Fatal Lessons In This Pandemic Chapter 4 (2024)

FAQs

What did the pandemic teach us? ›

Whatever the path to reducing stress and improving mental wellness, it's worth staying the course once things return closer to where they used to be. More stuff doesn't deliver fulfillment: Staying at home and relying on less has taught us to reexamine our priorities.

Social distancing. Respondents reported social distancing as a main source of stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over half of respondents (54.2%) reported “social distancing or being quarantined” as a source of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And 16 million students missed more than 10% of school days during the 2021-22 school year, twice as many as in previous years. More than eight in 10 public schools reported “stunted behavioral and social-emotional development” in students because of the pandemic, researchers note.

This threat underscores the importance of raising awareness and educating the public about effective prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, as well as adopting communication practices that are built on empathy, transparency, equity, and respect.

Bubonic plague, responsible for three pandemics throughout history—including the deadliest pandemic in recorded human history, the Black Death—still has no cure or vaccine.

By March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared COVID-19 a global health emergency and named the virus "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" or "SARS-CoV-2." It was also in March that WHO officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

COVID-19 is the first pandemic known to be caused by the emergence of a new coronavirus. Novel influenza viruses caused four pandemics in the last century, which is why some of the response to the new disease has been adapted from existing guidance developed in anticipation of an influenza pandemic.

More than 1.1 million people have died as a result of COVID-19 in the U.S., and many more have been hospitalized or lost loved ones. Based on data from the first 30 months of the pandemic, we forecast the scale of total economic losses over a four-year period, from January 2020 to December 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the planet, touching every corner of society from science and medicine to the economy, politics and race. In its wake, the virus overwhelmed hospitals, crippled industries and forced institutions like the George Washington University to move to remote work and learning.

Indeed, the risk of the emergence of novel diseases is rapidly increasing. One of the most important lessons learned from COVID-19 is that if pandemic control is to be affected, its effectiveness rests on a rapid and coordinated response at the local, national, and international levels.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic taught us how to prevent the next pandemic? ›

The key learning identified from the COVID-19 pandemic can be characterized by four broad themes: (i) investment in public health and health infrastructure, (ii) countermeasures (medical and non-medical); (iii) risk communication and public health measures and (iv) investment in people and partnerships (Figure ​1).