Gen Z, The Corona Diaries: Time to Restructure the Medical System

By Elijiah, 18, Duxbury, Massachusetts 

While living in quarantine with my brother and parents, life is very boring. I wake up at around noon every day. After I wake up I do online school which consists of maybe 1 or 2 zoom calls and about an hour of homework per day. After that I usually try to workout in my garage or outside for about half an hour. I‘ve also found myself watching a lot of TV and playing a lot of video games.

I feel that for me personally, this pandemic could not have come at a worse time as I am a senior in high school. As a result I am now unable to see my friends in our final months together before college, we likely won't have our senior prom or graduation, and our first semester of college may be put off. I know that there are people who have it much worse than I do but still it makes me incredibly frustrated.

I also find the way that this pandemic has affected the world extremely concerning. The stock market and globally economy has plummeted to levels not seen since the crisis of 2008, millions on people have lost their jobs, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, projections show that millions could die before this is all over, and scientists claim that pandemics like this could become more frequent as a result of a changing global climate and deforestation that brings humans and animals into closer contact.

I think this pandemic will change the world in a number of ways, some good and some bad. The good changes that I believe will come is a complete restructuring of the entire medical system in the United States. We have learned that we are drastically unprepared for an event such as this in regards to our hospital capacity and medical equipment stockpile. I also believe that people will begin to practice better hygiene in greater frequency. For example I think people will wash their hands more and disinfect their things that in turn will help less people to get sick should something like this happen again. I also believe that this pandemic will cripple the stock market and various other industries in ways that will take them years if not decades to recover from.

 


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published