Six months of a pandemic – the results

Coronavirus will forever change the world

To Say that the pandemic COVID-19 changed the world, to say nothing. Over the last six months in most countries, was introduced strict quarantine measures and social distancing and self-isolation became the new norm. Meanwhile, just six months ago, the world Health Organization (who) received a report from Chinese health officials. That's when the media began to appear information about the mysterious pneumonia that has struck dozens of people in the 11-million city of Wuhan. Right before our eyes the number of infected grew, and many of us have faced this deadly disease. In this article you will learn what has changed in the world during the pandemic.

How the world has changed in six months?

Although virologists have long warned about the pandemic potential of some coronaviruses circulating in bats, SARS-CoV-2 has caused public shock, and researchers and health workers are still trying to get the infection under control. The appearance COVID-19 destroyed the usual course of things, from everyday life and ending with the economies of entire countries. Now most ordinary things – such as going to work, in a restaurant, school or Institute – become risky and quite frankly, dangerous.

Recall that the first news of the mysterious disease circulating in Wuhan, appeared at the end of 2019. At the time of this writing, a natural host of coronaviruses have been identified as patient zero. Researchers believe that the natural owner of COVID-19 are bats, and intermediate – as in the case of an outbreak of MERS coronavirus (middle East severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2006 – can be pangolins. Read more about what these amazing animals and why scientists consider them as potential hosts of SARS-CoV-2, I was telling

The Reaction of Chinese authorities to the outbreak was unprecedented – the introduction of strict quarantine, mass decontamination, closure of cities and entire provinces, not to mention the construction of a temporary hospital, which took only 10 days. However, while the world watched the events in China, SARS-CoV-2 were in other cities and countries. And if on March 10, 2020 (when the who declared a pandemic), the number of infected with the novel coronavirus in the world was less than one million people, in early July, according to the Johns Hopkins University, was more than 11 million cases. But what is happening in China today, after seven months after the first confirmed case?

Recall that the epicentre of the outbreak was the seafood market in Wuhan.

What's happening today?

The New coronavirus was spreading gradually, major outbreaks occurred in Italy, Spain, France, South Korea and the United States. However, many countries do not control the flash sufficiently. For example, while the growth in the number of cases in some regions of the United States began to decline, the number of reported cases in Texas, Florida and Arizona increased dramatically after the lifting of restrictions. A similar situation, unfortunately, is observed in many countries of the world. On 29 June, the head of the who tedros adhanom Ghebreyesus said the acceleration of the pandemic.

However, despite the fact that the worst is yet to come, scientists have made unprecedented efforts to study the virus in a remarkably short period of time and refuted a number of some of the earlier assumptions. In March, the who said the need to wear protective masks only medical staff, but later the representatives of the organization change recommendations. Read more about what protective face masks more effective than others and why, who also informed the public about how the virus can behave and how best to protect yourself from it, based on past experience, the outbreak of SARS and MERS coronaviruses, which occurred in 2003 and 2006 respectively. Still, some initial assumptions were incorrect, and scientists still have much to find out.

a Pandemic of a novel coronavirus can last up to 2022

Rapid spread of infection and high mortality (illness claimed the lives of over 500,000 people), led to the very real race for the vaccine. After testing of existing drugs against the coronavirus, some of them have proven effective, while the effectiveness of others were refuted. So, a new drug ramdevpir do recovery in patients with severe disease. Dexamethasone may reduce the risk of death. But drugs for malaria hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine was useless for infected COVID-19 patients. Currently, more than 150 vaccines against coronavirus. 20 of them are undergoing clinical trials in humans.

What we still don't know?

You Need to understand that six months is an incredibly short period of time to learn as much information about the new virus, as today able to scientists. But to answer some of the questions take time. For example,it is still unclear why SARS-CoV-2 is more contagious than his relatives SARS and MERS, each of which has infected at least 10,000 people. Some scientists continue to investigate how the virus enters the cells and out of them, and what kinds of cells it can infect – cells from the lungs to the cells of the intestine. The others are that from which animal the virus crossed over to humans.

As for most diseases, the researchers still don't know how many virus particles you need to get sick, or why some people carry the disease is heavier than the other. Some patients, even with more mild symptoms — after a recovery has gained long-term health problems. And while the people who recover seem to produce antibodies that protect them from reinfection, only time will tell how long the immune protection will last. The answers to these and other questions are crucial to the coming months and years. The only thing that scientists know for sure is that the coronavirus is not exactly disappear any time soon, if at all will disappear.