I have been doing a good job keeping up with my goals this week. I have gone on a run every day that is has not been raining and I have been keeping up with my workouts. I decided to start meal prepping and it worked for a while, but I have run out of my food and have gone back to things that are easy to make and are not the best to eat. I have been trying not to beat myself up about it though because I would rather eat things that are not super healthy than go to the grocery store and risk getting sick more than I have to.
The Covid-19 pandemic is something that will probably be in everyone’s blog this week because it is changing everyones lives. Having to stay quarantined is not an easy task, but it is a necessary part of getting back to life. It has been hard to eat healthy in this pandemic because we are all trying to limit our exposure to the virus and going to the store does the opposite of that. While there are downsides, I have found it to be very helpful in my workouts because I finally have plenty of time to workout and get everything else I need done. The book explains that an endemic is an infectious disease that is “present at expected prevalence rates in virtually all populations on earth”(Donatelle, 2019, p.283). The next level up is an epidemic which happens “when the number of cases suddenly increases with higher than predicted endemic numbers”(Donatelle, 2019, p.283), while what we are all living through right now is a pandemic. A pandemic is considered a global epidemic, so its numbers are higher than projected worldwide.
One big thing that is known as a proper precaution for contracting Covid-19 is washing your hands. It is very important for everyone to wash their hands frequently to kill germs that may have transferred ed to your hands from nearly anything you may have touched. One thing that the book talks about is the fact that “antibacterial soaps may actually encourage the development of antibiotic resistance”(Donatelle, 2019, p.295). This means that if they created a cure or vaccine for coronavirus that was made of antibiotics, it may not work on many people due to the fact that everyone has been trying especially hard to use antibacterial soaps. This is something that the scientists working on the vaccine will have to take into account and work around. It also makes me unsure whether I should be using regular soaps or antibacterial soaps.
Another infection that is talked about in the book is meningitis. This is described as “an infection or inflammation of the meninges, the protective membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord”(Donatelle, 2019, p.289). The statistics on meningitis are enough to worry anyone who has it, 5-10% of people with meningitis die from it and 20% have permanent brain damage from it. I often work in a daycare run out of a family friends home, and two summers ago, the woman who owns it had been diagnosed with meningitis. It was a very hard time for her and her family. After spending months in the hospital, she was able to finally come home and take over the day care, but it took a lot fighting for her and a lot of rehabilitation as I am sure it would be hard for anyone to go back home and to work after such aggressive medical treatment.
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