Pandemic
1. As a nursing student I understand the individual and community benefits to getting
yourself vaccinated. Even with the knowledge that I have, I believe it is everyone’s
personal right, choice, and freedom to be able to make their own personal decision about
their body. We as a community just must hope that everyone is being properly educated
about the facts, benefits, and effects of these vaccines prior to making their decision. I do
believe children would be an exception to this rule in a sense that their parent/legal
guardian is to make the decision for them until they are old enough to be properly
educated to make the decision for themselves.
2. I do not believe that the United States government acted on Covid-19 as quickly as they
should have. As soon as we discovered prevalence of this new flu virus, international
travel from China where the virus originated should have shut down immediately to try
and stop the spread of Covid-19. I believe the individual states did a good job in response
once Covid-19 made it to the United States to try and show down the spread.
3. In the series they did show several protests happening in the community for the right to
be unvaccinated if you choose to do so. At the boarders where immigrants are taken it,
these individuals did show their willingness to vaccinate themselves and their children for
the safety of themselves and the community they live in. There was a city in Oklahoma
that voted to pay an additional 1% in taxes to help support their local hospitals and
healthcare system to keep them community safe. In regards to trust building, health care
workers in India would go from house to house to provide medication, support, and facts
about their illness and educate them on the importance of not spreading the virus. Going
to their homes and providing these services gave a sense of trust to these individuals. In
Congo there were speakers that attending church and would educate the attendees on why
vaccinations are so important and the risk of contracting and spreading Ebola. We need to
provide more information about vaccines to our communities and educate the doctors to
answer all their patients’ questions and concerns regarding each vaccine. Address their
fears and speak to them in facts not personal beliefs. Encourage individuals to seek
treatment when needed and not put it off and continue to spread it to others and make it
worse on themselves by resisting treatment early on. Get all healthcare workers and
students of the healthcare field properly trained on containing and treating an infectious
disease outbreak as best as they can. Also, I believe the government could do a better job
in allocating funds and resources to scientists to tract and do surveillance testing on
animals so we can stay proactive and have better information on when and what kind of
outbreak may occur and how we can prepare our population for that. President Trump
decreased funding for the CDC when he was in office and I think that was a huge
disservice to our country especially considering the Covid-19 outbreak happening that
same year.