Coronavirus Impacts Abroad in China, Sends Shockwaves through World
Disease’s growth leads to student’s early departure from China
As of Mar. 3, coronavirus has affected over 70 countries including the US. Flights have been cancelled to China and Italy as well as the stock market plunging.
Junior Zoe Feldshon ‘21, spent the first semester in China doing a school year abroad program through SYA. But, because of the sudden the breakouts of the coronavirus, Feldshon and other students were sent back home early.
From the CDC, coronavirus is defined by “large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats.” Similarly to a common cold, symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness in breath. The majority who have died also had other health complications. However, the problem is that the symptoms might not show up for two weeks. Two weeks of spreading the virus from person to person.
Although it has not affected Minnesota yet, it has had a great impact all over the world. Feldshon had the unique experience of having a close connection to someone working the virus through one of the host families. She shares that my friend’s host mom worked in a hospital that had a few patients [with corona], but that is as close as I got.
Furthermore, Feldshon explains that she was surprised by how big of a concern the virus became, saying, I really thought it would just blow over. Then you [couldn’t] travel between provinces and now international borders are being closed, so I [had] to leave the country. Her experience in China and the impact that corona had on her time abroad has been more difficult, as there is a lot of fear surrounding the disease, as well as it causing her year abroad to be cut in half.
The closing of international borders and cancelled flights will prevent the spread of coronavirus in the US and other countries around the world. Despite the virus not spreading broadly, the CDC states that with the virus and the global circumstances, corona could cause a pandemic.
Feldshon explains how serious the virus and causes became, explaining, “I went out on a Wednesday and everything was fine. On Thursday my host family said I couldn’t leave anymore. By that Sunday, I had a flight booked home. So it was five days of me sitting in my house being quarantined before I hopped on a plane home. And our program was cancelled a day later. It was a four day span where it went from it [being] a virus to get[ting taken] out of the country.”
