How much do we know about COVID-19 – The Knowns and Unknowns

Yes, it is a mysterious virus on several scales with yet many unknowns and even what we know has many unknowns and several associated uncertainties. This is though all the accumulated knowledge that we have today. Since the breakdown of COVID-19 many knowns and unknowns have been unfolding and our knowledge on COVID-19 has been growing and expanding (https://youtu.be/PWzbArPgo-o). Many leaders around the world have been constantly upgrading their expectations and revising their strategies and action policies (https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-newsletter-03-30-20-intl/index.html). One of the most interesting characteristics of COVID-19 is that 20% or more (some data show that it can be up to 40%) of infected people don’t show any symptoms ‘asymptomatic’ and can still infect others. So, not all infected people develop breathing difficulties unless they belong to risk groups, i.e. having underlying medical diseases and/or don’t get suitable and timely medication (https://youtu.be/gAk7aX5hksU). Some scary and mysterious characteristics of COVID-19 are that this virus can survive in air and on surfaces for long periods of up to few days. So, the risk to get infected is still high as they are many routes for infections other than direct and indirect transmission from infected persons. There has been much research on how COVID-19 has very rapidly became a global pandemic (https://fortune.com/longform/how-coronavirus-spread-map/amp/) due to our modern tight lifestyle in heavily populated cities with intensive physical mobility and worldwide trade systems supported by an ever growing complex and crowded transport and travel systems. Other global issues are that this pandemic may take still remain with us for more longer time before it can disappear from the surface of the Earth. This is as the two hemispheres have different seasonal weather and climate conditions even when the current wave of COVID-19 spreading will disappear for sometime (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/will-spring-slow-spread-of-coronavirus-in-northern-hemisphere; https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-australia-summer-warm-weather-2020-3?r=US&IR=T). The gravity of the COVID-crisis is now being felt by everyone on planet Earth and the degree of suffering is highly variable among the citizens of all countries. The poor and less privileged are the most vulnerable as individuals but they will certainly expose other fellow citizens of their countries, also globally, to enormous risk for getting infected as well (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/03/23/coronavirus-spread-poverty-covid-19-stimulus-column/2899411001/; https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2020/11/covid-19-containment-poverty-and-population-health/; https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-poor-and-marginalized-will-be-the-hardest-hit-by-coronavirus/). So, poverty in itself will cause future new pandemics to be more severe. On the global scale there are new emerging and severe impacts on several levels, e.g. slowdown of globalization thus entering new period of de-globalization (https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/covid-19-deglobalization-pandemic-by-harold-james-2020-02; https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-killing-globalization-nationalism-protectionism-trump/). With these trends urbanization and citizens of newly urbanized regions may face considerable damage (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/26/life-after-coronavirus-pandemic-change-world). The COVID-19 will also have serious impacts of on our lifestyle and mindset and this will certainly cause mental stress and trauma for many of us, e.g. fear and insecurity of coping with life threatening situations at work, in businesses and also socially (https://www.france24.com/en/20200323-post-traumatic-stress-confusion-and-anger-how-quarantine-affects-your-mental-health; https://www.businessinsider.com/how-a-coronavirus-quarantine-affects-your-body-and-brain-2020-3; https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/147903; https://cpa.ca/psychology-works-fact-sheet-psychological-impacts-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19/). There are also major tectonic impacts on the global economies, collapse of financial systems (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-20/coronavirus-a-long-term-look-at-economies-and-markets; https://www.cgdev.org/blog/economic-impact-covid-19-low-and-middle-income-countries). We will also experience major global changes and impacts on our education systems in all levels especially what regards shifts to online e-learning and distant education (sustain-earth.com). All in all there will be enormous needs to seek new and sustainable lifestyles to meet an emerging be world that will never be the same again. As we don’t have Planet-B yet (sustian-earth.com) we need to reconsider how we can reshape our lives to meet new threats and challenges.

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