essay about coronavirus pandemic

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Covid 19 Essay in English

Essay on Covid -19: In a very short amount of time, coronavirus has spread globally. It has had an enormous impact on people's lives, economy, and societies all around the world, affecting every country. Governments have had to take severe measures to try and contain the pandemic. The virus has altered our way of life in many ways, including its effects on our health and our economy. Here are a few sample essays on ‘CoronaVirus’.

100 Words Essay on Covid 19

200 words essay on covid 19, 500 words essay on covid 19.

COVID-19 or Corona Virus is a novel coronavirus that was first identified in 2019. It is similar to other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but it is more contagious and has caused more severe respiratory illness in people who have been infected. The novel coronavirus became a global pandemic in a very short period of time. It has affected lives, economies and societies across the world, leaving no country untouched. The virus has caused governments to take drastic measures to try and contain it. From health implications to economic and social ramifications, COVID-19 impacted every part of our lives. It has been more than 2 years since the pandemic hit and the world is still recovering from its effects.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has been impacted in a number of ways. For one, the global economy has taken a hit as businesses have been forced to close their doors. This has led to widespread job losses and an increase in poverty levels around the world. Additionally, countries have had to impose strict travel restrictions in an attempt to contain the virus, which has resulted in a decrease in tourism and international trade. Furthermore, the pandemic has put immense pressure on healthcare systems globally, as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Lastly, the outbreak has led to a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty, as people are fearful of contracting the disease.

My Experience of COVID-19

I still remember how abruptly colleges and schools shut down in March 2020. I was a college student at that time and I was under the impression that everything would go back to normal in a few weeks. I could not have been more wrong. The situation only got worse every week and the government had to impose a lockdown. There were so many restrictions in place. For example, we had to wear face masks whenever we left the house, and we could only go out for essential errands. Restaurants and shops were only allowed to operate at take-out capacity, and many businesses were shut down.

In the current scenario, coronavirus is dominating all aspects of our lives. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc upon people’s lives, altering the way we live and work in a very short amount of time. It has revolutionised how we think about health care, education, and even social interaction. This virus has had long-term implications on our society, including its impact on mental health, economic stability, and global politics. But we as individuals can help to mitigate these effects by taking personal responsibility to protect themselves and those around them from infection.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Education

The outbreak of coronavirus has had a significant impact on education systems around the world. In China, where the virus originated, all schools and universities were closed for several weeks in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. Many other countries have followed suit, either closing schools altogether or suspending classes for a period of time.

This has resulted in a major disruption to the education of millions of students. Some have been able to continue their studies online, but many have not had access to the internet or have not been able to afford the costs associated with it. This has led to a widening of the digital divide between those who can afford to continue their education online and those who cannot.

The closure of schools has also had a negative impact on the mental health of many students. With no face-to-face contact with friends and teachers, some students have felt isolated and anxious. This has been compounded by the worry and uncertainty surrounding the virus itself.

The situation with coronavirus has improved and schools have been reopened but students are still catching up with the gap of 2 years that the pandemic created. In the meantime, governments and educational institutions are working together to find ways to support students and ensure that they are able to continue their education despite these difficult circumstances.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Economy

The outbreak of the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the global economy. The virus, which originated in China, has spread to over two hundred countries, resulting in widespread panic and a decrease in global trade. As a result of the outbreak, many businesses have been forced to close their doors, leading to a rise in unemployment. In addition, the stock market has taken a severe hit.

Effects of CoronaVirus on Health

The effects that coronavirus has on one's health are still being studied and researched as the virus continues to spread throughout the world. However, some of the potential effects on health that have been observed thus far include respiratory problems, fever, and coughing. In severe cases, pneumonia, kidney failure, and death can occur. It is important for people who think they may have been exposed to the virus to seek medical attention immediately so that they can be treated properly and avoid any serious complications. There is no specific cure or treatment for coronavirus at this time, but there are ways to help ease symptoms and prevent the virus from spreading.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Information Technology

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Geotechnical engineer

The role of geotechnical engineer starts with reviewing the projects needed to define the required material properties. The work responsibilities are followed by a site investigation of rock, soil, fault distribution and bedrock properties on and below an area of interest. The investigation is aimed to improve the ground engineering design and determine their engineering properties that include how they will interact with, on or in a proposed construction. 

The role of geotechnical engineer in mining includes designing and determining the type of foundations, earthworks, and or pavement subgrades required for the intended man-made structures to be made. Geotechnical engineering jobs are involved in earthen and concrete dam construction projects, working under a range of normal and extreme loading conditions. 

Cartographer

How fascinating it is to represent the whole world on just a piece of paper or a sphere. With the help of maps, we are able to represent the real world on a much smaller scale. Individuals who opt for a career as a cartographer are those who make maps. But, cartography is not just limited to maps, it is about a mixture of art , science , and technology. As a cartographer, not only you will create maps but use various geodetic surveys and remote sensing systems to measure, analyse, and create different maps for political, cultural or educational purposes.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Product Manager

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Operations manager.

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Bank Probationary Officer (PO)

Investment director.

An investment director is a person who helps corporations and individuals manage their finances. They can help them develop a strategy to achieve their goals, including paying off debts and investing in the future. In addition, he or she can help individuals make informed decisions.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

An expert in plumbing is aware of building regulations and safety standards and works to make sure these standards are upheld. Testing pipes for leakage using air pressure and other gauges, and also the ability to construct new pipe systems by cutting, fitting, measuring and threading pipes are some of the other more involved aspects of plumbing. Individuals in the plumber career path are self-employed or work for a small business employing less than ten people, though some might find working for larger entities or the government more desirable.

Construction Manager

Individuals who opt for a career as construction managers have a senior-level management role offered in construction firms. Responsibilities in the construction management career path are assigning tasks to workers, inspecting their work, and coordinating with other professionals including architects, subcontractors, and building services engineers.

Urban Planner

Urban Planning careers revolve around the idea of developing a plan to use the land optimally, without affecting the environment. Urban planning jobs are offered to those candidates who are skilled in making the right use of land to distribute the growing population, to create various communities. 

Urban planning careers come with the opportunity to make changes to the existing cities and towns. They identify various community needs and make short and long-term plans accordingly.

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Naval Architect

A Naval Architect is a professional who designs, produces and repairs safe and sea-worthy surfaces or underwater structures. A Naval Architect stays involved in creating and designing ships, ferries, submarines and yachts with implementation of various principles such as gravity, ideal hull form, buoyancy and stability. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Veterinary Doctor

Pathologist.

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Speech Therapist

Gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

Hospital Administrator

The hospital Administrator is in charge of organising and supervising the daily operations of medical services and facilities. This organising includes managing of organisation’s staff and its members in service, budgets, service reports, departmental reporting and taking reminders of patient care and services.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Videographer

Multimedia specialist.

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Linguistic meaning is related to language or Linguistics which is the study of languages. A career as a linguistic meaning, a profession that is based on the scientific study of language, and it's a very broad field with many specialities. Famous linguists work in academia, researching and teaching different areas of language, such as phonetics (sounds), syntax (word order) and semantics (meaning). 

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

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The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

More from TIME

Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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• Volume 76, Issue 2
• COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social relationships and health
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1512-4471 Emily Long 1 ,
• Susan Patterson 1 ,
• Karen Maxwell 1 ,
• Carolyn Blake 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-4566 Raquel Bosó Pérez 1 ,
• Ruth Lewis 1 ,
• Mark McCann 1 ,
• Julie Riddell 1 ,
• Kathryn Skivington 1 ,
• Rachel Wilson-Lowe 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601 Kirstin R Mitchell 2
• 1 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• 2 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health & Wellbeing , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Emily Long, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G3 7HR, UK; emily.long{at}glasgow.ac.uk

This essay examines key aspects of social relationships that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses explicitly on relational mechanisms of health and brings together theory and emerging evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to make recommendations for future public health policy and recovery. We first provide an overview of the pandemic in the UK context, outlining the nature of the public health response. We then introduce four distinct domains of social relationships: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy, highlighting the mechanisms through which the pandemic and associated public health response drastically altered social interactions in each domain. Throughout the essay, the lens of health inequalities, and perspective of relationships as interconnecting elements in a broader system, is used to explore the varying impact of these disruptions. The essay concludes by providing recommendations for longer term recovery ensuring that the social relational cost of COVID-19 is adequately considered in efforts to rebuild.

• inequalities

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated or analysed for this essay.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216690

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Introduction

Infectious disease pandemics, including SARS and COVID-19, demand intrapersonal behaviour change and present highly complex challenges for public health. 1 A pandemic of an airborne infection, spread easily through social contact, assails human relationships by drastically altering the ways through which humans interact. In this essay, we draw on theories of social relationships to examine specific ways in which relational mechanisms key to health and well-being were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Relational mechanisms refer to the processes between people that lead to change in health outcomes.

At the time of writing, the future surrounding COVID-19 was uncertain. Vaccine programmes were being rolled out in countries that could afford them, but new and more contagious variants of the virus were also being discovered. The recovery journey looked long, with continued disruption to social relationships. The social cost of COVID-19 was only just beginning to emerge, but the mental health impact was already considerable, 2 3 and the inequality of the health burden stark. 4 Knowledge of the epidemiology of COVID-19 accrued rapidly, but evidence of the most effective policy responses remained uncertain.

The initial response to COVID-19 in the UK was reactive and aimed at reducing mortality, with little time to consider the social implications, including for interpersonal and community relationships. The terminology of ‘social distancing’ quickly became entrenched both in public and policy discourse. This equation of physical distance with social distance was regrettable, since only physical proximity causes viral transmission, whereas many forms of social proximity (eg, conversations while walking outdoors) are minimal risk, and are crucial to maintaining relationships supportive of health and well-being.

The aim of this essay is to explore four key relational mechanisms that were impacted by the pandemic and associated restrictions: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy. We use relational theories and emerging research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response to make three key recommendations: one regarding public health responses; and two regarding social recovery. Our understanding of these mechanisms stems from a ‘systems’ perspective which casts social relationships as interdependent elements within a connected whole. 5

Social networks

Social networks characterise the individuals and social connections that compose a system (such as a workplace, community or society). Social relationships range from spouses and partners, to coworkers, friends and acquaintances. They vary across many dimensions, including, for example, frequency of contact and emotional closeness. Social networks can be understood both in terms of the individuals and relationships that compose the network, as well as the overall network structure (eg, how many of your friends know each other).

Social networks show a tendency towards homophily, or a phenomenon of associating with individuals who are similar to self. 6 This is particularly true for ‘core’ network ties (eg, close friends), while more distant, sometimes called ‘weak’ ties tend to show more diversity. During the height of COVID-19 restrictions, face-to-face interactions were often reduced to core network members, such as partners, family members or, potentially, live-in roommates; some ‘weak’ ties were lost, and interactions became more limited to those closest. Given that peripheral, weaker social ties provide a diversity of resources, opinions and support, 7 COVID-19 likely resulted in networks that were smaller and more homogenous.

Such changes were not inevitable nor necessarily enduring, since social networks are also adaptive and responsive to change, in that a disruption to usual ways of interacting can be replaced by new ways of engaging (eg, Zoom). Yet, important inequalities exist, wherein networks and individual relationships within networks are not equally able to adapt to such changes. For example, individuals with a large number of newly established relationships (eg, university students) may have struggled to transfer these relationships online, resulting in lost contacts and a heightened risk of social isolation. This is consistent with research suggesting that young adults were the most likely to report a worsening of relationships during COVID-19, whereas older adults were the least likely to report a change. 8

Lastly, social connections give rise to emergent properties of social systems, 9 where a community-level phenomenon develops that cannot be attributed to any one member or portion of the network. For example, local area-based networks emerged due to geographic restrictions (eg, stay-at-home orders), resulting in increases in neighbourly support and local volunteering. 10 In fact, research suggests that relationships with neighbours displayed the largest net gain in ratings of relationship quality compared with a range of relationship types (eg, partner, colleague, friend). 8 Much of this was built from spontaneous individual interactions within local communities, which together contributed to the ‘community spirit’ that many experienced. 11 COVID-19 restrictions thus impacted the personal social networks and the structure of the larger networks within the society.

Social support

Social support, referring to the psychological and material resources provided through social interaction, is a critical mechanism through which social relationships benefit health. In fact, social support has been shown to be one of the most important resilience factors in the aftermath of stressful events. 12 In the context of COVID-19, the usual ways in which individuals interact and obtain social support have been severely disrupted.

One such disruption has been to opportunities for spontaneous social interactions. For example, conversations with colleagues in a break room offer an opportunity for socialising beyond one’s core social network, and these peripheral conversations can provide a form of social support. 13 14 A chance conversation may lead to advice helpful to coping with situations or seeking formal help. Thus, the absence of these spontaneous interactions may mean the reduction of indirect support-seeking opportunities. While direct support-seeking behaviour is more effective at eliciting support, it also requires significantly more effort and may be perceived as forceful and burdensome. 15 The shift to homeworking and closure of community venues reduced the number of opportunities for these spontaneous interactions to occur, and has, second, focused them locally. Consequently, individuals whose core networks are located elsewhere, or who live in communities where spontaneous interaction is less likely, have less opportunity to benefit from spontaneous in-person supportive interactions.

However, alongside this disruption, new opportunities to interact and obtain social support have arisen. The surge in community social support during the initial lockdown mirrored that often seen in response to adverse events (eg, natural disasters 16 ). COVID-19 restrictions that confined individuals to their local area also compelled them to focus their in-person efforts locally. Commentators on the initial lockdown in the UK remarked on extraordinary acts of generosity between individuals who belonged to the same community but were unknown to each other. However, research on adverse events also tells us that such community support is not necessarily maintained in the longer term. 16

Meanwhile, online forms of social support are not bound by geography, thus enabling interactions and social support to be received from a wider network of people. Formal online social support spaces (eg, support groups) existed well before COVID-19, but have vastly increased since. While online interactions can increase perceived social support, it is unclear whether remote communication technologies provide an effective substitute from in-person interaction during periods of social distancing. 17 18 It makes intuitive sense that the usefulness of online social support will vary by the type of support offered, degree of social interaction and ‘online communication skills’ of those taking part. Youth workers, for instance, have struggled to keep vulnerable youth engaged in online youth clubs, 19 despite others finding a positive association between amount of digital technology used by individuals during lockdown and perceived social support. 20 Other research has found that more frequent face-to-face contact and phone/video contact both related to lower levels of depression during the time period of March to August 2020, but the negative effect of a lack of contact was greater for those with higher levels of usual sociability. 21 Relatedly, important inequalities in social support exist, such that individuals who occupy more socially disadvantaged positions in society (eg, low socioeconomic status, older people) tend to have less access to social support, 22 potentially exacerbated by COVID-19.

Social and interactional norms

Interactional norms are key relational mechanisms which build trust, belonging and identity within and across groups in a system. Individuals in groups and societies apply meaning by ‘approving, arranging and redefining’ symbols of interaction. 23 A handshake, for instance, is a powerful symbol of trust and equality. Depending on context, not shaking hands may symbolise a failure to extend friendship, or a failure to reach agreement. The norms governing these symbols represent shared values and identity; and mutual understanding of these symbols enables individuals to achieve orderly interactions, establish supportive relationship accountability and connect socially. 24 25

Physical distancing measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 radically altered these norms of interaction, particularly those used to convey trust, affinity, empathy and respect (eg, hugging, physical comforting). 26 As epidemic waves rose and fell, the work to negotiate these norms required intense cognitive effort; previously taken-for-granted interactions were re-examined, factoring in current restriction levels, own and (assumed) others’ vulnerability and tolerance of risk. This created awkwardness, and uncertainty, for example, around how to bring closure to an in-person interaction or convey warmth. The instability in scripted ways of interacting created particular strain for individuals who already struggled to encode and decode interactions with others (eg, those who are deaf or have autism spectrum disorder); difficulties often intensified by mask wearing. 27

Large social gatherings—for example, weddings, school assemblies, sporting events—also present key opportunities for affirming and assimilating interactional norms, building cohesion and shared identity and facilitating cooperation across social groups. 28 Online ‘equivalents’ do not easily support ‘social-bonding’ activities such as singing and dancing, and rarely enable chance/spontaneous one-on-one conversations with peripheral/weaker network ties (see the Social networks section) which can help strengthen bonds across a larger network. The loss of large gatherings to celebrate rites of passage (eg, bar mitzvah, weddings) has additional relational costs since these events are performed by and for communities to reinforce belonging, and to assist in transitioning to new phases of life. 29 The loss of interaction with diverse others via community and large group gatherings also reduces intergroup contact, which may then tend towards more prejudiced outgroup attitudes. While online interaction can go some way to mimicking these interaction norms, there are key differences. A sense of anonymity, and lack of in-person emotional cues, tends to support norms of polarisation and aggression in expressing differences of opinion online. And while online platforms have potential to provide intergroup contact, the tendency of much social media to form homogeneous ‘echo chambers’ can serve to further reduce intergroup contact. 30 31

Intimacy relates to the feeling of emotional connection and closeness with other human beings. Emotional connection, through romantic, friendship or familial relationships, fulfils a basic human need 32 and strongly benefits health, including reduced stress levels, improved mental health, lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease. 32 33 Intimacy can be fostered through familiarity, feeling understood and feeling accepted by close others. 34

Intimacy via companionship and closeness is fundamental to mental well-being. Positively, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered opportunities for individuals to (re)connect and (re)strengthen close relationships within their household via quality time together, following closure of many usual external social activities. Research suggests that the first full UK lockdown period led to a net gain in the quality of steady relationships at a population level, 35 but amplified existing inequalities in relationship quality. 35 36 For some in single-person households, the absence of a companion became more conspicuous, leading to feelings of loneliness and lower mental well-being. 37 38 Additional pandemic-related relational strain 39 40 resulted, for some, in the initiation or intensification of domestic abuse. 41 42

Physical touch is another key aspect of intimacy, a fundamental human need crucial in maintaining and developing intimacy within close relationships. 34 Restrictions on social interactions severely restricted the number and range of people with whom physical affection was possible. The reduction in opportunity to give and receive affectionate physical touch was not experienced equally. Many of those living alone found themselves completely without physical contact for extended periods. The deprivation of physical touch is evidenced to take a heavy emotional toll. 43 Even in future, once physical expressions of affection can resume, new levels of anxiety over germs may introduce hesitancy into previously fluent blending of physical and verbal intimate social connections. 44

The pandemic also led to shifts in practices and norms around sexual relationship building and maintenance, as individuals adapted and sought alternative ways of enacting sexual intimacy. This too is important, given that intimate sexual activity has known benefits for health. 45 46 Given that social restrictions hinged on reducing household mixing, possibilities for partnered sexual activity were primarily guided by living arrangements. While those in cohabiting relationships could potentially continue as before, those who were single or in non-cohabiting relationships generally had restricted opportunities to maintain their sexual relationships. Pornography consumption and digital partners were reported to increase since lockdown. 47 However, online interactions are qualitatively different from in-person interactions and do not provide the same opportunities for physical intimacy.

Recommendations and conclusions

In the sections above we have outlined the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted social relationships, showing how relational mechanisms key to health have been undermined. While some of the damage might well self-repair after the pandemic, there are opportunities inherent in deliberative efforts to build back in ways that facilitate greater resilience in social and community relationships. We conclude by making three recommendations: one regarding public health responses to the pandemic; and two regarding social recovery.

Recommendation 1: explicitly count the relational cost of public health policies to control the pandemic

Effective handling of a pandemic recognises that social, economic and health concerns are intricately interwoven. It is clear that future research and policy attention must focus on the social consequences. As described above, policies which restrict physical mixing across households carry heavy and unequal relational costs. These include for individuals (eg, loss of intimate touch), dyads (eg, loss of warmth, comfort), networks (eg, restricted access to support) and communities (eg, loss of cohesion and identity). Such costs—and their unequal impact—should not be ignored in short-term efforts to control an epidemic. Some public health responses—restrictions on international holiday travel and highly efficient test and trace systems—have relatively small relational costs and should be prioritised. At a national level, an earlier move to proportionate restrictions, and investment in effective test and trace systems, may help prevent escalation of spread to the point where a national lockdown or tight restrictions became an inevitability. Where policies with relational costs are unavoidable, close attention should be paid to the unequal relational impact for those whose personal circumstances differ from normative assumptions of two adult families. This includes consideration of whether expectations are fair (eg, for those who live alone), whether restrictions on social events are equitable across age group, religious/ethnic groupings and social class, and also to ensure that the language promoted by such policies (eg, households; families) is not exclusionary. 48 49 Forethought to unequal impacts on social relationships should thus be integral to the work of epidemic preparedness teams.

Recommendation 2: intelligently balance online and offline ways of relating

A key ingredient for well-being is ‘getting together’ in a physical sense. This is fundamental to a human need for intimate touch, physical comfort, reinforcing interactional norms and providing practical support. Emerging evidence suggests that online ways of relating cannot simply replace physical interactions. But online interaction has many benefits and for some it offers connections that did not exist previously. In particular, online platforms provide new forms of support for those unable to access offline services because of mobility issues (eg, older people) or because they are geographically isolated from their support community (eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youth). Ultimately, multiple forms of online and offline social interactions are required to meet the needs of varying groups of people (eg, LGBTQ, older people). Future research and practice should aim to establish ways of using offline and online support in complementary and even synergistic ways, rather than veering between them as social restrictions expand and contract. Intelligent balancing of online and offline ways of relating also pertains to future policies on home and flexible working. A decision to switch to wholesale or obligatory homeworking should consider the risk to relational ‘group properties’ of the workplace community and their impact on employees’ well-being, focusing in particular on unequal impacts (eg, new vs established employees). Intelligent blending of online and in-person working is required to achieve flexibility while also nurturing supportive networks at work. Intelligent balance also implies strategies to build digital literacy and minimise digital exclusion, as well as coproducing solutions with intended beneficiaries.

Recommendation 3: build stronger and sustainable localised communities

In balancing offline and online ways of interacting, there is opportunity to capitalise on the potential for more localised, coherent communities due to scaled-down travel, homeworking and local focus that will ideally continue after restrictions end. There are potential economic benefits after the pandemic, such as increased trade as home workers use local resources (eg, coffee shops), but also relational benefits from stronger relationships around the orbit of the home and neighbourhood. Experience from previous crises shows that community volunteer efforts generated early on will wane over time in the absence of deliberate work to maintain them. Adequately funded partnerships between local government, third sector and community groups are required to sustain community assets that began as a direct response to the pandemic. Such partnerships could work to secure green spaces and indoor (non-commercial) meeting spaces that promote community interaction. Green spaces in particular provide a triple benefit in encouraging physical activity and mental health, as well as facilitating social bonding. 50 In building local communities, small community networks—that allow for diversity and break down ingroup/outgroup views—may be more helpful than the concept of ‘support bubbles’, which are exclusionary and less sustainable in the longer term. Rigorously designed intervention and evaluation—taking a systems approach—will be crucial in ensuring scale-up and sustainability.

The dramatic change to social interaction necessitated by efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 created stark challenges but also opportunities. Our essay highlights opportunities for learning, both to ensure the equity and humanity of physical restrictions, and to sustain the salutogenic effects of social relationships going forward. The starting point for capitalising on this learning is recognition of the disruption to relational mechanisms as a key part of the socioeconomic and health impact of the pandemic. In recovery planning, a general rule is that what is good for decreasing health inequalities (such as expanding social protection and public services and pursuing green inclusive growth strategies) 4 will also benefit relationships and safeguard relational mechanisms for future generations. Putting this into action will require political will.

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Twitter @karenmaxSPHSU, @Mark_McCann, @Rwilsonlowe, @KMitchinGlasgow

Contributors EL and KM led on the manuscript conceptualisation, review and editing. SP, KM, CB, RBP, RL, MM, JR, KS and RW-L contributed to drafting and revising the article. All authors assisted in revising the final draft.

Funding The research reported in this publication was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/1, MC_UU_00022/3) and the Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU11, SPHSU14). EL is also supported by MRC Skills Development Fellowship Award (MR/S015078/1). KS and MM are also supported by a Medical Research Council Strategic Award (MC_PC_13027).

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

• The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
• The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
• The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
• Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

• Are my experiences different from others’?
• Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
• Am I aware of my privilege?
• Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
• Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

• One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
• One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
• Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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‘When Normal Life Stopped’: College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year

This year’s admissions essays became a platform for high school seniors to reflect on the pandemic, race and loss.

By Anemona Hartocollis

This year perhaps more than ever before, the college essay has served as a canvas for high school seniors to reflect on a turbulent and, for many, sorrowful year. It has been a psychiatrist’s couch, a road map to a more hopeful future, a chance to pour out intimate feelings about loneliness and injustice.

In response to a request from The New York Times, more than 900 seniors submitted the personal essays they wrote for their college applications. Reading them is like a trip through two of the biggest news events of recent decades: the devastation wrought by the coronavirus, and the rise of a new civil rights movement.

In the wake of the high-profile deaths of Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, students shared how they had wrestled with racism in their own lives. Many dipped their feet into the politics of protest, finding themselves strengthened by their activism, yet sometimes conflicted.

And in the midst of the most far-reaching pandemic in a century, they described the isolation and loss that have pervaded every aspect of their lives since schools suddenly shut down a year ago. They sought to articulate how they have managed while cut off from friends and activities they had cultivated for years.

To some degree, the students were responding to prompts on the applications, with their essays taking on even more weight in a year when many colleges waived standardized test scores and when extracurricular activities were wiped out.

This year the Common App, the nation’s most-used application, added a question inviting students to write about the impact of Covid-19 on their lives and educations. And universities like Notre Dame and Lehigh invited applicants to write about their reactions to the death of George Floyd, and how that inspired them to make the world a better place.

The coronavirus was the most common theme in the essays submitted to The Times, appearing in 393 essays, more than 40 percent. Next was the value of family, coming up in 351 essays, but often in the context of other issues, like the pandemic and race. Racial justice and protest figured in 342 essays.

“We find with underrepresented populations, we have lots of people coming to us with a legitimate interest in seeing social justice established, and they are looking to see their college as their training ground for that,” said David A. Burge, vice president for enrollment management at George Mason University.

Family was not the only eternal verity to appear. Love came up in 286 essays; science in 128; art in 110; music in 109; and honor in 32. Personal tragedy also loomed large, with 30 essays about cancer alone.

Some students resisted the lure of current events, and wrote quirky essays about captaining a fishing boat on Cape Cod or hosting dinner parties. A few wrote poetry. Perhaps surprisingly, politics and the 2020 election were not of great interest.

Most students expect to hear where they were admitted by the end of March or beginning of April. Here are excerpts from a few of the essays, edited for length.

Nandini Likki

Nandini, a senior at the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati, took care of her father after he was hospitalized with Covid-19. It was a “harrowing” but also rewarding time, she writes.

When he came home, my sister and I had to take care of him during the day while my mom went to work. We cooked his food, washed his dishes, and excessively cleaned the house to make sure we didn’t get the disease as well.

It was an especially harrowing time in my life and my mental health suffered due to the amount of stress I was under.

However, I think I grew emotionally and matured because of the experience. My sister and I became more responsible as we took on more adult roles in the family. I grew even closer to my dad and learned how to bond with him in different ways, like using Netflix Party to watch movies together. Although the experience isolated me from most of my friends who couldn’t relate to me, my dad’s illness taught me to treasure my family even more and cherish the time I spend with them.

Nandini has been accepted at Case Western and other schools.

Grace Sundstrom

Through her church in Des Moines, Grace, a senior at Roosevelt High School, began a correspondence with Alden, a man who was living in a nursing home and isolated by the pandemic.

As our letters flew back and forth, I decided to take a chance and share my disgust about the treatment of people of color at the hands of police officers. To my surprise, Alden responded with the same sentiments and shared his experience marching in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Here we were, two people generations apart, finding common ground around one of the most polarizing subjects in American history.

When I arrived at my first Black Lives Matter protest this summer, I was greeted by the voices of singing protesters. The singing made me think of a younger Alden, stepping off the train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., to attend the 1963 March on Washington.

Grace has been admitted to Trinity University in San Antonio and is waiting to hear from others.

Ahmed AlMehri

Ahmed, who attends the American School of Kuwait, wrote of growing stronger through the death of his revered grandfather from Covid-19.

Fareed Al-Othman was a poet, journalist and, most importantly, my grandfather. Sept. 8, 2020, he fell victim to Covid-19. To many, he’s just a statistic — one of the “inevitable” deaths. But to me, he was, and continues to be, an inspiration. I understand the frustration people have with the restrictions, curfews, lockdowns and all of the tertiary effects of these things.

But I, personally, would go through it all a hundred times over just to have my grandfather back.

For a long time, things felt as if they weren’t going to get better. Balancing the grief of his death, school and the upcoming college applications was a struggle; and my stress started to accumulate. Covid-19 has taken a lot from me, but it has forced me to grow stronger and persevere. I know my grandfather would be disappointed if I had let myself use his death as an excuse to slack off.

Ahmed has been accepted by the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Miami and is waiting to hear from others.

Mina Rowland

Mina, who lives in a shelter in San Joaquin County, Calif., wrote of becoming homeless in middle school.

Despite every day that I continue to face homelessness, I know that I have outlets for my pain and anguish.

Most things that I’ve had in life have been destroyed, stolen, lost, or taken, but art and poetry shall be with me forever.

The stars in “Starry Night” are my tenacity and my hope. Every time I am lucky enough to see the stars, I am reminded of how far I’ve come and how much farther I can go.

After taking a gap year, Mina and her twin sister, Mirabell, have been accepted at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and are waiting on others.

Christine Faith Cabusay

Christine, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York, decided to break the isolation of the pandemic by writing letters to her friends.

How often would my friends receive something in the mail that was not college mail, a bill, or something they ordered online? My goal was to make opening a letter an experience. I learned calligraphy and Spencerian script so it was as if an 18th-century maiden was writing to them from her parlor on a rainy day.

Washing lines in my yard held an ever-changing rainbow of hand-recycled paper.

With every letter came a painting of something that I knew they liked: fandoms, animals, music, etc. I sprayed my favorite perfume on my signature on every letter because I read somewhere that women sprayed perfume on letters overseas to their partners in World War II; it made writing letters way more romantic (even if it was just to my close friends).

Christine is still waiting to hear from schools.

Alexis Ihezue

Her father’s death from complications of diabetes last year caused Alexis, a student at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Lawrenceville, Ga., to consider the meaning of love.

And in the midst of my grief swallowing me from the inside out, I asked myself when I loved him most, and when I knew he loved me. It’s nothing but brief flashes, like bits and pieces of a dream. I hear him singing “Fix You” by Coldplay on our way home, his hands across the table from me at our favorite wing spot that we went to weekly after school, him driving me home in the middle of a rainstorm, his last message to me congratulating me on making it to senior year.

It’s me finding a plastic spoon in the sink last week and remembering the obnoxious way he used to eat. I see him in bursts and flashes.

A myriad of colors and experiences. And I think to myself, ‘That’s what it is.’ It’s a second. It’s a minute. That’s what love is. It isn’t measured in years, but moments.

Alexis has been accepted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is waiting on others.

Ivy Wanjiku

She and her mother came to America “with nothing but each other and $100,” writes Ivy, who was born in Kenya and attends North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Ga.

I am a triple threat. Foreign, black, female. From the dirt roads and dust that covered the attire of my ancestors who worshiped the soil, I have sprouted new beginnings for generations.

But the question arises; will that generation live to see its day?

Melanin mistaken as a felon, my existence is now a hashtag that trends as often as my rights, a facade at best, a lie in truth. I now know more names of dead blacks than I do the amendments of the Constitution.

Ivy is going to Emory University in Atlanta on full scholarship and credits her essay with helping her get in.

Mary Clare Marshall

The isolation of the pandemic became worse when Mary Clare, a student at Sacred Heart Greenwich in Connecticut, realized that her mother had cancer.

My parents acted like everything was normal, but there were constant reminders of her diagnosis. After her first chemo appointment, I didn’t acknowledge the change. It became real when she came downstairs one day without hair.

No one said anything about the change. It just happened. And it hit me all over again. My mom has cancer.

Even after going to Catholic school for my whole life, I couldn’t help but be angry at God. I felt myself experiencing immense doubt in everything I believe in. Unable to escape my house for any small respite, I felt as though I faced the reality of my mom’s cancer totally alone.

Mary Clare has been admitted to the University of Virginia and is waiting on other schools.

Nora Frances Kohnhorst

Nora, a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in New York, was always “a serial dabbler,” but found commitment in a common pandemic hobby.

In March, when normal life stopped, I took up breadmaking. This served a practical purpose. The pandemic hit my neighborhood in Queens especially hard, and my parents were afraid to go to the store. This forced my family to come up with ways to avoid shopping. I decided I would learn to make sourdough using recipes I found online. Initially, some loaves fell flat, others were too soft inside, and still more spread into strange blobs.

I reminded myself that the bread didn’t need to be perfect, just edible.

It didn’t matter what it looked like; there was no one to see or eat it besides my brother and parents. They depended on my new activity, and that dependency prevented me from repeating the cycle of trying a hobby, losing steam, and moving on to something new.

Nora has been admitted to SUNY Binghamton and the University of Vermont and is waiting to hear from others.

Gracie Yong Ying Silides

Gracie, a student at Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, recalls the “red thread” of a Chinese proverb and wonders where it will take her next.

Destiny has led me into a mysterious place these last nine months: isolation. At a time in my life when I am supposed to be branching out, the Covid pandemic seems to have trimmed those branches back to nubs. I have had to research colleges without setting foot on them. I’ve introduced myself to strangers through essays, videos, and test scores.

I would have fallen apart over this if it weren’t for my faith.

In Hebrews 11:1, Paul says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” My life has shown me that the red thread of destiny guides me where I need to go. Though it might sound crazy, I trust that the red thread is guiding me to the next phase of my journey.

Gracie has been accepted to St. Olaf College, Ithaca College and others.

Levi, a student at Westerville Central High School in Ohio, wrestles with the conflict between her admiration for her father, a police officer, and the negative image of the police.

Since I was a small child I have watched my father put on his dark blue uniform to go to work protecting and serving others. He has always been my hero. As the African-American daughter of a police officer, I believe in what my father stands for, and I am so proud of him because he is not only my protector, but the protector of those I will likely never know. When I was young, I imagined him always being a hero to others, just as he was to me. How could anyone dislike him??? However, as I have gotten older and watched television and social media depict the brutalization of African-Americans, at the hands of police, I have come to a space that is uncomfortable.

I am certain there are others like me — African-Americans who love their police officer family members, yet who despise what the police are doing to African-Americans.

I know that I will not be able to rectify this problem alone, but I want to be a part of the solution where my paradox no longer exists.

Levi has been accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and is waiting to hear from others.

Henry Thomas Egan

When Henry, a student at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, attended a protest after the death of George Floyd, it was the words of a Nina Simone song that stayed with him.

I had never been to a protest before; neither my school, nor my family, nor my city are known for being outspoken. Thousands lined the intersection in all four directions, chanting, “He couldn’t breathe! George Floyd couldn’t breathe!”

In my head, thoughts of hunger, injustice, and silence swirled around.

In my ears, I heard lyrics playing on a speaker nearby, a song by Nina Simone: “To be young, gifted, and Black!” The experience was exceptionally sad and affirming and disorienting at the same time, and when the police arrived and started firing tear gas, I left. A lot has happened in my life over these last four years. I am left not knowing how to sort all of this out and what paths I should follow.

Henry has not yet heard back from colleges.

Anna Valades

Anna, a student at Coronado High School in California, pondered how children learned racism from their parents.

“She said I wasn’t invited to her birthday party because I was black,” my sister had told my mom, devastated, after coming home from third grade as the only classmate who had not been invited to the party. Although my sister is not black, she is a dark-skinned Mexican, and brown-skinned people in Mexico are thought of as being a lower class and commonly referred to as “negros.” When my mom found out who had been discriminating against my sister, she later informed me that the girl’s mother had also bullied my mom about her skin tone when she was in elementary school in Mexico City.

Through this situation, I learned the impact people’s upbringing and the values they are taught at home have on their beliefs and, therefore, their actions.

Anna has been accepted at Northeastern University and is waiting to hear from others.

Research was contributed by Asmaa Elkeurti, Aidan Gardiner, Pierre-Antoine Louis and Jake Frankenfield.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national correspondent, covering higher education. She is also the author of the book, “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the Music That Changed Their Lives Forever.” More about Anemona Hartocollis

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The COVID-19 pandemic as a scientific and social challenge in the 21st century

Vassilios zoumpourlis.

1 Biomedical Applications Unit, Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), 11635 Athens, Greece

Maria Goulielmaki

Emmanouil rizos.

2 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, 2nd Department of Psychiatry, University ‘ATTIKON’ General Hospital, 12462 Athens, Greece

Stella Baliou

Demetrios a. spandidos.

3 Laboratory of Clinical Virology, Medical School, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece

Associated Data

Not applicable.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has spread around the globe with unprecedented consequences for the health of millions of people. While the pandemic is still in progress, with new incidents being reported every day, the resilience of the global society is constantly being challenged. Under these circumstances, the future seems uncertain. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has spread panic among civilians and insecurity at all socio-political and economic levels, dramatically disrupting everyday life, global economy, international travel and trade. The disease has also been linked to the onset of depression in many individuals due to the extreme restriction measures that have been taken for the prevention of the rapid spreading of COVID-19. First, the socio-economic, political and psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. Substantial evidence is provided for the consequences of the pandemic on all aspects of everyday life, while at the same time we unravel the role and the pursuits of national regimes during this unforeseen situation. The second goal of this review is related to the scientific aspect of the pandemic. Hence, we explain why SARS-CoV-2 is not a so-called ‘invisible enemy’, and also attempt to give insight regarding the origin of the virus, in an effort to reject the conspiracy theories that have arisen during the pandemic. Finally, rational strategies were investigated for successful vaccine development. We are optimistic that this review will complement the knowledge of specialized scientists and inform non-specialized readers on basic scientific questions, and also on the social and economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Introduction

What we have experienced during the current pandemic is an unprecedented situation with World War characteristics. For younger generations who have heard about the World War II only through the stories of our parents and grandparents, books, movies and documentaries, the current situation will be recorded in our memories as a modern form of a new World War.

2. Death and the solitude of the dead

For many people, this period of the pandemic will be recorded in their memory as a tragedy, as they have lost either loved ones or their jobs and look forward to the future with great uncertainty. ‘ Everyone dies like dogs, like pigs, I'm not ashamed to admit that. It's not fair that dad died like that. People say they were old, they were sick. But he was my father, he was not old and he was not sick […]. Here in Val Seriana you can only hear the sirens of ambulances and the bells of mourning ’ ( 1 ). This was the testimony of a young lady from the tormented Italian city of Bergamo. Italy is one the seven largest International Monetary Fund (IMF)-advanced economies in the world, which comprise the Group of 7 (G7). Such a ‘major advanced economy’ could not provide its doctors with safe masks, such a ‘great industrial power’ ran out of gloves and consumables, like most other affluent countries in the world, resulting in the infection and death of doctors and nurses, the frontline fighters who had been discredited and insulted before the pandemic and praised and applauded during its progression. Tragedies were the suicides of nurses due to their inability to cope with the insurmountable pressure and the burden of many patient deaths. Furthermore, lamentable news of unclaimed dead people in USA and Italy reminded the inhumanity of the society. The sense of unbearable solitude has been overwhelming as if their death did not matter to anyone. No one cared, at least not enough to pay their last respects to the dead.

3. Many questions arise from the words ‘cost-profit’

There are many questions concerning the frequency of zoonotic virus-related epidemics and pandemics in the last twenty years, the strengths and weaknesses of various health systems around the world and the weakness of the ‘developed’ world to cope with the ‘invisible viral invaders - enemies’ of public health, in the 21st century and during the so-called 4th industrial revolution. However, if one was to take into account all of these questions together, one basic question would emerge; how much is the life or death of a fellow human worth in the 21st century? In the era of the current pandemic, the answer to such a question, and all types of questions related to it, is defined by a ‘cost-benefit’ assessment, entangled with the existing social system. The current prevailing approach of minimising expenditure and maximising profit, limits the potential of the public health sector, with consequences that have become evident during the current pandemic.

The Latin-American revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, physician by training, stated that ‘ the life of a single human being is worth a million time more than all the property of the richest man on earth ’ and he continued: ‘ medicine will have to convert itself into a science that serves to prevent disease and orients the public toward carrying out its medical duties. Medicine should only intervene in cases of extreme urgency, to perform surgery or something else which lies outside the skills of the people ’ ( 2 ).

In the antipodes of these views, lie the statements made by the Bundestag president and former finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. While Germany was mourning the deaths of more than 5,600 people from the new coronavirus, and was yet to calculate the damage caused by the quarantine to the state's economy, Schäuble warned that the state cannot solve all the problems and argued that he did not consider politics obliged to plan everything out in order to protect human life. Referring to the relaxation of restrictive measures, Schäuble stated that ‘ we cannot trust the decision exclusively to epidemiologists, but we must also weigh the significant economic, social, psychological or other consequences. If we close everything for two years, the consequences will be terrible ’. And he concluded: ‘ When I hear that everything is receding in front of the protection of human life, I must say that this is not absolute. The basic human rights have to be restricted on both sides. If there is one absolute value in our Constitution, it is human dignity. This is inviolable. But that doesn't rule out that one day we will die ’ ( 3 ).

4. The ‘invisible enemy’ from a scientific perspective

The two-month confinement due to the restrictive measures, formed the basis for us to reflect on ourselves our friends and family and society, and appreciate the concepts of solidarity, volunteering and sacrifice. Member of the scientific community were also concerned about news reports describing the new coronavirus as an ‘invisible enemy’.

The phrase ‘invisible enemy’ sounds almost metaphysical to scientists. In a way it takes us back to the dark ages, when mankind lacked scientific knowledge and technological tools. Such expressions deconstruct rational thinking when one tries to identify the causality of a phenomenon, reinforcing conspiracy theories about new biological weapons or secret and uncontrollable forces. They support the idea that the world is falling apart and that we are unable to reverse this process and, most importantly, to envision a new world that has mankind in its focal point. They give us the impression that invisible enemy forces are conspiring against us, while the confinement measures which isolate us from the community, reinforce these existential crises. Terrifying television news reports are enhancing these effects: In Russia, civilians have been monitored by cameras in every building block and the offenders have been tracked down in real time by the nearby police ( 4 ). Dozens of robots have been released in the centre of Tunis, patrolling and checking whether civilians comply with the COVID-19 restrictive measures ( 5 ): pedestrians are no longer inspected by police officers, but by robots, the so-called P-Guards, which behave exactly like officers, stopping pedestrians and asking for personal documents. Robots, of course, function through an intercom system. The officers at the Ministry of Interior are the ones giving the orders that are executed by the robots. In the streets of Israel, armed soldiers have been inspecting whether the measures against the coronavirus are being followed by the residents ( 6 ). To many, the coronavirus pandemic serves as an excuse for a global-scale exercise, aiming to control social consciousness. A variety of weapons from the quiver are used: conspiracy theories regarding the construction of SARS-CoV-2 in a secret laboratory in Wuhan, China, a special phraseology regarding an ‘invisible enemy’, which is unfortunately adopted by some science spokesmen, the constant display of images that reinforce fear and panic by the media, the presentation of the state as consistent with its duties, and most importantly, the notion that the course of the pandemic is being defined by the responsibility of the individuals instead of the establishment of a robust public health system. The results of this exercise will be manifested in the post-epidemic era and in the context of a new global economic recession that is already taking place.

The dynamics and connotations of words and images, can influence or even transform the consciousness of each individual to a certain extent and, consequently, affect social consciousness. Rarely is a word neutral. It carries our energy and our aim with it. Modern science (neurology, biology, anthropology, linguistics, etc.) can confirm this notion, as every single word is a process of thoughts that are the result of hormonal, biochemical and metabolic alterations, and electrical charges or discharges of our neurons ( 7 ). We should not forget that the main goal of the targeter is to look indeterminable, incomprehensible, inaccessible, powerful, invincible, and invisible if possible (here we are not referring to SARS-CoV-2, but to the economic elite that define global social policies). When the root of the problem is traced within the DNA of the targeter, in our attempt to defend ourselves to survive the attack and to confront the enemy, we must come up with a plan for its total elimination. It is important to first record and then analyze the targeter's plan. We must study its purpose, what it seeks from its target, which in this case is us. Marx has already answered these questions as early as mid-19th century, with the phrase ‘ The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it ’ ( 8 ). For such a change it is necessary for the targeter to become the target and for the target to become the targeter, in the context of a scientific plan for social transformation that will move us, excite us and, as a shining star, guide us into the future. And in these imprinted thoughts we must search where they come from and where they may lead us to. Only then will we be able to understand whether they are good or bad. As Hölderlin wrote in ‘Patmos’: ‘ But where there is danger, Salvation also grows’ . It is a nice expression of the Heraclitean struggle of the opposites ( 9 ), which at the socio-political level may be translated as the struggle of the social classes.

5. Is SARS-CoV-2 indeed invisible?

The total number of publications on the new coronavirus (nCoV-2019) since the first reported case in China, is impressive. Notably, until the 16th June 2020, 22,792 articles related to COVID-19 had been published in PubMed-indexed journals ( Fig. 1 ), as well as 5,244 pre-prints in medRxiv and bioRxiv. These numbers give a very important message: The scientific community is alert, and most importantly, that SARS-CοV-2 is not ‘invisible’ and, hopefully, not invincible for too long.

Graphic presentation of the total number of publications per month regarding SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentation is of the monthly number of publications that were recorded in PubMed, from the 1st of December 2019, i.e., the first recorded case, until the 16th of June 2020.

Surely, when it first emerged, the virus was unknown, and so was its relation to the human immune system, and its general pathophysiology. Today, however, following the identification of more than 11 million cases through the use of specific molecular tests and the recovery of millions of patients, we know that the immune system reacts adequately in the vast majority of the cases. The clinical manifestations of the virus and its unique behaviour towards various vulnerable groups have been recorded in detail. There are asymptomatic and slightly symptomatic people who do not get sick, but act as carriers and reservoirs for the disease. A large number of data already exists on the genetic identity of the various strains of the virus. The genomes of many thousand different viral strains have been sequenced. SARS-CoV-2 is the 7th coronavirus to be historically recorded and using bioinformatic tools, it has been classified as a member of the Coronaviridae β family ( 10 ). The coronaviruses responsible for the SARS and MERS epidemics ( 10 – 12 ), that were discovered in 2002 and 2012, respectively, also belong to the group of β-coronaviruses; SARS-CoV-2 genome is composed of 30,000 bases, harbouring approximately 10 genes, with functions that are implicated in viral structure and function ( 10 ). Viral spike proteins interact with their receptors on the surface of epithelial cells ( 10 – 12 ). A study including SARS-CoV-2 genomes from 7,666 patients with COVID-19 from around the world, identified 198 recurrent genetic mutations of the virus, which appear to have occurred independently, more than once ( 13 ). The main conclusions from this study highlight the following: i) A large portion of the global gene diversity of the new coronavirus has been recorded in all countries affected by the pandemic. This finding indicates that there has been an extensive transmission of the virus on a global scale since the very early stages of the epidemic, which also means that in most countries there has not been a single ‘patient zero’, but more likely, the virus has intruded independently several times and via different routes. ii) New phylogenetic findings confirm that the virus emerged towards the end of 2019, before it began its rapid global transmission. iii) All coronavirus genomes from patients around the world appear to have originated from a common ancestor that seemed to emerge between 6th October and 11th December 2019. At that point, the new coronavirus must have been transmitted from an animal to the first human and to have caused an infection in that human. iv) Researchers believe it is highly unlikely that the coronavirus had been circulating among humans for a long time before it was detected in Wuhan, China, last December. v) Although the number of the detected mutations is large, this cannot thus far be correlated to the virulence and the severity of the virus. Several research teams around the world, including Greece, are conducting similar studies ( 14 ). The collection of a large number of genomic data and its correlation with the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 will lead to more accurate conclusions regarding the possibility of increased virulence due to frequent mutations, to the design of safe vaccines and therapeutics, as well as to our preparation for the possibility of an impending second wave of the pandemic. vi) A large number of mutations (15 in total) have been identified in the gene that encodes for the spike protein S (the protein that comes into contact with the target cell, e.g., lung epithelial cells), while other sites are far less frequently mutated and could, according to researchers, be much better targets for the development of effective therapeutics and vaccines ( 15 ).

6. The right strategy for vaccine development

Genomic analyses and the identification of highly conserved sequences will determine the right strategy for the design of vaccines and drugs with long lasting effects, which will not be easily evaded by the virus. For this purpose, Academic professionals of various scientific expertise (Molecular Biologists, Doctors, Epidemiologists, Statisticians, Pharmacists, Immunologists, Structural Biologists, Bioinformaticians, etc.) must work together in harmony in order to achieve the best possible result, i.e., an effective treatment against the new coronavirus. It is important to determine whether the already known viral mutations are beneficial or neutral or whether they contribute to the aggressiveness of the disease. This information can be reliably deduced from collaborative studies that combine clinical and demographic data with the type of mutations, the dynamics of mutations in the structure of the S protein, and the correlation of the altered S protein structure with the receptor protein of the host cell ( 15 ). Of particular interest are the 15 already known mutations in the gene that encode for the viral spike protein S which is essentially regarded as the tip of the viral spear, the first to come in contact with the receptor of the host cell. In this battle for viral replication, i.e., in the battle of ‘opposite pursuits’, some will be victorious and some will be defeated. For the patient, this is phenotypically translated into being asymptomatic, slightly symptomatic and symptomatic (diseased). Evolutionary Biology has taught us that mutations can be either beneficial, neutral, or harmful to the organism. This depends on how the mutation affects the survival and reproduction of each organism, including the new coronavirus. A more aggressive type of the new coronavirus has been found to account for approximately 70% of the 30 analysed strains, while only 30% of the analysed strains were associated with a less aggressive viral subtype. The most aggressive and deadly strain was identified in the early stages of the Wuhan epidemic, the Chinese city that the coronavirus first appeared in, and now scientists are trying to decode all possible mutations and to determine which strains have emerged in each geographic area ( 16 ).

Based on these data, the statement that the virus is ‘unknown’ or, even worse, an ‘invisible enemy’, is at the very best a statement made out of habit or, in the worst case scenario, a statement which could become offensive to the research scientists that are working on it.

Interestingly, more than 1,000,000 scientists are currently estimated to be involved in basic and clinical-epidemiological research on the new coronavirus worldwide. Plenty of information regarding the biology and the pathophysiology of the virus has already become available and this is perhaps the most optimistic message for a rational and effective design of therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19. At least 40 putative drugs are currently under evaluation in 500 clinical trials worldwide. Remdesivir and two immunomodulatory antibodies used in other diseases are already being tested against the coronavirus, and ongoing clinical trials will undoubtedly shed more light on the effectiveness of these drugs. The clinical trials on monoclonal antibodies that target the viral proteins (mainly the S protein) and inactivate the virus are also of significant interest, as they have been proven to be effective in many pre-clinical studies.

Based on the existing experience, it seems that one cannot apply the same anti-COVID-19 treatment to all patients; the type of treatment is highly dependent on the stage of the disease. In the early stages, antiviral factors that inhibit the viral reproduction enzymes, such as remdesivir, favipiravir, EIDD-2801, as well as antibodies against the viral proteins or the viral cellular receptor, ACE2, play a major role in effectively clearing the disease before it can progress to more advanced stages. In the advanced stages of the disease, however, immunomodulatory drugs, such as antibodies against IL-6, CCR5, and C5a receptors, as well as anti-coagulation drugs and drugs used in microvascular inflammatory disease, appear to be more effective ( 17 ).

In addition to the above therapeutic approaches, immunotherapy may also constitute another effective means against COVID-19, with significant research experience already gained in this field. People who have recovered from a coronavirus infection are being encouraged to donate their plasma for the treatment of other patients. Such studies are being conducted all over the world ( 17 ).

The high degree of initiative of a significant number of companies around the globe for the development of an effective vaccine against the new coronavirus is impressive. The very form of this pandemic, with its especially devastating consequences for global economy, the uncertainty of a new disease outbreak, and the small percentage of recorded immunity in the world's population ( 18 ), have put several companies of the most developed countries in a race of relentless competition. In such cases, there can only be one winner to receive the gold medal, although the rest may actually not lose too much, as the majority of these ‘losers’ will have received state funding; in this case the tax payers' money will have been used to ‘cushion’ the imminent recession they themselves will have caused with their laws of economy. The demand for the vaccine will be huge, the profit will exceed every expectation, and will therefore provide a secure investment ‘for the sake of humanity’.

Today, on 28th June 2020, there are as many as 40 programs on vaccine development, out of which 7 vaccines are already being tested in humans all over the world. Among the leading companies are CanSino Biologics (Beijing), which uses an adenoviral vector, and Sinovac (Beijing), which uses an inactivated virus (PiCoVacc). In the United Kingdom, researchers at the University of Oxford are testing the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine which includes an adenoviral vector and the spike protein S. In the United States, Inovio Pharmaceuticals is testing a DNA type vaccine. The American company Moderna has also developed an RNA vaccine in collaboration with NIH. There is also BNT162, a four-vaccine program developed by the German biotechnological company BioNTech and Pfizer pharmaceutics; the four vaccines represent different viral mRNA antigens that are used as targets ( 17 ). In addition, in early April, Veronika Skvortsova, the head of Russia's Federal Biomedical Agency (FMBA), announced that Russia had created seven novel anti-coronavirus vaccines ready to enter clinical trials ( 19 ). Experience with influenza virus has shown that vaccines are usually effective for 40–60% of the people who get vaccinated, but this rate is sufficient to control the infection fully within the community. In addition, anti-flu vaccines are modified yearly, in an effort to effectively protect against new strains.

7. The ‘competitive nature’ of man and reality

Those who dream of another, humanistic world, know very well that if all scattered scientific forces that are currently dealing with the vaccine against the coronavirus were united for a common purpose, i.e., to serve the supreme good of human health, in a continuous exchange and sharing of scientific knowledge, the goal of the vaccine would be realised much sooner, spending much less effort and funds. Others believe that competition acts as a catalyst for the realisation of the ultimate goal, which in this case is the production of the vaccine. Many also believe that competition is a basic characteristic of human nature. But there is another apprehension. Competition is not a characteristic of human nature as projected by certain socio-biologists who like to compare, and even equate, human societies with animal communities. Competition is not something that man carries since birth as a biological evolutionary trait. It appears only when the necessary social structures and relationships are formed, when a person or a group of people may possess materials of nature and means of production and the rest of the people act as their employees. Therefore, competition should be looked for within the social structures and in the relationships between people and the means of production. In other words, competition among people is a relationship that, if it were to be ablated, the ‘original’ non-competitive intellectual man, the Nietzschean superhuman, would emerge in a course of civilisation that would allow the realisation of one Utopia after another.

The hominization process of Homo sapiens was a huge leap forward in evolution. The conquest of nature by man began with the development of manual workmanship. The development of labour helped to strengthen the bonds of mutual assistance and joint activity. Mutual working activity has contributed to the need to communicate with articulated speech and language, which has been recorded in human history as culture. Therefore, because of work, humans were able to conquer the forces of nature, obliging them to serve their purpose. On the contrary, the animals adapt to the forces of nature and are not able to consciously influence them, to tame them. This is the most essential feature that distinguishes humans from animals.

To be in the position that he is today, Man has fought against the immense forces of nature, he has managed to subdue them and emerge victorious, because he had to respond to something deeper. He responded to the necessity to improve his life, to create culture. It is not by coincidence that many inventors who defined the course of humanity through their discoveries, apart from possessing scientific knowledge, they were inspired people, devoted to the common good. After all, the great meaning of life is for all humanity to enjoy the discoveries and inventions of the inspired creators. This is now known to require another social organisation plan that people will understand, believe in and fight for its realisation.

9. The extreme rivalries among the powerful of the world may have an economic basis

In the context of the ‘invisible enemy’, extreme rivalries have emerged among the powerful of the world. Some politicians, led by the US president, have insisted that the virus is a fabrication of China's secret laboratories ( 20 , 21 ). Such statements can be taken as seriously as those made by the President of the United States… solarium and disinfectant injections to treat the coronavirus infection. Respectively, China insists on denying allegations by the US government that it has been negligent in dealing with the epidemic and in not notifying the global community early enough ( 22 ). More specifically, through the newspaper ‘People's Daily’, China poses a series of questions to the US government, substantiated as follows: they accuse the US government that after ‘inadequately dealing with the outbreak’, they are now ‘shifting the responsibilities’ to China. In particular, they provoke the US government to provide answers regarding the sudden closure of the US Army's biological weapons laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, following a pneumonia outbreak and a simultaneous H1N1 virus epidemic last July. The Chinese also point out that two months after the exercise event 201 for a global pandemic, held by various US organizations in October 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, wondering as to a possible relevance between these events ( 22 ). They report that Robert Redfield, head of the CDC (US Infectious Diseases Center), also acknowledged that some of the COVID-19 victims had been diagnosed with the seasonal flu, which has killed more than 20,000 people since last September ( 23 ). The majority know from personal experience that ‘when the buffaloes fight, the frogs pay for it’, the frogs being the humble people around the world. It is certain that in the near future the economic rivalries among the most powerful will intensify, as can be understood from the information presented in Table I .

Estimated global ranking by GDP in PPP terms (2 billion US dollars at fixed 2016 prices) ( 24 ).

GDP, gross domestic product; PPP, purchasing power parity.

John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC and one of the authors of the relevant report, states the following: ‘ We will continue to see a shift in the global economic power from the advanced economies to the emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere. By 2050, the E7 countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey) will produce approximately 50% of the world GDP, while the share of the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA) will marginally exceed 20% ’ ( Table I ) ( 24 ).

10. There is irrefutable evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not only contagious but also highly related to social class

While the pandemic was still in its infancy in the United States, with a reported 400,000 cases and 13,000 deaths from the new coronavirus, statistical analyses revealed the following: In Chicago, African Americans make up 30% of the population, but they seem to account for 70% of the total number of people who have died from COVID-19 in this large city. In Illinois, the African-American population is 14%, yet the death toll in this sub-group is 41%. Similarly, in Milwaukee, African-Americans make up 26% of the population but the victims exceed 80%. Surely this picture is not unrelated to the social inequalities that reflect the material basis of racism in a country where the financially less-privileged cannot have access to either (private) insurance or healthy living conditions. According to the UN's International Labor Organization, 1.25 billion workers out of the world's 3.3 billion are at high risk of suffering ‘drastic and catastrophic’ consequences, such as layoffs and pay cuts, as a result of the economic measures taken during the pandemic ( 25 ).

According to a report published in Lancet which includes tens of thousands COVID-19 cases from China, depicting mortality rates per region of the country, it appears that in areas where the population had substantial access to satisfactory health care services, the mortality rate (deaths in % of patients) was 0–0.3%, while in areas where for various reasons there was no such possibility, the mortality rate was more than tenfold higher (3–5%) ( 26 ). In an ideal situation, however, if 10% of the 7 trillion (!) monetary funds held by the 500 Croesuses who make up 0.0000066% of the world's population were committed to helping those who are less-privileged financially, we would all feel that the pandemic was just an annoying nightmare that would go away the moment we opened our eyes. The virus is therefore contagious and social class-related as the effects of the various economic measures undertaken globally have been unequally distributed on existing social class territory ( 27 ).

A recent report from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) includes statistics on the number of coronavirus-related deaths (COVID-19) and the total number of deaths recorded in Scotland in the weeks 1 to 19 of 2020. Regarding COVID-19 deaths recorded in March and April 2020, it was observed that people in the most deprived areas were 2.3 times more likely to die of COVID than those living in the least deprived areas. If an area is recognized as deprived, this may be related to low-income, but it may also mean fewer resources or opportunities, such as employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing. In week 19 (4 to 10 May), the Health Board area with the highest number of deaths involving COVID-19 was Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 126 deaths (also the highest number of COVID-19 deaths to date: 1,038). The Health Board area with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths to date has also been Greater Glasgow and Clyde with 8.8 deaths per population of 10,000 ( Fig. 2 ) ( 28 ).

Deaths involving COVID-19 in Scotland. Registered between weeks 1 and 19 (beginning of year to 10th of May 2020), by the Health Board of residence, Scotland ( 28 ).

11. The conspiracy theories as an antidote to the scientific truth

The struggle for the ‘paternity’ of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between US and Chinese officials is indicative of the contradictions that exist between these two very powerful economic forces in the world ( 23 ).

Regardless of such statements made by political officials with powerful economic status, scientists must first and foremost use strict scientific criteria and, based on published scientific data, form an opinion as to the possibility, or not, of a laboratory construction of the virus with biological warfare purposes. Having acquired enough information on the new coronavirus, we dispel such myths and conspiracy theories.

Scenarios for a laboratory construction of the virus are based on the work entitled ‘A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence’ ( 26 ). In this report, the authors point out that the 2002–2003 emergence of SARS-CoV introduced the possibility of epidemics in human populations by viruses of animal origin and opened up a new topic for discussion in the scientific community. They also refer to influenza viruses (H5N1, H1N1, H7N9) and the MERS-CoV coronavirus, and point out that previous studies have demonstrated the existence of closely related SARS-like viral genes in Chinese bat populations. However, the authors conclude that the presence of SARS-like genes in bats alone does not mean that these are indeed SARS viruses, nor does it mean that they can infect humans. Based on these concerns, they introduced the question of whether these potentially SARS horseshoe bat viruses (mainly found in China) are capable of infecting humans and thereby of causing a new SARS epidemic ( 26 ).

The first approach, which included electronic simulation experiments, showed that no spike of the bat virus is predicted to attach to the human cell receptor. They then performed pseudotyping experiments; that is, they stripped a murine SARS virus of its genetic material, and re-coated it with the nucleocapsid of a horseshoe bat virus. In all cases, the pseudotyped viruses failed to infect both mouse and human cells. The latest experimental approach involved the use of chimeric viruses consisting of a SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone and a novel spike protein isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats, that is both the genetic material of a murine SARS virus with a bat spike protein encoding gene and a complete murine SARS virus capsid-enclosure (minus the bat spike protein). The recombinant viruses successfully managed to infect both mouse and human cells in vitro . In this case, the in vitro approaches served as an indication of what can happen in vivo . Following this, the researchers infected mice with the recombinant viruses and managed to cause SARS disease in these animals, with profound related symptoms. Young infected mice showed 10% weight loss with no reported deaths, whereas older mice presented with greater weight loss and low mortality rates. This way the research team managed to create an in vivo model to use as a platform for testing various therapeutic protocols. Antibodies to SARS-CoV (2002–2003 virus) had little or no effect on alleviating the disease in mice infected with the recombinant virus. In addition, the vaccine, developed against SARS-CoV (DIV), did not seem to offer any protection, but it produced significant side effects in these animals ( 26 ).

In their Nature Medicine report, the researchers also describe the experiments performed on the horseshoe bat virus. This virus infects both mouse and human cells but with a profound delay in viral replication. Infection of mice with the horseshoe bat virus did not seem to induce weight loss and viral replication was slow as compared to SARS-CoV. If we were to take into account all of the above experiments, i.e., the experiments with recombinant viruses and the experiments with the horseshoe bat virus, we could reach the following conclusion: in order for the horseshoe bat virus to become more infectious and to be able to infect humans, it would need to undergo additional adaptations or adjustments. Viruses can acquire these adaptations selectively, as for example when a bat virus crosses the species barrier and is passed on to an intermediate host. In the new host, the spike protein acquires the necessary adaptive mutations to facilitate improved infection and eventually the ability to infect humans. Another possibility is that humans are directly infected by the horseshoe bat virus and human contact with other animals that also carry the virus eventually leads to continuous human re-infections until, due to random mutational events, the deadly variant emerges ( 26 ).

Most likely, however, horseshoe bat viruses have the potential to infect humans. And since coronaviruses are well-known for their ability to easily recombine in nature, this recombination is suggested to take place in an intermediate host and to pass on to humans thereafter. In all cases, the best and perhaps most ideal place for this to happen is in the markets of the Far East, as indicated by the metagenomics data analysis of this review. In these places thousands of people gather in front of stalls selling all kinds of wild and domestic animals every day, from bats to pangolins, palm civets, hens, pigs, and whatever else comes to mind. These so-called wet markets, due to the animals being slaughtered on the spot, are characterized by high species interaction, which is regarded as the necessary prerequisite for continuous viral exchange (zoonoses) among these animals.

Notably, the 2015 report in Nature Medicine constituted a warning to the global scientific community, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the political powers of the world, before the emergence of the pandemic. Let it be clear to the scientific community as well as to the general public that the recombinant virus, built to fulfil the needs of the particular study, has nothing to do with COVID-19. The virus is therefore not ‘man-made’.

The genomic and bioinformatic analyses of the aforementioned studies, as well as the results of previous studies, confirm that the virus originated in bats and this way put an end to all conspiracy theories regarding this issue. In addition, despite the high sequence identity of SARS-CoV-2 to SARS-CoV and a bat coronavirus named RaTG13, it remains to be confirmed whether SARS-CoV-2 has other hosts in addition to bats ( 29 ). Of particular interest is that a Malayan pangolin-isolated coronavirus was shown to exhibit 100, 98.6, 97.8 and 90.7% amino acid identity with SARS-CoV-2 in the E, M, N and S genes, respectively, with the receptor-binding domain within the S protein of the Pangolin-CoV, in particular, being almost virtually identical to that of SARS-CoV-2 (one noncritical amino acid difference) ( 29 ). In addition, apart from the high percentage of Pangolin-CoV-infected animals (17 of 25 Malayan pangolins), circulating antibodies against Pangolin-CoV in these animals also appeared to react with the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. These results highly suggest that: i) recombination of a Pangolin-CoV-like virus with a Bat-CoV-RaTG13-like virus might have occurred as an initiating event for the formation of SARS-CoV-2; and ii) Malayan pangolins have the potential to act as the intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, thereby representing a future threat to public health if wildlife trade is not appropriately controlled ( 29 ).

In addition, Stylianos Antonarakis, the Greek professor of genetics at the University of Geneva and former president of the International Organization of the Human Genome (HUGO), has used bioinformatics tools to prove that the virus is not laboratory-made. His study was translated into a letter to Professor and Nobel-prize Laureate winner Luc Montagnier, who has repeatedly stated that the virus was man-made ( 30 ).

In his letter to Luc Montagnier, Professor Antonarakis stressed the following ( 31 ):

‘ You know very well that science is based on facts, not opinions, and therefore please forgive me for being sceptical about the accuracy of your statement. Using publicly available bioinformatics tools and virus genomes in international databases, I compared the coronavirus genome with the genome of HIV. I would like to remind the reader that the coronavirus has a genome that consists of an RNA chain and the total length of its genetic material is 29,903 ribonucleotides, which I will refer to as ‘letters’ from now on ’.

‘ To be precise, I compared the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus isolated from the city of Wuhan in China and submitted it to the public database Genbank on January 5th, 2020, with the accession number {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"MN908947.3","term_id":"1798172431","term_text":"MN908947.3"}} MN908947.3 . Please bear in mind that this is the first sequence of the new coronavirus submitted to the public database by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and the School of Public Health, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and published in the Nature journal. Comparison with the genome of the virus causing AIDS (taxid 11676) revealed a partial homology of 38 letters between the SARS-CoV-2 virus and HIV, as shown in the relevant graph ( Fig. 3 ) ’.

Partial homology between SARS-CoV-2 virus and HIV. On the top line are the letters of the coronavirus genome (from the letters 14,366 to 14,403) and below are the homologous part of the virus causing AIDS. The vertical lines show the identical letters between the two genomes.

‘ A-ha, you will say here with emphasis, Professor Montagnier, that your conclusion is correct. However, if you analyze the data a little more extensively and carefully, I strongly argue that your conclusion is completely wrong, for the following reasons: First: This homology of genomic letters has been found in all the members of the human coronavirus family that have been studied since 2004. Therefore, this precludes a recently performed laboratory manipulation on the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In addition, the same homology has also been found in many bat-coronaviruses that have also been identified several years ago ( 31 ). Second: this homology of genomic letters is also present in thousands of other viruses (distant cousins of coronaviruses) such as the infectious virus of bronchitis, chicken and turkey viruses of infectious bronchitis, and even rabies viruses. It is therefore obvious that this homology of the very small portion of the virus genome is a remnant of the evolutionary process of viral genomes in nature and not the result of laboratory manipulation ’.

‘ My intention, Professor Montagnier, is not to diminish the importance of your previous contribution to science and humanity, but to make it clear in a public forum that a careful examination of the data definitively rules out the possibility that this new virus may be a laboratory product ’.

Notably, new evidence suggests that a significant proportion of the population, mostly people who tend to be more dependent on social media for information, are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and less likely to follow official health advice and restriction measures ( 32 ). While the majority of extreme conspiracies have been banned from a significant number of electronic platforms, a wealth of conspiratorial material still exists on the big social media sites and continues to misinform and mislead the general public. In this context, unregulated social media misinformation may pose as a significant health risk to the general public by creating a negative association between health-protective behaviours and the spreading of COVID-19 ( 33 ).

In addition to the conspiracy theories on the nature and origins of the pandemic, two major study retractions have recently left scientists skeptical not only as to the quality of scientific research, but also regarding the efficacy of the peer review process and the credibility of respected medical journals ( 34 ). The first article, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, promised that commonly prescribed blood-pressure medication was safe to use by people infected by the new coronavirus, whereas the second article, published in the Lancet, issued a warning that the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine endangered the lives of coronavirus patients. Notably, the second retracted paper claimed to rely on detailed medical records from 96,000 COVID-19 patients at nearly 700 hospitals on six continents ( 35 ), yet the scientific community had not heard of this enormous international registry. Despite claims that these admissions, which in the space of one month turned into hasty retractions, were due to an eagerness to publish helpful information during the pandemic, the editor in chief of The Lancet, Dr Richard Horton, called the paper retracted by his journal a ‘ fabrication ’ and a ‘ monumental fraud ’ ( 34 ).

It appears that research during the pandemic is taking place at an unprecedented pace, with both journal editors and research scientists who donate time in the peer reviewing process being overwhelmed with new information, trying to understand the pathophysiology of the coronavirus, or to elucidate effective treatments and vaccines. And it is during this time, when the academic system has stretched its capacity thin, that political motivation seizes the opportunity to step in. Indeed, the politicization of the pandemic is suspected to have played a role in the article published in The Lancet, if only to rebuke the US President, Mr Donald Trump, who vigorously endorsed hydroxychloroquine as both preventive and curative treatment for COVID-19 ( 34 ). This study resulted in the WHO and other health organizations halting clinical trials before substantial reviews could be conducted on the safety of these anti-malarial drugs, with immediate repercussions for many thousand patients worldwide.

12. Thoughts regarding international research on the viral origins

Ahead of the General Assembly of the WHO on May 20–28, 2020, it seems that several proposals are being reviewed as part of an international research conduct on the origins of SARS-COV-2. On the 30th of April 2020, the Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren said that Sweden is planning to ask the European Union to push for the probe, stating ‘ When the global situation of COVID-19 is under control, it is both reasonable and important that an international, independent investigation be conducted to gain knowledge about the origin and spread of the coronavirus ’ ( 36 ). Accordingly, the UN envoy to China Chen Xu expressed backing for the WHO but said an invitation for the agency's experts to visit Wuhan to look into the origins of the coronavirus must wait until after the pandemic is beaten ( 37 ). Specifically, he said: ‘ First things first: The top priority for the time being is to focus on the fight against the pandemic. We need the right focus and allocation of our resources ’. All of the above can be seen as positive messages in a coordinated global effort to tackle COVID-19. In the end, it seems that of the few things that can unite the world, even if only temporarily, are the issues relating to the consequences of the current pandemic or the pandemics that will follow with ‘mathematical precision’

13. The lack of prevention strategies against the SARS- COV-2 pandemic

The reactions of the economically powerful countries of Europe and the United States to the upcoming pandemic have seemed rather surprising, and rather disappointing, to many of us Biomedical Scientists. After the first case in Wuhan, China, Chinese scientists isolated the virus and, with the help of high-tech RNA sequencing technology, classified it as a beta-coronavirus. Therefore, both the Global Scientific Community and the political powers of this world had in their hands two important elements: i) the sequence identity of the coronavirus; and ii) previous experience in dealing with epidemics caused by similar coronaviruses of the beta-coronavirus group (SARS-COV-1 and MERS-CoV). In addition, we have all been witnesses to the strict and vertical isolation measures taken in China, in the city of Wuhan with its population of 11 million people, since January 23, 2020 ( 38 ). There was detailed daily media coverage of how an entire city was quarantined and how the Chinese government managed to build an entire hospital within 2 weeks as well as a mask manufacturing facility. Apparently, the country that was first hit by the pandemic was faced with the most difficulties. However, the Chinese government seems to have reacted with incredible speed, possibly owing to its past communist experience and centralized powers. In the Western world we have watched with admiration how well the Chinese have reacted to prevent the spreading of SARS-CoV-2, which is reflected on the relatively small number of victims. It is also worth mentioning that China's National Health Committee had acknowledged from the start that the virus can be transmitted from one person to another, as well as that the new coronavirus is similar to the virus causing SARS, but that it does not seem to be as deadly, also stressing what is already known for viruses, that they sometimes mutate and become more dangerous to human health.

The WHO, via Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the coronavirus pandemic on March 11, 2020, when the number of infected cases already exceeded 118,000 in 114 countries and 4,291 people had already lost their lives worldwide ( 39 ). It was also noted that the pandemic was expected to cause additional problems in a larger number of countries. From that moment on, the whole planet was and still remains alert and anxious as to the emergence of a second wave of the pandemic.

14. Critical remarks

The WHO's decision to name the disease caused by the new coronavirus COVID-19 may have been unfortunate: this description (coronavirus disease 19) is indicative of previous coronaviruses and it therefore does not represent the dangerousness of SARS-CoV-2. They may have had the noblest of intentions not to cause panic, for example, but it seems now that we are in the 6th month of the pandemic since its outbreak in China that it did not help in the preparation of the states against it.

The delay by WHO in announcing the pandemic somehow acted reassuringly for all the countries of the world. With the announcement of the pandemic, panic spread across Europe and America ( 40 ). The feeling at that point was that the virus had entered many homes and would enter many more without as much as a warning or a ‘knock on the door’.

The worst scenario in such a situation (pandemic) is to be unprepared and disorganized, and the whole developed world was blatantly unprepared for such a serious problem. This is mainly due to the tremendous downgrading of the public health system worldwide. In our country this translates to i) a shortage of 30,000 doctors and auxiliary nursing staff; ii) Greece being the third country in the EU with the worst ratio of ICUs in relation to its population ( 41 ). According to EU data, Greece has only 6 ICU beds per 100,000 residents! iii) the downgrading and closure of Primary Health Care units and hospitals during the memorandum period; iv) the lack of protective material for nursing staff (e.g., appropriate masks) and respiratory equipment for patients; and v) the lack of staff and technological equipment for molecular tests.

Asian countries have reacted more efficiently in the face of the pandemic than the rest of the world. Hong Kong, for example, has slowed down the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 through a combination of intensive monitoring, quarantine and social distancing, and not by relying solely on the strict measures employed elsewhere. In January, authorities in Wuhan, where the coronavirus epidemic began, prohibited traveling outside the city in an effort to control the spreading of COVID-19. However, Hong Kong was based on a program that included extensive testing, isolation of those who had come in contact with infected people, and distancing measures such as closing schools. When Peng Wu at Hong Kong University and her colleagues conducted a residential survey in early March, 99% said that they wore a mask in public and 85% said that they avoided crowds. Public compliance with government measures kept viral spreading relatively low in Hong Kong until the end of March 2020.

Despite the fact that the WHO insisted on extensive molecular testing for the detection of the virus, much to the surprise of us Molecular Biologists, the whole of Europe and America seemed unable to respond. Indeed, it has been extremely difficult to perform these tests on a larger scale. Nonetheless, people working in the sectors of Biological Research and Biomedical Sciences know that it may not have been as hard to perform large scale molecular testing on the virus, if the following had been put to good use: i) In January and February 2020, the existing accredited laboratories could have been employed and organized in such a way as to be fully competent in performing the tests, with the addition of more such facilities in all the major reporting hospitals and wherever else it was deemed necessary; ii) the personnel capable of performing these tests should be selected; in this respect, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers in permanent employment positions could be selected even on a voluntary basis; iii) from the moment that the coronavirus RNA sequence was submitted to a public database there was enough time to organize these in-house tests. Postgraduate and PhD students in research laboratories throughout the country could have prepared these tests reliably. iv) PCR machines do not come at a high cost, which means that additional purchases could have been made. In Greece, for example, the 30 million euros that were given to private diagnostic companies to perform these tests, and who were unable to do so, and the samples were eventually sent to the Pasteur Institute and the Medical School of Athens, could have been used to purchase 1,000 state-of-the-art PCR machines, translating to a minimum dynamic testing of 1,000 samples by each machine daily. v) Primary health services and reference hospitals could aid in the development of a network of human resources that would ensure the efficient collection of samples and their rapid transport and testing in accredited laboratories.

Seventeen years have passed since the SARS epidemic and we still do not know what makes these coronaviruses so dangerous. It is unfortunate that there have been no funding policies for the coronaviruses, both at the European level and globally. We would be much better prepared to deal with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic if, with dedication and consistency, and provided that the appropriate funds were available, there was sufficient research on this type of virus after the SARS epidemic in 2003. Significant experience has been obtained on a global scale by the research community from research conducted against the virus that causes AIDS. Characteristically, in the context of the sustainable development set by the WHO, the European Union has set a goal to eliminate AIDS and tuberculosis by the year 2030 and to continue research on hepatitis ( 42 ). Let's not forget that AIDS has left 35 million dead in its path since its appearance in 1981. Due to lack of investment in research and vaccine production for SARS, we should not overlook a defining aspect set out by the strict laws of capitalist economy. Pharmaceutical companies are often a major part of this system and often show no interest in investing in vaccines. Many of the vaccines in circulation cost between $600 million and $1 billion. The major profits in pharmaceutical companies come from drugs that cure long-term illness. For example, the sales of a single drug for hepatitis C have exceeded $10 billion in one year ( 43 ). One must also bear in mind that the vaccine market ($24 billion today) appears to be extensive, but it represents only 2.4% of the global pharmaceutical industry, which is worth $1 trillion per year ( 44 ). Vaccines, in particular, are therefore not major sources of profit for the pharmaceutical companies that specialize in them. Based on this logic one should also not overlook the lack of large investments in the production of a SARS vaccine. With the confinement of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and 2004 in some Asian countries, companies estimated that a vaccine investment would not translate to a corresponding profit margin due to the small customer market. The consequences of such a decision to public health have become more realistic during the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. If there had been research on SARS in the last 17 years since its original outbreak, we would certainly be better prepared and equipped against SARS-CoV-2.

The genetic material of both SARS and SARS-CoV-2 encodes approximately 20 proteins. Apart from the protein that looks like a crown under the microscope and which is responsible for binding to the host cell, three other proteins that structure the viral shell (nucleocapsid) and cover its genetic material, as well as a multi-protein that is responsible for the transcription and reproduction the virus, we have very little information on what the rest of the viral proteins do. Therefore, research on SARS for the appropriate characterization of these proteins should help to obtain a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and to determine the appropriate treatment strategy.

Therefore, the inaction of the global community and the lack of funding to conduct biomedical research on the first SARS virus have provided the ideal environment for the new coronavirus to reach pandemic status. The field of Molecular Virology has produced prominent scientific personalities who have been and still are dedicated to the study of RNA viruses. Columbia University professor David Ho, who has saved countless lives with the antiviral therapy for AIDS, applied for $20 million funding in order to test antivirals against SARS in his laboratory, but his request has never been met ( 45 ). It seems that various government officials and pharmaceutical companies, as we have explained above, regarded the previous epidemics as cases only pertaining to the East. Thus, in an attempt to justify the unjustified, the majority of institutional officials, with the help of several scientists, often refer to the new coronavirus as an invisible enemy and to the battle against it as an unequal war. These words sound like a cover-up of our inability to effectively deal with the pandemic and of the fact that we are ill-equipped in terms of vaccines, drugs and scientific equipment to deal with a virus that, despite being called new, is highly related to the previous SARS disease. We probably have no excuse as there have been many warnings from the scientific community in the first two decades of the 21st century about the increased incidence of epidemics and the need to fund coronavirus research. Unfortunately, the institutions chose inaction and now it appears that we must make up for the lost ground in a very short time, and suffer all the consequences that this pandemic will leave behind. Despite the delays, however, the devaluation of research on SARS since 2003 shows that the Biomedical Science Community, as we speak and as the pandemic is still ongoing, are doing their best to turn the tables in favor of humanity in the battle against COVID-19.

15. Conclusions and thoughts for a better relationship between man and the environment

Many noTable Scientists such as Professor Michael Greger, former director of Public Health and Animal Husbandry at the Humane Society of the United States, and Professor Rob Wallace, evolutionary biologist and Public Health Phylogeographer, collaborator of the Institute of International Studies at the University of Minnesota, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu and former adviser to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, have touched the basis of the root cause of the latest epidemics and the current pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. The message from this pandemic is that unequal access to natural resources must be brought to an end, so as to prevent the next pandemic that is expected to occur with mathematical accuracy ( 46 , 47 ).

The protection of public health requires a review of the relationship between man and all biological ecosystems, especially animals, and the environment in general. Available genomic data now make it clear that behind the global COVID-19 pandemic lies a virus that has most likely entered the human population via human interaction with bats or another intermediate host ( 48 ).

It seems that dealing with such pandemics requires a holistic approach that focuses on causality, i.e., the generator cause, and not solely relying on the restriction/distancing measures that should be undertaken anyway in order to prevent loss of human life. In order to achieve this, we need to redefine our relationship with the environment and the inequalities that lead to its destruction. It is estimated that 75% of all new infectious diseases are the result of contact between humans and animals ( 49 ). We have all heard of at least some of them in the last twenty years, such as Zika, Ebola, SARS, bird flu, MERS and, more recently of course, COVID-19.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) emphasizes on the main factors that are implicated in the transmission of viruses to humans: i) deforestation; ii) intensive cultivation; and iii) climate change ( 49 ). A number of studies have ascertained that the universal approach to food production, including basic agricultural and livestock products such as beef, palm oil, coffee and cocoa, makes it easier to deplete resources in poorer countries than in countries with affluent economies. The production of such goods leads to i) deforestation and ii) loss of biodiversity. These are the main factors for the transmission of diseases among species. In the majority of nations producing coffee and cocoa (sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America), 95% of production is exported to the North, mainly to North America and Europe.

In terms of climate change, the economically developed world bears the highest responsibility for the global emissions causing the greenhouse effect and for the production of other harmful pollutants. Under developed countries, being far less responsible for the greenhouse effect, suffer to a much greater extent the consequences of climate change-related diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Even very small increases in temperature seem to currently make it easier for mosquitoes to spread to new areas where people are not immune to the diseases they carry ( 50 ).

In the oppressed ecosystems of less developed countries, large predators are becoming extinct. This creates biosystem imbalances that favor the reproduction of certain species, such as bats, rats and mosquitoes, i.e., those species that usually transmit zoonoses to humans. The lack of food for these animal species in ecosystems where they lived in harmony before the violent human interventions strengthens the competition for food among them, in an attempt to meet their nutritional needs. The increased competition for food for these animals leads to their migration to more densely populated areas and to closer contact with humans ( 51 ).

COVID-19 should ring like a very loud bell to the ears of the global financial elite and of every single consumer. If global environmental, health and development issues are not addressed holistically, new pandemics will continue to emerge. Priority should be given to reducing consumption levels, eliminating trade and economic inequalities, and creating sustainable production systems for both the people and the environment, and all of this in a different socio-political system.

The current crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has provided us with a unique opportunity to very seriously reconsider our relationship with the environment. This practically means that large agri-food companies and global policies should be immediately concerned about the current industrial environment producing our food products. The current food production process is often modified by the introduction of new technologies that essentially lead to significant violations of the balance in natural ecosystems. This approach undoubtedly increases the rate of production and the size of the total product, but at the same time it greatly promotes and strengthens the necessary conditions for viral replication, so that new mutations are produced at a higher rate and with greater infectious power. Many warnings can be deduced from the pandemics that have occurred so far, yet the course of our future lies in the hands of humanity.

Despite the numerous warnings that can be derived from pandemics, as Professor Rob Wallace points out ‘ agribusiness is so focused on profits that selecting for a virus that might kill a billion people is treated as a worthy risk ’ ( 52 ). If we were to use molecular biology terminology to describe this phenomenon, it would translate as follows: the world's financial elite owning the agri-food companies are self-designated by the dominant gene of profit that determines their phenotype and their aggressive behavior both to the environment and to other people. This gene is so powerful, ‘dominant’ in the language of Biology, that no effort to convince them otherwise has had any result so far. Therefore, as is the case with the numerous work-related problems being faced on a global scale, in the emergence of every pandemic we will be faced with the same clear-cut question: is there an alternative? Of course there is, this can be easily deduced by reading Brecht's poem (53,Brecht B: In Praise of dialectics).

In Praise of Dialectics

Today injustice goes with a certain stride,

The oppressors move in for ten thousand years.

Force sounds certain: it will stay the way it is.

No voice resounds except the voice of the rulers.

And on the markets, exploitation says it out loud:

I am only just beginning.

But of the oppressed, many now say:

What we want will never happen.

Whoever is alive must never say ‘never’!

Certainty is never certain.

It will not stay the way it is.

When the rulers have already spoken

Then the ruled will start to speak.

Who dares say ‘never’?

Who's to blame if repression remains? We are.

Who can break its thrall? We can.

Whoever has been beaten down must rise to his feet!

Whoever is lost must fight back!

Whoever has recognized his condition -

how can anyone stop him?

Because the vanquished of today will be tomorrow's victors

And ‘never’ will become: ‘already today’!

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Maria Adamaki for performing the language editing of the manuscript. We thank Dr Ioannis Michalopoulos for extensively reviewing the manuscript and for selecting the appropriate bibliographic references. We also thank Professor Philip Clegg for his critical thinking and for making sure that the manuscript does not lose its meaning in translation.

No funding was received.

Availability of data and materials

Authors' contributions.

All of the authors were involved in writing, formatting and reviewing the manuscript. VZ was involved in the conception and design of the manuscript. MG designed the graphs. ER and SB performed the literature search. DAS critically analyzed the existing knowledge and contributed to editing the manuscript. All authors approved of the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Patient consent for publication, competing interests.

DAS is the Editor-in-Chief for the journal, but had no personal involvement in the reviewing process, or any influence in terms of adjudicating on the final decision, for this article. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.