Zoomester Disaster
Emma Loria
The year 2020 will without a doubt be remembered as the year of disasters . Starting off in January we saw how the Australian bushfires destroyed 18.6 million hectares of Australian land . In March the uprising of Black Lives Matter protests led to riots , looting , as well as intensified violence against the African Americans who took part in these protests . In November Hurricane Eta , a Category 4 storm , hit the countries of Central America taking the homes of more than 300,000 people . Even so , nothing could prepare us for what the COVID-19 virus had in store . The first confirmed death due to COVID-19 was confirmed on January 9th of 2020 in Wuhan China and in the month of February of 2020 we saw the first death outside of China on February 1st which occurred in the Philippines . No one could ’ ve predicted that the “ Chinese Virus ” ( Donald Trump 2020 ) would be responsible for 2.01 millions deaths in just one year with cases going up everyday .
While many believe that the virus originated from bats , others claim that it was transferred to humans through raccoon dogs which are similar to regular racoons ; hunted for their fur , approximately 1.5 million racoon dogs can be found in China . Even so , COVID-19 is different in every country as each nation took different precautions which they considered best , because of this I decided to interview a couple of people around the world and get their opinions on how their state or country handled COVID-19 and how it affected their life .
Greta Andersen , a student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts shared her experience through the pandemic . “ We are locked in our dorms and get food delivered to our door , we can ’ t interact with people at school unless it ’ s our roommates .” This was particularly difficult for her as she was a new student at her school this year and online school deprived her of creating well established friendships with other students . Like many students around the world she struggles with motivation and concentration . “ Being in my classes is depressing because there are less people when having presential classes and in online school you can ’ t talk to anyone . My motivation has gone down with my school work , online school makes it easier to get behind .”
Tomas Moya , a student at the American School of São Paulo says that during the month of May , when Brazil became the epicenter of the pandemic he felt extremely scared and isolated as he wasn ’ t allowed to leave his house unless he had a medical or work excuse . This led to him being stuck in his house with just his mother and little brother for almost a whole year , “ Not being able to leave your house is the worst , you would think you would feel comfortable but in reality you feel trapped . I wasn ’ t even allowed to go out for a run or to the supermarket , we were not prepared for what was to come .”
Amaryllis Quiros , a teacher at the Universidad de Costa Rica mentions that “ Online school became the biggest struggle between my students and I , the pressure of keeping them interested and interested was too difficult to comply with . Every month less and less students would have their cameras on and then , they started missing class .” The lack of motivation is present everywhere .
Every person I interviewed for this article agrees on two things . One , the COVID-19 outbreak led to unthinkable consequences that could have been prevented if we handled it better . Two , the way we live , socialise and interact with the world will forever be different . The digital revolution that was introduced during the pandemic , new health regulations as well as the new clothing attire that we wear to cover our mouths seem to be here to stay . Hopefully , 2020 will be left in the past and 2021 will become a year of positivity and prosperity for the human race .
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