Covid-19 Pandemic

Preface
Covid has been making all the headlines in recent times, it seems like journalists just help but report on the latest covid news. So here I am jumping on the Covid bandwagon. But rather than looking at current affairs, I take a more introspective approach. In this article, I will detail what I believe to be the negative impacts of covid as well as drawing a silver lining from the pandemic. I will also venture to address certain misconceptions about covid which people may hold up to today. Given how far-reaching and deeply rooted the impacts of covid have been on our society and lifestyle, I find it compelling to preface by saying that this is by no means a comprehensive overview on the Covid situation as a whole. Rather, the goal of this article is simply to communicate my perceptions and take on the Covid situation. So let's get right to it shall we.

The bads
If you were to ask anyone about how Covid has negatively impacted their lives, I'm fairly certain they would have more than a few choice words to say about the pandemic. In this section, I shall attempt to detail what I believe to be the most relevant and relatable negative impacts covid has had on several groups of people, whilst also providing personal insights on the matter.

1. Deaths and health risks

This is the most central downside of Covid which I believe to be unanimous. With over 385 million cases globally and 5.7 million deaths to date since the start of the pandemic, many have lost family members and friends to the virus. This is made worse by the fact that many deaths could not be properly grieved due to lockdown measures at the start of the pandemic, hence preventing families and friends from getting proper closure. Additionally, the health impacts of covid are not limited to the immediate infection but the lasting respiratory damage afterwards. This is more prominent for more severe variants like delta which infect deep into the lung tissue, causing what’s called “long covid” even after the person recovers from the initial symptoms. Increased scar tissues in the lungs will lead to “flu-like” symptoms such as persistent coughing which lasts several months and even years after initial infection, heavily impacting a person’s daily life.
Furthermore, there are secondary health impacts which arise such as increased rate of heart disease or hypertension due to a more sedentary lifestyle as people stay at home.Hence this is also something that we need to keep a watchful eye over in the futrue.

2. Mental health risks

When considering the health impacts of covid, we must also consider the mental health impacts of the pandemic, particularly on students. The mental health of students has taken a blow, particularly in earlier years during circuit breakers and lockdown. It comes as no surprise that reduced interactions with people are not healthy. People are highly social creatures, and we have adapted to live in communities and socialize as a means of survival, interacting with people is quite literally in our DNA. Hence having that suddenly taken away from you would be hard on anyone, like solitary confinement in prisons but on a global scale. Anecdotally, Covid came at a particularly difficult time for me. With lockdown coming in my second year of IB while I was in the midst of exam preparations was certainly tough. Academically, It was tougher for me to learn new concepts through online tutorials since the “vibe” wasn’t there, particularly because I required the classroom setting to get myself focussed on the lessons and content. Overall, I will freely admit that this caused some stress and panic as I was worried that I wasn’t able to learn the syllabus content as well, which made for longer hours at the desk. Furthermore, the social aspect of not being able to physically see and interact with my friends for a few months also made a significant impact on my well-being. Perhaps I'm over-generalizing, but it is of my opinion that youths and particularly teenagers are closer to and rely more heavily on interactions with peers that perhaps their parents. This is the period where youths are in the midst of discovering themselves and growing into their unique personalities, so to remove someone from that environment would likely cause feelings of loneliness, isolation and perhaps even depression.
Additionally, younger children would also feel the spillover effects of this. In a similar vein as provided earlier, young children, for example primary schoolers, develop their social and linguistic capacity through interacting with peers. Hence lockdowns would inadvertently also negatively impact these children during their “critical years”

After speaking so much about the degradation of youth mental health, I feel obliged to say that not everything that I have discussed thus far may happen to you. Personally, although lockdown did create a sense of loneliness and disconnect for me, this did not last as I found solace through online video call sessions with classmates on platforms like “zoom” or “houseparty” where we would hang out and play games like “among us” which created a unique bonding experience. Furthermore, reflecting on the first lockdown during April, I'm actually strangely grateful for it. With the deadlines for my EE’s, IA’s coming up, Mid years looming and the rugby season kicking into overdrive, I honestly cannot imagine how I would have coped with everything at once. Hindsight is a privilege, but I would personally argue that my mental well-being may have taken a larger dip if not for the respite lockdown provided. Hence, at least for me, lockdown and Covid may have been a blessing in disguise.

3. Work-life Imbalance

While on the topic of mental health and overwork, it would be in poor faith not to acknowledge the increased workload that many workers now face due to Work From Home (WFH) restrictions, particularly in the healthcare sector. Adopting a bystanders point of view, many workers today are facing overwork and burnout due to a blurring of lines between work and life. It is to my knowledge from reading news and articles that many people take their commutes to work as a way to both physically and mentally separate work from their personal lives, taking the time to wind down and disconnect from their hectic work lives. However with the implementation of WFH, this has blurred the lines between work and personal life, offsetting the finely tuned scale that allowed many to maintain a healthy work life balance. Hence it has been reported through sites such as the Straits times and CNA that many people are finding themselves unconsciously working longer hours and thinking about their work affairs even after hours as they aren't able to disconnect from that environment. This is further exacerbated by the generally longer working hours many have to face. Taking into account budget cuts and the potential risk of some people going on long term MC’s, many businesses are laying off some of their workforce, leaving the remainder out to dry as they juggle with added responsibilities. This is especially so for middle managers who not only have to account for and manage over their employees/juniors, but would still have to report to senior management. Certainly, more can be done to help our estranged workforce who are already overburdened by the pandemic and having to manage their work affairs with home commitments. While businesses are opening up again with vaccinated differentiated measures and alternate work days, these miss the mark on the underlying issue of unsustainable WFH measures. In light of these, I do agree to commission a few organizations for their holistic and well rounded approach towards WFM difficulties. Acknowledging that many workers have home commitments such as tending to their sickly kin, some employers have been reported by the straits times to implement “focus days” without planned meetings which allow workers time to focus on their work at hand without distractions. In tandem, they also included “low tempo” periods to allow workers respite during the day and time for them to wind down their work days, simulating “commute” scenarios hence creating an artificial disconnect. These measures I believe are a step in the right direction towards more balanced WFH measures as Singapore and the world heads towards an endemic

4. Caregivers

In the previous paragraph, I briefly touched on the increased burden that caregivers face because of the pandemic. Because I believe this to be an important topic and social issue, pandemic or not, In this section, I will attempt to cover some of the struggles of being a caregiver and how the pandemic has increased their burdens.

Purely from analyzing the statistics provided, there is a noticeable gender segregation on who is the primary breadwinner and who is the sole caregiver. Given the context of our asian society and culture, where men are still expected to be the breadwinners of the household, it is more likely than their female counterparts to take up a caregiving role, sidelining their own careers for the sake of their kins health needs. However,it is encouraging to note that more and more women are deciding to pursue their careers and the normalization of women earning more than their husbands. In Singapore, the majority of caregivers are middle aged married women in their 40s. The role of caregiving is often ignorantly misinterpreted as an easy task, perhaps of the belief that taking care of another person is relatively easy. However, the truth of the matter is that caregiving is actually both physically and mentally exhausting. Many people may underrate how difficult it is to care for a special needs individual or elderly without the capacity to look after themselves. This bears mental strain as well since caregiving is a daily and continuous task, which is worsened by the current covid situation, as, to my understanding from news sources, many caregivers expressed higher levels of stress and pressure over accidentally spreading a virus or infection to their vulnerable kin. To make matters worse, before covid, many were still able to have some respite during the day as they could send their kin to elderly day care centers or special needs schools. However, with the current closure of such facilities and the limited help provided, more caregivers are now bearing the brunt of the workload, tending to their kin without any external assistance, which is likely to take a mental and physical toll overtime. Though some may retort that their struggles are secondary problems at the moment, I do feel the need to vocalize this issue since they are likely to be the groups of people which falls through the cracks and don't receive the support they need and deserve

5. Homelessness

Lastly there is the issue of homelessness which has only just recently been illuminated to me. I know this may come off as slightly privileged, but until recently, I did not actually think there were many homeless people in Singapore simply because of how comprehensive I took our social service systems to be and the fact that I had not come across many homeless people before then. However, I now realize that I was looking through rose tinted glasses, as going for outreach sessions with “Homeless Hearts of Singapore”(HHOS), I am now, at least I would like to believe, more educated in identifying symptoms of homeless and finding where these rough sleepers stay. This got me thinking however, If I was ignorant of the homeless situation in Singapore, then perhaps others may be as well. Hence this section of the article will be dedicated to raising awareness on the homeless situation in Singapore and how this has been exacerbated by the Pandemic.

According to a study done in 2019 by NUS school of public policy in 2019, there are roughly 1000 homeless people in singapore. However from personal experience, I believe this number to be grossly under-estimated. To be “homeless” doesn't necessarily mean to not own a home, in fact a significant proportion of the rough sleepers I have interacted with have disclosed that they actually have a place but prefer not to return home because of family issues. Furthermore, many rough sleepers have slipped from public view by sleeping in less traveled areas such as car park staircases or even near cemeteries. Because of this, I have also come to recognize certain markers to distinguish someone as homeless. Typically, you can tell someone is homeless if they appear to bring around several large bags containing an assortment of daily items such as clothes, shoes, towels etc. Cardboard pieces in random corners are also a barometer for homelessness as many use them as beds for the night. Going back on track, these experiences have brought to my attention the pervasiveness of homelessness in Singapore. This has only been made worse by the current travel restriction from covid as many migrant workers now find themselves stranded in singapore and unable to return home. To me, they fall under a similar category as caregivers in the previous point as they are often overlooked and sleep through the cracks in our social systems.

Listing all these negatives has actually gotten me feeling abit sad, Covid really has impacted our lives alot! So to even things out a bit, why don't we switch gears and look at what went well these past few years. As a wise Dr ken once said, when you think about something, always think about the opposite! So here I am doing just that! I firmly believe that in every bad situation, there is a silver lining to it.

The not so bads

1. Healthcare & medicine

The pandemic really took our healthcare system through the wringer several times with multiple spikes and variants, but I do believe that we have come out better because of it. Let's talk about vaccines first. Since covid first began in the end of 2019, it spurred the innovation of new mRNA vaccine technology, with companies like pfizer and moderna rapidly developing new vaccines such as the oral vaccine paxolovid from pfizer. Not only that, other pharmaceutical companies around the world are also jumping on the covid bandwagon, creating variations of the covid vaccine such as the sinopharm vaccine from China which is an inactivated vaccine. With the exponential rate of progress being made for vaccine technology, this sets the impetus for significant spillover effects in the future as we may adapt these vaccines to cover more diseases or even use the knowledge acquired to create vaccinations against more diseases. From a practical standpoint, the pandemic has also strengthened our healthcare system as a whole. As a testament to the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” our healthcare system has been pushed to the edge because of the pandemic. In doing so, this created the necessary “selective pressure” to generate the impetus for change and help illuminate certain gaps or flaws in our healthcare system and epidemic preparedness. For instance, the adoption of virtual consultations have allowed doctors to meet a higher volume of patients whilst mitigating the inherent risk of disease spread. However, this does not diminish the need of physical consults as they provide physicians a more comprehensive diagnosis of patients conditions or illness rather than hearsay of the symptoms. Rather virtual consults provide an additional platform for doctors to communicate with patients which serves to alleviate some burden from both doctors and patients. Other adaptations include higher ICU capacity and digitized booking systems, which I won’t be going into detail in this write up for the sake of succinctness.

2. Technological change and digitalisation

By the same token as virtual consults and digitized booking systems, the pandemic has accelerated our jump to digitalisation. Because of safe distancing measures and lockdowns, many businesses had to go cashless and adapt contactless payment methods like QR codes and Paynow. Though this process had already begun a few years prior thanks to growing environmental awareness, the forced lockdown and pandemic measures catalyzed this change, with contactless payments now the primary source of monetary transactions which is likely to stay long after covid turns into an endemic. However, In light of this rapid change, I must posit that we should approach digitalisation with tact and caution. We must recognize that though immensely beneficial, digitalization is not the “golden solution” to all our problems. In fact, I may even argue that given this rapid and forced change, many people have not yet adapted or acclimatized to this new age, such as the elderly, hence this increases the likelihood of online scams, with the most recent being the OCBC phishing scams where scammers used fake bank SMS alerts to steal over $13 million from over 400 people. Hence we must consider “are we changely too quickly for individuals to follow?”. It is because of this that I believe an equilibrium needs to be established between rate of innovation and societal acclimation and adoption.

On a slightly tangential note, the digitalisation swab and lockdowns have had an observable positive impact on the environment. After rising steadily for decades, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4%, or 2.3 billion tonnes, in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic squelched economic and social activities worldwide. Air quality in Beijing improved for the first time in years while some animals have been noted returning to their habits. Though this change is likely temporary, as even now industries are ramping back up production to pre-pandemic levels, it creates a hopeful vision for the future and what can be accomplished if there is enough support for “enviromentalisation” and green technology.

3.Togetherness and resilience

Previously, I mentioned that lockdown and covid may have stalled children's social and emotional development and increased feelings of isolation and loneliness in adolescence. However, like most things, there is always a flip side of the coin, so let's try to view this situation in a more positive light. Though staying at home may cause some youths to feel estranged, it may also bring the opportunity for families to spend more time together. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, Lockdown provided a unique opportunity to bond with my peers and friends through online platforms and games, which actually brought us closer. Similar sentiments may be felt in communities and in Singaporeans as a whole as having shared struggles not only build resilience, but forge a sense of community and togetherness founded through a shared suffering. Hence for many also, Covid may be a time for self-introspection as we take the time to appreciate the little things in life like seeing friends and the freedom to move around. A new perspective is always a welcome change so perhaps let's adopt a more optimistic perspective about our current situation. While remembering how much we’ve lost, let us also be happy about how far we’ve come and all that we’ve managed to achieve despite the circumstances!

4. Herd Immunity

This falls more under the premise of the current Omicron variant. At this point, multiple studies from different companies and research centers have shown that though 10 times more infectious, Omicron is also significantly less harmful. Which raises the question, can omicron actually be a blessing in disguise?
A brief background on omicron, the variant first popped up in Africa because of their relatively low rates of inoculation leaving many still vulnerable to the disease. Omicron has over 50 mutations, causing it to be highly infectious. However, this comes at the cost of severity, which is good for us. Omicron has been noted to propagate in the upper respiratory tract and throat which attributes to its infectivity but also why it does not cause as severe symptoms since it does not impact lung tissue as much. Hence in light of this, many experts are actually quite hopeful that omicron may accelerate our transition from a pandemic to endemic as being infected with omicron is less damaging while still providing all the immune benefits. My take on the matter? Even though I do see the benefits of omicron and its potential to bring about an endemic, I still believe that vaccination programs should continue and that until we are safely in the endemic phase of covid, we should still be taking it seriously. Reason being that though omicron may not be inherently more severe, its scale still means that people are dying as a direct cause of the virus. Furthermore, a secondary concern may be that because of the high infection numbers, this may increase the risk of another variant developing in the population. As such, although there is light at the end of the tunnel, I don’t believe we should be loosening our belts just yet.

Clearing up misconceptions
In this last section of my Covid-19 Analysis, I will be addressing common misconceptions about the virus that many people may or continue to have due to over-reporting and dramatization by news outlets and the spread of fake information. With that being said, credit where credits due, this is largely inspired through a dialogue I heard on the Joe Rogan Experience between Joe Rogan and Elon musk,

Well to start things off, I think that there has been a lot of misinformation going around because of over-dramatisation by news outlets, especially in countries such as the US where panic is almost sought after by media outlets. At the start of the pandemic and even today, there is arguably large amounts of undue panic as people overestimate the severity of Covid, likening it to be the next Plague or Spanish Flu when this is certainly not the case. Part of the issue would be the daily news reports on covid deaths. Though I am unsure now what the reporting system is like in Singapore currently, I do know in other countries like the US, this number is grossly over inflated. The deaths do not distinguish between those that are directly caused by Covid and those where a person dies due to other reasons but was later found to have Covid upon autopsy. Using a hyperbolic example, if a person dies from a car crash and was later discovered to have covid, then that person would be considered a covid death by health officials. So why report them as covid deaths? Well In the US there may actually be a valid reason. Covid has impacted the US healthcare sector heavily, causing many hospitals to run out of budget and having to lay off doctors and staff members. However, under the current system, Covid related patients' deaths are reimbursed, to a certain extent, by the government. Hence In light of the financial situation that hospitals are in, this may create the ethical situation of invalidly marking someone as a Covid death simply to retain staff members to treat those that are currently ill.

Another misconception pertaining to the severity of the disease would be the dangers and risk that it poses on the elderly. From a clinical approach, we shouldn’t be measuring a disease’s severity based solely on its deaths since we have already established that this number is subject to hyperinflation. Instead we need a better method to distinguish between deaths that are caused as a direct result of Covid and deaths that occur where a person happened to have covid. Upon this distinction, the next obstacle would be to discern the number of years that the disease may have taken from said deceased upon. So for example, taking the average person lives to see 80, an individual who passes at 79 from Covid can be seen as more “expected” in a way since that individual realistically only had 1 year of life left before they would have passed on anyways from other causes like heart diseases. This is different from other viral infections like the Spanish flu where thousands of young healthy people die prematurely, where this is simply not the case for covid. However, after stating this opinion, I must also mention that this should not diminish or make light of the deaths from covid.

In summary, these are some of my opinions and perspectives on Covid. Many of the points I have discussed today are subject to change and based on my current experiences and knowledge of Covid, so perhaps take what I've covered with a spoonful of salt.

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