Epidemiologists (Lauren Sturm)
How Epidemiologists Aide the Public in Relief Efforts (Lauren Sturm)
Fact-Checked Source:
Julia Ries , "Ask an Expert: An Epidemiologist Answers Our Questions About the Coronavirus, Quarantines, and Face Masks "
On March 4, 2020, Health-line website journalist Julia Ries spoke with epidemiology professor Dr. Anne Rimoin about certain myths that have arisen from the current pandemic and preceded to talk about the facts about transmission and many things that affect our daily life during this time.
J.Ries Article Link
Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked
In order to better understand the claims made in this op-ed, I've done research to verify five facts it presents about the coronavirus pandemic.
Myth #1: People must wear N95 masks whenever they are out in public.I wanted to look into this claim because this turns out to be a fallacious rumor. While wearing masks is essential if you are sick and you are in public, N95 masks should be reserved for medical professionals.In fact, Dr. Rimoin from the J Ries Article recommends that people make cloth masks instead.
The spread of SARS-CoV-2 will be limited due to several containment measures by individuals themselves.
This fact is interesting because most people think that this virus is not that serious and that they are not major contributors. However, as seen in in the ASN Staff article , people can spread the virus without showing any symptoms and that is why the virus initially spread so quickly in China.
A mass quarantine can be counterproductive if you can't separate those who are ill from those who are well.
This fact matters because it is particularly difficult to set quarantine efforts if you are unaware who is really infected, since this disease is everywhere. That is why antibody tests need to be widely available. Anecdotal evidence suggested in the ASN Staff article echoes the fact that quarantine initiated by the original Japanese cruise ship was not effective in containing the spread of Coronavirus.
We might not expect this fact because it seems like common sense that travel bans will limit the spread significantly. However, the website for the Pan American Health Organization confirms that travel bans can be eased once tracing is widely being used.With a disease like COVID-19, travel bans aren't particularly effective.
As crazy as it sounds, people are still deciding to travel in the middle of this pandemic.A nutritional epidemiologist interviewed in the ASN Staff article echoes these concerns and prompts people to avoid travel, as it will contribute to the spread of coronavirus to more regions of the world.
Analytic Essay [From an Epidemiologist/Mathematical Biologist Perspective]
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to our world changing dramatically, causing a lot of distress amongst the entire population. This pandemic has caused a strain on the courageous medical professionals that are diligently working to find a cure and will continue to do so until this is adequately resolved. Every single person living through these unprecedented times has a different story to tell and will offer a different perspective depending on their life situation and their career. The main perspective that will be heavily documented in this essay is told through the eyes of the epidemiologists working alongside the media to spread information to the masses and debunk egregious rumors that threaten the lives of many. After all, epidemiologists carry a lot of crucial information relating to how deadly pathogens spread and the guidelines that must be set in place to further prevent the structure of the healthcare systems to simultaneously collapse in the midst of the pandemic. To further examine the perspective of epidemiologists, it is important to consider looking at a past epidemic to properly access how they calculate their data and in time use that data to formulate advice for the media and the general public.
The most recent epidemic is the Ebola outbreak from 2014 in West Africa. This was a terrifying time in the places that this virus ran rampant, as well in countries in the Western world. The thing that was particularly alarming about the Ebola virus was the high lethality rate and the contagion rate in the places that were the hardest hit. At its peak, it killed over 11,000 people. The role of epidemiologists at the time was to assess the contagion rate and the mode of transmission to properly ensure that this deadly virus would not spread worldwide. However, their role was threatened due to the poor infrastructure of the countries. This made it especially hard to provide adequate numbers to determine the overall risk of the growing virus. In order to combat this, according to the article, BeCoDiS- A Mathematical Model to Predict the Risk of Human Diseases Spread between Countries (Ivorra,B.,2014), mathematical biologists worked alongside the epidemiologists to make a mathematical model to predict how fast the Ebola virus spread between the countries that were the hardest hit. Their mission was to determine the contagion factor in order to properly contain the virus before it traveled abroad. They used a set of complex formulas and graphs to convey their findings. While it is especially difficult to understand for the common person without the extensive training, the epidemiologists made sure to take the results obtained from the mathematical biologists and give advice to the general public based on said results. The results were that there was a high contagion rate amongst towns in close proximity and that is why the virus spread fast in a community sense. From other findings, the epidemiologists knew that the virus spread when people were in contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. Due to the poor infrastructure in the West African countries and the lack of hygiene in most of the rural towns, the Ebola virus spread like wildfire. The epidemiologists then provided recommendations to the governments based on this crucial information.
Overall, the findings from the mathematical biologists played a major role in the development of new information on how fast the virus spread. They used concrete methods and were not influenced from outside factors. This led to an unbiased source of information that the epidemiologists eventually used to give advice to the West African governments to implement quarantines and other efforts to curb the virus. This article proved that the close collaboration between the mathematical biologists and the epidemiologists were instrumental in the eventual containment of the Ebola virus in 2014.
The role of epidemiologists and mathematical biologists in the Ebola outbreak serves as a reminder to experts today in the new COVID-19 outbreak that their perspective is imperative in spreading accurate information to the general public and the governments to implement proper containment measures. While the Ebola outbreak was in many ways different from the COVID-19 outbreak, there needs to be similar collaborations between different experts in order to curb the virus successfully in the future. So far in this pandemic in the United States, the general public is not listening to the recommendations brought forth by the experts. This has led to misinformation spreading faster than the virus. This prompts the question, why is the public so reluctant to follow the simple guidelines when it impedes their own personal liberty? The way that the Ebola outbreak was contained should show people that it is possible to curb a deadly virus quickly if citizens took the advice from experts seriously.
References
Ries, J. (2020, April 2). Ask an Expert: An Epidemiologist Answers Our Questions About the Coronavirus, Quarantines, and Face Masks. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ask-an-expert-will-quarantines-make-the-coronavirus-worse#1Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
This source is important because it addresses common myths about travel, quarantines, and masks that directly impact how people are living during the times of the coronavirus. The article was written from a website that specializes in health tips and this article came out during the very beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Its main goal was to stop misinformation spreading about the pandemic at the time by interviewing an epidemiology professor that specialized in infectious diseases.Staff, A. (2020, March 31). Nutritional Epidemiologist’s Encounter with Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China. Retrieved from https://nutrition.org/nutritional-epidemiologists-encounter-with-coronavirus-covid-19-in-wuhan-china/Peterzell, J. (1990, April). Better late than never. Time, 135(17), 20–21.
This source is important because it addresses the tips given by a nutritional epidemiologist to remain healthy during the coronavirus pandemic and his experiences in dealing with the virus firsthand in China during the time of the initial cases. His unique perspective gives the general public more information about the quarantine efforts and the proper containment techniques. The interview was conducted by a nutritional website that specializes in providing tips on how to live healthily. Its main goal was to give people advice on how to approach the impending pandemic.Pan American Health Organization. (2020). Epidemiological Update Novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Retrieved from https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&category_slug=coronavirus-epidemiological-alerts-and-updates&alias=51757-14-de-febrero-de-2020-nuevo-coronavirus-covid-19-actualizacion-epidemiologica&Itemid=270&lang=en
This source is important because it highlights how epidemiologists predicted back in February how serious the Coronavirus pandemic was going to become in the Americas and offered tips for the United States government on containment measures, possible travel bans, and quarantine efforts. This source comes from a PDF file from the Pan American Health Organization and its report from the early days of the pandemic. Its main goal was to spread vital information about the impending crisis to government officials at the time.
Ivorra, B., Ngom, D. & Ramos, Á.M. Be-CoDiS: A Mathematical Model to Predict the Risk of Human Diseases Spread Between Countries—Validation and Application to the 2014–2015 Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic. Bull Math Biol 77, 1668–1704 (2015). https://doi-org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1007/s11538-015-0100-x
This scholarly secondary source provided the reference for the analytic essay. This article was about how mathematical biologists worked alongside epidemiologists during the Ebola epidemic in 2014 and their methods in obtaining data about the spread of the virus. They used many methods that are somewhat impossible for the general public to understand and how epidemiologists interpreted that same data. They then warned the governments about possible containment measures that needed to take place at the time thanks to the data that was calculated. The main purpose in sharing this was to give a reference about how mathematical biologists and epidemiologists worked together in the past to give valuable information to the public.