Covid-19 implications: history, cooperation and science  

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Renato Rubia Garcia, a second-year medical student currently studying at the Statal University of Londrina, in Brazil. He is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

On January 30th, 2020, the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to the new coronavirus, requiring, according to the International Health Regulations, the cooperation improvement, coordination and global solidarity in combating the pathogen spread. Preceded by declarations to contain H1N1 infection, poliovirus infection, two ebola outbreaks and congenital malformations generated by zika virus, this emergency declaration aimed to contain Sars-Cov2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, a disease whose syndromic manifestation, although often similar to the common flu, had enormous social and health impacts owing to its rapid dissemination. Thus, almost two years after this expedition, the global scenario is drastically restructured, showing changes in local and regional spheres, which highlight the positive and negative impacts of sanitary re-education, as well as the resignification of important concepts, such as the health system, mourning and scientism.

Descriptively, the beginning of the pandemic scenario was catastrophic in several regions of the globe. The lack of information added to the governmental ineptitude of some countries caused the contagion to grow exponentially in the first months of outbreak, leading to deficient contexts of health systems in which the imminent large number of hospitalized patients occupied most of the intensive care beds, featuring an impossibility of treating them all. So, even if the complication rate and need for hospitalization did not differ from other airway pathologies, such as influenza infection for example, the exorbitant number of infected people generated a high amount of serious evolutions, which, over the impossibility of proper treatment, ended up presenting poor prognosis.

The stipulation of efficient strategies to contain rapid spread and to enhance vaccine development in record time, along with the unique logistics for their distribution and application, allowed a relief from the prevailing scenario. With social distancing measures and, later, with the immunization of the population, there was a contingency both in the number of new infection cases and in the number of severe COVID hospitalizations, which allowed better preparation of health systems and greater availability of treatment to the smallest number of hospitalized patients. Therefore, the significant drop in the burden on health centers was supported by two pillars, non-pharmacological measures and active immunizations, which were successful regarded to the great scientific development, ranging from epidemiological containment initiatives to mechanisms of genetic engineering, driving science to assume, consequently, an advanced position in the context of public health crises containment strategies.

In conclusion, it’s understood that COVID-19 had a global impact due to its dissemination speed and the sparse information availability about the pathogen, causing significant impacts measured by the infections number and deaths rate. Its containment depended on joint work involved in the reliability of scientific research, which sought a direct impact on the virus transmissibility and on the population immunity, demonstrating high efficiency in the contingency. Finally, the legacy of COVID-19 is significantly remarkable, leaving negative scars and positive teachings that will help in maintaining the fight against the Sars-Cov2 pandemic and in developing the best strategy for facing future health challenges.

About the author

Renato Rubia Garcia is a second-year medical student currently studying at the Statal University of Londrina, in Brazil. He aims to acquire medical skills during graduation, as well as integrate himself into lines of research tangent to the health area, with research interest in the fields of infectology and microbiology. In addition, he participates in local collectives on the dissemination of reliable information about the new coronavirus pandemic since 2021 and objectifies, above all, to help people. He has affiliation with IFMSA, having joined the local NUPEC and SCORE groups.