COVID-19: Impacts and Comparisons
As of the morning of Thursday, April 23, there is a total of 2,693,742 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world. Over half of those cases have yet to be resolved, however, 188,148 have been confirmed dead, while 738,440 have fully recovered (www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/).
Matthew Crawford, Associate Professor of History at Kent State University, said this pandemic is like nothing we have ever seen before, which makes it hard to compare to any other events in history. He said the only other time that could possibly be comparable to now in terms of mass amounts of people being impacted is the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.
Professor Crawford, who has an area of expertise in the history of science and medicine, said that the problem with comparing numbers of fatalities between the coronavirus and the 1918 flu is that the government did not keep as detailed records in the early 1900’s as they do today. However, he said the most accepted number of people infected by the Spanish flu of 1918 is around 500 million, which was almost one-third of the world’s population at the time. Below is a chart comparing these two epidemics:
Professor Crawford said we will not know exactly how similar these epidemics are until we are closer to the end of this current epidemic. He said one of the major issues with comparing the two right now is the problems with testing for coronavirus. When asked to go into more detail on the issues with testing he said:
Looking more toward how this disease is impacting the United States of America, Associate Professor of History at Kent State’s Ashtabula campus, Bradley Keefer, closely relates the time we are in now to the country during the Great Depression.
He relates the two events by how we did not know that the country was caught off guard both times. Associate Professor Keefer acknowledged that some doctors saw the coronavirus becoming a problem, but still considers it a time where, “a whole lot of people had their lives change overnight.”
This comparison then brings up several economic questions, if this is like the Great Depression, then how can the United States prevent something like that from happening while businesses are shut-down during social distancing?
Curtis Reynolds, Associate Professor of Economics at Kent State University, said that the biggest strain on our economy since the pandemic began was the pressure it is putting on the medical industry. He said the problems are allocating money to make sure there, “are enough hospital beds, access to care. There is also trouble getting tests.”
Associate Professor Reynolds said that although it is good that the country is helping take some of the pressure off of the medical industry by making sure everyone that is deemed non-essential stays at home and away from others, that this has caused a major part of the economy to shut down. He had this to say about the recent unemployment numbers since the shut-down:
He said this rapid unemployment has two causes: “Some of it is direct because they are a non-essential business, and some of it is more indirect where businesses demand has fallen and they’re laying people off.”
He said the government has been giving out stimulus checks to help with the issue of people being out-of-work for an extended period of time. Another way the government is helping the economy is by putting more money into unemployment since the numbers are up; Associate Professor Reynolds said this is being done to help cover employees that would not usually be able to claim unemployment.
He said we are definitely in a recession and it is, “unclear how staying in our current state will impact our economic situation.” He said a large number of businesses that were close to failing before the pandemic began, will now most-likely have to close their doors.
Then, in response to how businesses will reopen once cleared he said, “How we reopen is going to depend on our ability to test and track the spread of the virus because it is not going to just disappear overnight.
Associate Professor Keefer echoed the words of Associate Professor Reynolds in relation to how the coronavirus will impact the country and the world in the long run. He said it is hard to use past historical events to predict the future of this virus. He said one major concern is smaller colleges, he is not sure how they will be able to continue after the pandemic.
He also believes there will be some discussions on civil liberties and immigration that have been sparked by events going on today. Associate Professor Keefer said coronavirus is this generation’s Great Depression, and he would go on to say:
This virus has impacted the world in major ways, and until we reach the end, there will be no clear answer on the lasting changes the coronavirus has caused around the globe.
