Argumentative Essay (Tyler Collins)

Tyler Collins  

Dr. Weakland 

English 1101 

4/8/2020 

  

Shelter in Place (COVID-19) 

  

With all this commotion and controversy regarding COVID-19, I have been taking the extra precautions of isolating myself from others, public places, along with frequent handwashing.   I have also been a lot more conscientious about touching my face, surfaces, and covering sneezes and coughs. During these times of uncertainty, I've even been washing my hands a little more than usual, as well as using hand sanitizer, and Clorox wipes. For example, if we bring groceries in the house, I will wash my hands right after, before I do or touch anything else. My mom wipes everything down with Clorox. My mom said she ordered a pizza, and it was a no-contact delivery. They just rang the doorbell and set it on the porch and left. When this all began, I went to a well-known sanitary restaurant drive-thru, and later that week, that specific location was closed secondary to an employee testing positive for COVID-19. That incident pretty much cured me of wanting to eat out for a while, at least until we know more about this disease. Since I've been staying home, I haven't gotten takeout or fast food again, because I'm trying to minimize my risk of being exposed to COVID-19. What shelter in place means to me is that you need to stay home and not go out and do all your regular/daily activities. 

 I believe in practicing guidelines and rules set forth by corporations such as CDC. I think that we all need to practice social distancing, meaning we all should stay away from big groups of people. Eating takeout or fast food is not a necessity; it is a luxury.  

              Therefore, I do not think you need to get food from restaurants because you don't know who or what those employee's exposure was. Why wouldn't you want to take that extra precaution if it could help to save your life or someone else's? According to statistics with the WHO and CDC, if you frequently visited public venues such as stores or restaurants, your probability of contracting is more significant, therefore your risk of spreading the disease is increased. During these times, the CDC encourages you to stay home in a global pandemic; you should do so. CDC is not out there trying to ruin everyone's summer, but if we ALL together don't take precautions to COVID-19, we won't have anything back to normal. This virus is so serious that they had to cancel all professional sports such as the MLB, NFL, NBA & NASCAR. They have canceled all these professional sports to lower the spread of the virus because there are several people who attend. They have also canceled all schools, and they've never had to do anything like this before because they have never seen a virus this serious. On my behalf of the government canceling these things, I believe that it was the smartest and safest precaution to take by not letting large amounts of people gather and spread the virus.  

Although there are pros and cons, staying at home would be a benefit of minimizing your exposure to COVID-19, and you're also generally slowing down the spreading process of the virus. A disadvantage of shelter in place would be since you're staying home isolating, you won't be doing your normal activities of hanging with friends or family or going out anywhere that is unusually large groups of people. Another disadvantage would be that whenever you go to the store or your essential job, you're putting yourself and your entire household at risk since the others stay home, and you have to go out to get essentials at the grocery store or your job. Essential workers are currently putting their lives at risk going out to work every single day, which enables them to receive a paycheck for their family. Also, if more people would stay home and quarantine, it'll help the virus slow down and potentially clear up faster and give everyone their healthy lifestyle back. However, being quarantined will make you slow down and think about life and to learn to value/treasure it and not take it or anything for granted. By practicing sheltering in place, a person who has a non-essential job, their job will close, and they will be out of work. You will also not be allowed to do any social gatherings of any kind, which will minimize your exposure to other people. For example, if you were to go to a park with many people attending while you're there, you don't know what someone else has. You will not be able to look at someone and tell if they have COVID-19. If you or a loved one were to test positive to COVID-19 and were in the hospital, you would be in there alone because the hospital is not letting anyone into the building no matter the condition or circumstances. By not giving people permission to be in big groups, they are cracking down on minimizing public gatherings and person to person contact. 

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the main reason for the current shelter in place order, and as much as people want to believe it or not, it literally won't kill you to stay home for two weeks. The state of Georgia has ordered the shelter in place to people with non-essential jobs to slow the spread and protect everyone from the virus. As crazy as the shelter in place sounds, it will most definitely help us all out, in the long run, no matter what people say.  Statistics show from these other countries, that isolation is a way to slow the spread and to give the scientist time to come up with more data to support a cure. When people do not follow the shelter in place and all the safety precautions, it makes this virus become a vicious cycle that repeats itself over and over. With all that's been going on people aren't looking at the big picture and it really shows because the virus is spreading quickly. Everyone needs to quarantine themselves in their houses and they should be acting to all the safety precautions listed. You need to wash your hands thoroughly, don't touch your face, eyes, nose, mouth. Also, stay away from someone that is or has been sick. We can all avoid COVID-19 if we take the right precautions. 

              People think that COVID-19 is just the lousy flu, but they're profoundly mistaken. The reason the numbers are so high in fatalities is that it's a virus we've never seen before, and the CDC is highly aware of that. However, most people aren't aware of all the reasoning behind the shelter in place agreement because only about 50% of people are staying home when it needs to be 80%-100%. COVID-19 begins in your lungs, it then spreads via droplets such as coughing and or sneezing. The virus begins as a mild illness in the upper raspatory tract, which is then followed by non-life-threatening pneumonia. After a week severe pneumonia with acute raspatory distress syndrome can progress rapidly and sometimes need life support. The CDC states that older adults mainly but any person with serious underlying medical conditions might be at risk for a severe illness of COVID-19. An example of an underlying medical condition would be asthma and or high blood pressure, and people with HIV are at risk. CDC states that this virus is so serious because it is nothing like they've ever seen before. However, they are trying their best to come up with medicines and using different remedies to cure COVID-19.  

COVID-19 is currently spreading faster and faster as more and more people aren't listening and staying home. It's generally spread from person to person through droplets. For example, when someone who has COVID-19 sneezes and or coughs, those droplets are then airborne. Whenever the droplets are airborne, people inhale the droplets into their lungs, and if they don't have a healthy immune or respiratory system, they could potentially be in harm's way. It also spreads through direct contact. So, by touching a contaminated surface or being closer than 6 ft, you can be at risk for contracting.  The CDC encourages everyone to stay at least 6ft apart at minimum at all costs! The number of cases throughout the United States has increased to 450,968 total occurrences, 15,878 deaths, and 24,562 people who have had and recovered from COVID-19. However, the circumstances in Georgia have also increased, with 10,566 total cases and 379 deaths, with 361 new cases not yet confirmed.  

With everything said, you can conclude; this virus is rapidly evolving. Due to an increase in the number of tests given and processed, the positive case levels will continue to rise. I believe the shelter in place was put into effect to avoid community widespread. It is currently in my community, along with most of the state of Georgia. I believe this decision for a shelter in place was made based on many factors, one being how the virus is spreading in a community. At this time, all 50 states have reported cases to the CDC. Studies show that the duration and severity of the pandemic phase can vary depending on the characteristics of the virus and the public health response.