from low-income families are unable to afford expensive healthcare services and depend largely on public health. As a result, policies geared towards improving health policies are instrumental in supporting a majority of the population who depend entirely on public health. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call on the need to strengthen the public health system to handle a large number of patients. The pandemic pushed public health to the limit, exposing the vulnerability of the system amid a health crisis. Hence, the importance of public health necessitates measures that strengthen institutions handling public health matters. This will ensure that public health can handle future pandemics more efficiently. 300th Commemoration of Inoculation 2021 marked a crucial period in American history. The COVID-19 pandemic marked the 300th anniversary of the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 when the first immunization on American soil took place. In 1721, Puritan minister Cotton Mather learned inoculation from his slave Onesimus. Mather advocated for inoculation to the vulnerable population to guard them against smallpox disease, which had caused a major pandemic. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the global search for a vaccine, America failed to prominently commemorate the 300th anniversary. While celebrating the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the vaccine in America was critical, it was overshadowed by the effort geared toward developing a vaccine against COVID-19. During this time, COVID-19 was claiming lives, with more infections, indicating the adverse effects of the virus. As a result, America shifted its efforts towards the development of a vaccine to mitigate against the pandemic. Rather than celebrate the 300th anniversary of the introduction of inoculation to the US, the immediate concerns were developing a vaccine in the shortest time possible to prevent more deaths as a result of the COVID-19 virus. At the same time, public awareness focused more on educating people about the pandemic, emphasizing less on the historical event of inoculation. Hence, the focus on the COVID-19 pandemic overshadowed an important historical commemoration. African’s Survival against New World Disease The success of African labor in the Americas and the African's survival against New World disease was a result of immunization programs in Africa as opposed to their stronger physical constitution. Immunization programs against smallpox were carried out in West Africa, way before they were brought to America through the slave trade. Ikechukwu Achebe’s “The Idea of Immunity” explores the concept of immunization in West African medicine during the Enlightenment Age. Achebe indicates how in December 1705, Cotton Mather got to know about smallpox inoculation from Onesimus, a slave from West Africa [3]. On learning the practice of inoculation, Mather would proceed to introduce the practice to America in 1721. To demonstrate that inoculation was responsible for saving the lives of African slaves, Mitchel demonstrates how an enslaved woman, who had received inoculation against smallpox back in Africa, managed to survive the intra-Caribbean slave trade. The enslaved African women even proceeded to give birth while in quarantine after surviving smallpox [4]. The account of Mather and Mitchel indicates that while the physical constitution of the African people could have played a part in their survival against New World Disease, the programs of immunization in Africa were the major factor in their survival. Even when enslaved Africans in America contracted smallpox, their bodies had developed immunity against the diseases due to the immunity they had undergone back in Africa. Hence, the survival of the enslaved Africans relied largely on the practice of inoculation done in West Africa. Herd Immunity in Different Countries Head immunity takes place when a large population becomes immune to a particular disease, either through vaccination or infection [5]. Herd immunity reduces the likelihood of the disease spreading within the same population, protecting people who may not be immune to the particular disease. Different countries took different approaches to herd immunity, which prompted them to approach the COVID-19 pandemic using different strategies. Switzerland faced challenges with COVID-19. The country did not pursue active herd immunity but rather sought ways of reducing the spread ...