Why Coronavirus May Be a Good Thing

hey 42 here if you switched on the news recently you're probably familiar with terms such as pandemic death rate social distancing and lockdowns the world it seems is on pause kovat 19 a novel strain of coronavirus has revealed itself to be the next disease pandemic which will go down in the history books right next to the Spanish flu in the Black Death schools are being closed hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs shelves are empty and so are the streets people are being forced to stay indoors and most personally people are dying the idea of a global pandemic feels like something reserved only for the distant past and dystopian television but the truth is it was always a case of when a virus was going to consume the world again not if the World Health Organization has been warning the public of a global pandemic for years naming the then-unknown virus as disease X so if a pandemic was always on the cards how have we stacked up with kovat 19 well if we take the mortality rate as a benchmark it could have been a lot worse any loss of life is of course deeply upsetting and one death is always one death to many but when we compare the statistics of this corona virus with some of the previous pandemics as a species we've come off lightly the death rate of kovat 19 is currently still at the beta tissue due to the fact that we are still in the early days but when we divide the number of deaths by the number of confirmed cases worldwide we end up with a figure of around 3.4 percent mortality but this figure definitely isn't accurate in a reassuring way due to insufficient testing regimes almost everywhere except Germany and South Korea the suspected number of cases worldwide is thought to be far greater than cases which have currently been confirmed which means that the mortality rate is probably much much lower many experts believe that it's more likely to be around 1% of the UK's professor witty reasoning that the mortality rate could be as low as 0.6% obviously if you're watching us in the future then please travel back in time and give us a heads-up but to put this into context SARS another type of corona virus had a mortality rate of 15% smallpox was as high as 30% Ebola is around 50% and the infamous pneumonic plague kills nearly 95% of people who catch it why am I telling you this well I don't mean to worry you but the next pandemic yes I hate to break it to you there will almost certainly be another one could very well mirror these alarmingly high death rates and yet have the same infectious variety of kovat 19 but there's good news covered 19 could prove to be humanity's saving grace and that it has come first before something much much worse could just prevent the extinction of the human race yes you heard me right for years now health has not been a top priority for most countries sure we put varying amounts of money into research for a wide range of common ailments such as cancer and heart disease but every nation and NGO has been lacking when it comes to improving prevention measures and vaccines in 2018 the US administration fired the team responsible for coordinating responses to pandemics and never replaced them it's also reported that funding for the CDC's global disease outbreak prevention efforts was reduced by 80% are not included their efforts in China awkward so what changed now in early March President Trump met with the leaders of seven major drug manufacturers such as Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson urging those companies to work in close collaboration with each other not against in a race to produce a treatment and vaccine as quickly as possible for this virus asking Big Pharma to work together is like asking the world religions to unite and as a result of this unprecedented move so far there have been several promising developments and there are at least 300 clinical trials currently underway around the world on possible life-saving treatments for people who have contracted this virus and vaccines to help halt the spread research into antiviral treatments and vaccines has been given a fora kick of the arse and in the quest for a coronavirus treatment and vaccine our understanding the viruses in general will expand leading to potential new discoveries and cures that otherwise we might have never found if not for covert 19 which could possibly save us all in the future there's also a good chance that society's long-term approach towards drug research will improve dramatically because of the social and economic fallout from covert 19 in the future health will hopefully be prioritized in a way that it has never been before after all nothing inspires progress more than money and the markets have lost a lot of money since the outbreak the footsy has seen its biggest one-day decline since 1987 wiping 160 billion pounds from the British economy and in America the S&P and Dow Jones have been tanking just as hard investment in disease prevention could therefore be in for a major incline to try and prevent another disastrous economic blow in the future unfortunately nothing motivates saving lives more than the loss of wealth because it is only those with wealth to be lost that can enable research to take place but it's better late than never although it is tragic that lives have to be lost I view this outbreak as training wheels for Humanity this pandemic has shown us how woefully unprepared we were and the sad truth is if we have implemented the measures we are doing right now and funded the research we are funding right now ten years ago tens of thousands of people who have died so far probably would not have nature has rolled its cruel dice and luckily this time it landed on a one whatever the fatality rate of kovat 19 turns out to be it will be in the low single digits and that is due to nothing more than look what if Nature had rolled a four five or six this time what if this outbreak had a fatality rate of 60 70 80 percent we wouldn't have the luxury we have right now of this crucial opportunity to fine-tune our procedures develop our medicines and sharpen our tools and minds for the future because most of us would already be dead by now covert 19 has given humanity that kick up the ass it desperately needed and you can be sure that in the future millions of lives will be saved because of what we're doing and developing right now in the wake of this scary but mild pandemic aside from investment in prevention cures and vaccines since the outbreak there have been significant steps throughout the world to hinder killer viruses from ever mutating and spreading in the first place throughout history a considerable amount of infectious diseases have been due to cross-species transmission this is when a virus spreads rapidly after making the evolutionary jump from animals to humans pathogens that can do this are called zoonotic the HIV virus for example spreads to humans from chimps in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo most likely after being hunted and eaten by people living in the surrounding villages a swine flee made the jump from pigs to humans in Mexico on a pig farm it believes that covert 19 made the leap from animals to humans in a market in Wuhan China scientists are still debating which animal passed it on but it's thought to be either snakes bats or pangolins but the surf fingers this was just a ticking time bomb China's wildlife market has always been at the top of the list as the breeding ground for the next pandemic why because they are apparently bloody disgusting literally they're pretty bloody these markets known as wet markets are essentially outdoor Abbott was selling a mixture of live and dead exotic animals with the live ones usually being killed on the spot before being sold butchered using the same knives and implements used to kill other species at the market carcasses are stacked on top of each other their blood and diseases mixing together in a potentially lethal combination experts have long known that this is a recipe for disaster the w-h-o has repeatedly warned that the next killer virus would come from wet markets most likely in China but there is a dim light at the end of the tunnel in the wake of the corona virus epidemic China has issued a strict ban on the consultant and farming of wild animals such as the markets in Wuhan where this all began China has finally acknowledged the severe important to bringing this dangerous industry under control in order to prevent another deadly virus mutation in the field whether this ban is properly enacted waits to be seen it's a profound shame that it took the tragedy of many thousands of lives being lost to inspire this action but such measures could stop a similar or worse virus in covert 90 coming in the following decades and with China on board it's hopefully only a matter of time before other countries with similar food market practices follow suit and if covert 19 a relatively mild flu virus hadn't ravaged the world this year we could have gone on into 2021 still playing with fire across Asia allowing the deadly conditions to continue in which super viruses mutate curva 19 may also improve humanity on a more fundamental level through the mass propagation of much needed education on basic hygiene public health experts have always stressed the importance of washing hands and there's a good reason for that keeping our hands clean is one of the most important measures we can take in avoiding becoming unwell and crucially stopping the spread of germs because most diseases are spread by not washing hands properly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds sure you may be fitting healthy but by simply washing your hands you can save the life of an elderly or vulnerable person don't be selfish but surely most people already wash their hands right well you might be shocked and disgusted to hear that according to a 2009 study cited by the CDC that 69% of men don't wash their hands after visiting public bathrooms and neither do 35 percent of women what all this might be about to change a public health scare such as this hasn't been seen in the better part of a hundred years not even our grandparents will have had hygiene so prevalent at the front of their minds as we do right now and this is having a major impact on all our behavior according to a YouGov poll conducted in March 22 20 61% of people said they had improved their personal hygiene this figure although encouraging shows that there is still a lot more to be done but it's a good start if we're globally able to maintain and improve this trend by becoming more aware of how viruses are spread we are in for a healthier better prepared future it's somewhat deflating that it has taken a global pandemic to get people to wash their bacteria-ridden hands but at least it's starting to catch on it's only taken four thousand eight hundred years since the invention of soap but hey better late than never so we've looked at how this latest pandemic could prove to have a life-saving silver lining in the future but what about now surely covert 19 is only leaving death and despair in its tracks as it spreads throughout the world at an alarming speed well what if I told you that this corona virus has already saved lives it's no secret that air pollution in China is a significant concern not only for the planet but for the health of its citizens a 2015 study from Berkeley of estimates that 1.6 million people in China die each year from heart and lung problems and strokes due to polluted air but in recent months pollution has plummeted in China specifically in nitrogen dioxide this is a gas predominantly emitted by cars trucks power plants and some industry as China went into lockdown closing its factories the air became cleaner but has it saved lives in such a short amount of time assistant professor at the Department of Earth System science is Stanford University Marshall Burke thinks so he conservatively calculates that the reduction in pollution throughout January and February 2020 has potentially saved the lives of 4,000 children and 73,000 adults over 70 in China by the end of this year China could be in a position where more than a thousand times more lives have been saved by this coronavirus than it has killed but it isn't just China experiencing a positive environmental impact Italy a country also feeling the full force of this pandemic has seen some unexpected but rather nice consequences the canals in Venice once murky are now running clear due to less of boat traffic this has meant that fish which were once invisible beneath the cloudy waters are now visible and can be seen swimming up and down once again on the Italian coast dolphins have also been spotted swimming by the ports of Kali arey a sight not seen in years but there's something else spreading through the world right now being passed from person to person rippling through our communities an unexpected coronavirus sidekick hovering around the empty streets and packed houses kindness with many of us having to make drastic changes to our lives we're all a little bit scared but there's a growing sense of people caring for one another the likes of which we haven't seen since World War two apart from the toilet roll orders yes I'm looking at you random acts of kindness aren't just trending across the internet they are becoming a new way of life from the teenager doing the weekly grocery shop for his elderly neighbors to banks offering mortgage holidays for the poorest in society only a couple of weeks after covert 19 hit the UK thousands of volunteer community support groups have bootstrap themselves from thin air offering non-contact home deliveries and support for the loneliest out there we may be social distancing but we are becoming closer than ever before may I leave you with the inspirational words of the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Ritchie so back when this is over and it will be over we want to look back on this moment and remember the many small acts of kindness done by us and to us we want to look back on this time and remember how we fought first of others and acted with decency we want to look back on this time and remember how in the face of a generation defining moment we undertook a collective national effort and we stood together it's on all of us stay safe thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video then please consider supporting me on patreon it really helps me to continue to make these videos - links in the description also if you're looking for something to keep you occupied whilst in self-isolation then you can go ahead and order my brand-new book stick if like in its a thousand years of bizarre history from britain and beyond the links in the description thank you

Channel: Thoughty2

Views: 1,082,776

Keywords: covid-19, coronavirus, coronavrius outbreak, coronavirus outbreak, coronavirus pandemic, corona virus, coronavirus news, coronavirus update, coronavirus vaccine, novel coronavirus, coronavirus uk, coronavirus treatment, coronavirus lockdown, coronavirus china, world health organization, 2020, healthcare, the flu, national health service, wuhan, outbreak, coronavirus quarantine, thoughty2, bats, thoughty2 virus, thoughty2 corona

Id: aALZFDg0TfY

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020