essay on covid 19 a blessing in disguise

A blessing in disguise: new insights on the effect of COVID-19 on the carbon emission, climate change, and sustainable environment

Affiliations.

• 1 College of International Students, Wuxi University, 214105, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
• 2 School of Business, Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology, Loudi, Hunan, China.
• 3 School of Economics and Management, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China. [email protected].
• PMID: 34993782
• PMCID: PMC8736295
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17507-1

COVID-19, declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a pandemic, has affected greenhouse gas emissions and contributed to the uncertainty of environmental activities. This study demonstrates the effect of lockdowns, the number of new confirmed cases, and the number of newly confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 on CO 2 emissions. The data series used are for the UK from 23 March 2020 to 31 December 2020 and for Spain from 14 March 2020 to 31 December 2020. This research adopted the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for a stationarity check of the data series, the Johansen cointegration test for determining cointegration among variables, and the vector error correction model (VEC) Granger causality test for directional cause and effect between exogenous and endogenous variables. The VEC model shows a bidirectional relationship between CO 2 emissions and lockdown and a unidirectional relationship with newly confirmed cases and deaths for the UK. The results of Spain confirmed the unidirectional relationship of CO 2 emissions, lockdown, new confirmed cases, and deaths. The Granger causality test reconfirms the relationship of variables except for newly confirmed deaths for the UK and newly confirmed cases for Spain. Conclusively, the pandemic breakout reduced the emission of CO 2 . The directional relation of variables supported the short-run relationship of CO 2 emissions with newly confirmed cases and deaths, while a long- and short-run relationship was shown with lockdown. The directional and relational behavior of lockdown potentially linked the CO 2 emissions with daily life activities.

Keywords: CO2 emission; Climate change; Sustainable environment; UK; Spain; COVID-19.

© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

• Carbon Dioxide
• Climate Change
• Communicable Disease Control
• Economic Development*

OPINION article

Omicron: a blessing in disguise.

• 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Jimma University Institute of Health, Jimma, Ethiopia
• 2 Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 3 Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
• 4 Center for International Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

Two years after the first reported case and a year after the first shot of an effective vaccine, COVID-19 remains a major global threat and source of uncertainties. Although many thought a year ago that 2022 would be the year to return to normalcy, the world welcomed the New Year with record number of daily new cases in most countries. This is happening while we are having 10 vaccines approved for use by the World Health Organization ( 1 ) and some 64.5% of the global population has already taken at least a dose of one of the vaccines ( 2 ). The success against the pandemic was undermined by an inequitable distribution of the vaccines ( 3 ) and evolution of highly transmissible variants of the virus ( 4 ). Today while most of the wealthy countries have provided a booster dose vaccination for at least a third of their population ( 2 ), only 14% of the population in Africa has received the first shot ( 5 ). Paradoxically, there is a relevant proportion of the population, especially in high-income countries, that oppose getting immunized, as part of the no-vax movement ( 6 ).

The onset of November 2021 saw many countries relaxing their COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, the announcement of B.1.1.529 (Omicron), a highly mutated variant, by WHO on 26 November 2021 as variant of concern ( 7 ) led to an epidemiological situation that the world was not quite prepared for. This soon led to many countries reimposing their restrictions. Although mutations leading to new variants are evolutionary features of the virus ( 8 ), such occurrences remain a major setback even in an era where the world disposes of ever more tools to fight infectious diseases. The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was first discovered in India in late 2020, spread to 179 countries and became the dominant variant globally in less than a year. It caused more infections, hospitalizations, and deaths globally specially among unvaccinated people than previous variants ( 9 ). This happened when there were effective vaccines already widely available.

Since its discovery in November 2021, the Omicron variant is spreading at an unprecedented rate, surpassing all previous variants ( 10 ). It is now the predominant variant circulating globally, due to its so far milder course of illness, and its potential to escape from vaccine-induced immune-responses ( 11 ). Omicron has several sub-lineages of which BA.1 and BA.2 are the most common ones ( 12 ). Although BA.1 has been the predominant Omicron sub-lineage until recently, the relative proportion of BA.2 sub-variant is increasing in several countries in the past few months ( 13 ). It is thought to be more transmissible and shorter doubling time than BA.1 ( 14 ). Existing evidence also shows that the BA.2 sub-variant has an even more pronounced immune escape capacity and higher resistance to existing treatments ( 15 ). Despite these facts, Omicron in general is associated with lower risk of severe disease, hospitalization ( 16 ), and death than the previous variants such as Delta ( 17 ).

Controlling the spread of Omicron has been found to be more challenging due to the diverse nature of the subvariants. Most infected people have milder symptoms and therefore may continue their social interactions, infecting many others in the process. The proportion of infected individuals ending up in hospitals and ICU as well as dying of COVID-19 may be lower than the previous circulating variants, but the absolute number may be much higher due to the sheer incidence of infections. Thus, the Omicron variant may ultimately result in a much higher pressure on public health systems than previous variants especially in resource limited settings. The surge of the new sub-lineages such as BA.2 may even prolong and aggravate the current Omicron wave ( 14 ).

On the other hand, the fact that this variant has milder symptoms may result in more people (vaccinated or unvaccinated) getting the infection with relatively lower health impact as per case. This may ultimately lead to widespread immunity in a faster way. Although the degree of protective immunity conveyed by natural infections from previous variants is not clear yet, recurrent infections and break-through infections in vaccinated people may lead to more robust immune responses ( 18 ).

The full picture of the upcoming months may reveal a high rate of transmission and at the same time a low proportion of severe disease and death. Hence, in a few months we may be able to approach some form of global herd immunity that would at least prevent severe diseases and death downstream, realizing the initial assumption that 2022 may become a year of return to normalcy, and SARS-CoV-2 becoming a member of the group of globally endemic flu-like infections ( 19 ).

Global Surge of Ba. 2 Subvariant and the Looming Uncertainties

Although close to two third of the world population and over 80% of the population in the high-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine ( 2 ), more daily new cases of COVID-19 are being reported globally than in the pre-vaccine era ( 20 ). The BA.2 subvariant, known to cause widespread infection even among vaccinated and previously infected individuals, is deriving the current wave ( 21 ). One of the features of this variant is the difficulty to track it with the current common tests and hence known as “Stealth Omicron”. Even though the standard real time PCR is able to detect BA.2, it may not be able distinguish it from the Delta variant ( 22 ). Thus, it may be underreported in settings where genomic sequencing is not performed routinely to track the variants.

While the full virological characteristics and epidemiology of the of BA.2 is still unfolding, it is spreading at an overwhelming rate than the previous variants ( 14 ). It is now the predominant variant globally and a cause of new peaks in countries with high vaccination coverage in Europe and Asia ( 20 , 21 ). The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in many countries has led to this recent surge due to BA.2.

Despite the unprecedented surge, this subvariant is not associated with more severe disease, hospitalization, and death than BA.1 and previous variants ( 16 , 17 ). However, due to the waning immunity from vaccination and previous infections, and relaxation of most of the restrictions globally, it is possible to have another wave of the outbreak among unvaccinated population. Nevertheless, major health system crisis due to the outbreak is less likely to happen because of some form of immunity from vaccinations and previous infections ( 23 ).

Regardless of this optimism, the global action against the pandemic remains fragile as ever and mired with uncertainties. As we have seen in the past several months, new variants are evolving more frequently and BA.2 will not be the last one. As a result, SARS-CoV-2 remains a serious global public health issue and the world should remain vigilant to deal with the most likely new variants in the future. Boosting immunity against the virus through vaccination ( 24 ) and cutting its spread through non-pharmacological methods such as mask use ( 25 ) remain the most powerful and proven means to deal with the evolutionary adaptability of the virus.

The fight against the virus thus needs concerted global action through equitable distribution of vaccines, dealing with vaccine hesitancy, and optimizing non-pharmacological preventive interventions until the pandemic is under control at least to a degree that is not detrimental to health systems. The global community will benefit more from ensuring that as many people as possible are immunized globally, rather than from nation-states cocooning and stockpiling vaccines for their defined populations. This is true both from an ethical as well as from an epidemiological point of view. Countries should also put in place strategies to closely monitor and track SARS-CoV-2 emerging variants.

Author Contributions

EG wrote the first draft. SA and GF reviewed the manuscript for intellectual contents. All authors have approved the manuscript in the current version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID vaccine, Omicron variant, vaccine inequalities, pandemic (COVID-19)

Citation: Gudina EK, Ali S and Froeschl G (2022) Omicron: A Blessing in Disguise? Front. Public Health 10:875022. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.875022

Received: 13 February 2022; Accepted: 13 April 2022; Published: 02 May 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Gudina, Ali and Froeschl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Esayas Kebede Gudina, esakgd@gmail.com

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Blessing in disguise: How Covid-19 is helping people reflect and reconnect

Post Report

The pandemic and the lockdown has been a stressful time for everyone. The period has also given many of us the time to reflect on our lives, relationships, goals, and make new plans for the future. The Post talked to four youths, all under 30, from different walks of life, on what they have learned about themselves during the pandemic and how they plan to do things differently.

'This is the longest we have spent time together as a family'

Growing up, I didn’t get much time to spend with my family. I was 11 when I went to a boarding school in India, and after that, I went to Thailand for my university. All those years living away from family hadn’t really given us the time to understand each other, and the few weeks that I would come home were never really enough time for us to truly get to know each other. I always felt like they didn’t understand me, especially my dad.

A few weeks before the lockdown, I came home for what was supposed to be for a few weeks. But then the lockdown happened, and the few weeks have now stretched to almost three months now. This is the longest we have spent together as a family. Initially, there was a lot of friction. My dad and I argued almost every day, but over these months, things have become better. The time together has allowed us to understand each other and brought us so much closer, even helped us analyse our boundaries. I think my dad now understands that I am no longer the little girl who hated staying away from the family. I have also understood that what he says to me is not to threaten my independence and that he is just being protective because he worries I’ll be hurt and harmed the way he was when he was growing up.

When this ends and I return to university, we will continue to communicate more often with each other and at the same time give each other the space we all deserve.

The highlight of the last few months has been that I have made my dad give up smoking and drinking, both of which he had done since he was a teenager. For this, I am so proud of him.

Aeshashwy Joshi, 23, student

'Reflection itself has been a process of self-discovery'

Reflection itself has been a significant process of self-discovery for me during the lockdown. Having been relieved of the chaos of the day to day work, I have had the time to think about a lot of things, especially my professional life. I run an advertising agency, and I have on a lot of occasions compromised my creative fulfilment to cater to clients' demands. I have thought about this aspect of my job a lot, and that has served as a catalyst to pursue my stalled passion projects. So far, I have been able to put out a song, a video, and a couple of poems. I have also come up with new strategies for the company, and I am very excited about implementing them.

Another thing this lockdown has made me realise very strongly is the critical role youth play in bettering the country. I took part in protests demanding that the government do more to curb the spread of Covid-19 accountability, and I look forward to actively engaging in social activism.

All in all, the lockdown brought about a change in lifestyle from doing more research, reading, composing, cooking, journaling to conversing and connecting with family on a deeper level. I am looking forward to continuing it.

Abhishek Gurung, 27, brand consultant

'If things go well, I might not have to go abroad anymore.

In the second week of February, I returned to Nepal from Dubai, where I worked as a commis chef at a hotel. I had taken a two-month leave to attend a family function. In the third week of March, the lockdown began. Then things changed so rapidly in the following weeks that by the end of April, I was one of the dozens of staff laid off by the hotel.

I was 19 when I first went to the Middle East for work. I spent the following nine years working in different countries in the region, from Oman, Saudi Arabia to the UAE. I have missed out on a lot of things back home—I wasn't there when my wife gave birth to our first child; I wasn't there when my mother had to be hospitalised for two weeks. I always thought those personal sacrifices were worth it because I could provide for my family.

The months from February to now have been the longest I have ever spent time with my family in almost a decade now. Initially, I was very worried about the whole situation, as I had also been laid off. But as the lockdown extended and the infection rate increased exponentially, I started realising how fortunate I am to be with my family during such a difficult time. Now I am looking at the whole period as a blessing in disguise. Every morning, my brother and I go to the fields with our parents, we then milk our cows, and the evenings are spent munching roasted corn. I have missed these little things. My brother and I have had several brainstorming sessions, and we are soon planning to start commercial vegetable farming on some of the plots of land we own. If things goes well, I might not have to go abroad anymore.

Sagar Nepali, 28, farmer

'This period has taught me to be more thankful and empathetic'

Having founded Danfe Arts last year and done my first exhibition this time last year, I feel very nostalgic and emotional about how things were.

But that said, I am equally excited about all the art movements coming forward, the virtual exhibitions and new pop-ups of street art. We, as a gallery, have also started a local initiative for our art community. As a young curator in the art world, I think the future of art will be very different. I believe that art will become a more common method of expression now. People will create more and create without the responsibility or the burden of exhibiting their work or selling their work. I think artists will be encouraged enough to create art just out of passion and their love for it, and that is something I am very excited to see. I think this pandemic is going to bring about a new wave in our arts scene, perhaps more intriguing and unfiltered in many ways.

On a personal level, I have spent most of the lockdown immersing myself in some great books, films, and occasionally drawing and painting, and reminding myself of my privilege of being able to do that. More than anything, this period has taught me to be more thankful, empathetic and made me realise that it's so important to respect and preserve the relationships that we have with our friends and family.

Shivangi Bansal, 25, art enthusiast/curator

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COVID 19 Pandemic: A “Blessing” In Disguise?

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“I have been covering up his abusive ways and lack of financial commitment to me and my children so much that I had to change my children’s school to a less expensive one because of my inability to keep up with their fees. Not long after this, our house rent was due with threats of eviction from the landlord. I had no choice but to move myself and my four children into my small shop because at this point, my husband had already left and abandoned us to our fate.”

This was the plight of 37-year old Olatundun Bashirat. A low-scale fashion designer and mother of four who had endured seven years of marriage characterized by constant physical, emotional, and psychological abuse perpetrated by her husband. Having found herself in a situation where the supposed source of income of her spouse turned out to be false, she had been shouldering family expenses to save face with family and friends up to the point where she was abandoned with four children and became homeless.

“I use the proceeds from my business to support household expenses but as the number of my children increased, I started spending more money. I could not upgrade or improve my skills, and this has affected the growth of my business as I have lost many customers. For close to one year now, my children and I have been living in the shop but the COVID-19 pandemic has further affected my business because of the lockdown and subsequent restriction of movement. I do not get much patronage like before. It has not been easy living and working in just one small room with four children.”

Little did Bashirat know that the COVID-19 pandemic will shine a spotlight on her situation to change her story. Recognizing the potential negative impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, ActionAid Nigeria through the Women’s Voice and Leadership Nigeria (WVL-N) project incorporated COVID-19 relief support into her programmes with special focus on women and girls.

Led by Olive Community Development Initiative (OCDI), one of ActionAid Nigeria WVL-N partners in Kwara state, Bashirat was selected to be among the 50 beneficiaries of COVID--19 palliative distribution targeted at survivors of violence. Seeing how critical her situation was, the COVID--19 relief fund awarded to OCDI was diversified to provide financial support towards getting a new accommodation for Bashirat.  As of today, Bashirat and her children live in a newly secured accommodation and she also benefited from nutritional support made available through the intervention. She is grateful to have found support during this difficult period of her life. OCDI have also provided hotlines for cases of violence for effective linkages and referrals to relevant partners to provide protection services for victims of violence.

“Only God can help me thank you. When I have lost hope, you came along and helped me out. My God will reward you.”

Kehinde Afolabi Is a communication officer for the Women's Voice and Leadership Nigeria Project (WVL) She is a realist and passionate about documenting inspiring stories of women to amplify voices on gender equity and women's rights

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Why the Covid-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for Ferdinand Omanyala

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Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has explained why the COVID-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for him.

Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has opened up about how the COVID-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for him as far as his glamorous career was concerned.

Speaking on the Ready Set Go podcast, Omanyala explained that after the Olympic Games were postponed, he had a lot of time to train, something that came in handy during the 2021 season since that’s when he posted his first-ever sub-10 performance.

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The Commonwealth Games champion noted that he joined the rugby team to train and would even look for other places to work out despite the closure of the stadiums.

Follow the Pulse Sports Kenya Instagram handle for more news.

“Covid was a blessing in disguise because the Olympics were postponed and at the time, I was going through a lot of challenges with the federation…it’s a long story.

“Everything was closed…like everything was shut down and it was a bit difficult for me because I had to get some casual jobs like transporting metals for about six dollars per day.

Episode with @Ferdiomanyala out now! https://t.co/ZAlWgjGTJB pic.twitter.com/2VeAHWBpqA — Justin Gatlin (@justingatlin) May 9, 2024

“However, we were training, all the stadiums were closed but we could get places to train, and the same year, I got a call from the rugby sevens head coach to go and join them in training and what we did there really helped me in 2021,” he said.

The Kenyan added that having to train without the competition pressure also made him have a keen look at areas to improve on and he was just training to get better.

He explained that training for him was therapy at the time and stepping on the training grounds always made him feel better. “I’m kind of a therapist on my own but I do have a therapist,” he added.

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AstraZeneca withdraws Covid-19 vaccine worldwide, cites surplus of newer ones

The company said there is a variety of newer vaccines available that have been adapted to target covid-19 variants.

The company previously pulled its European Union marketing authorization for the vaccine, known as Vaxzevria, in 2021.

This authorization grants approval to market a drug in EU member states.

AstraZeneca has decided to withdraw its Covid-19 vaccine globally due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" for the new variants of the virus.

The company said there is a variety of newer vaccines available that have been adapted to target Covid-19 variants leading to the decline in demand for AstraZeneca.

The withdrawal application from the European Union market, as reported by the Independent, was submitted on March 5 and took effect on May 7.

European Medicines Agency said in a notice that the jab is no longer authorised for use.

AstraZeneca changed the name of its Covid vaccine to Vaxzevria in 2021.

The vaccine was authorised for use in those aged 18 and older, delivered as two injections, usually into the muscle of the upper arm, about three months apart.

In the race to lift the world out of pandemic lockdowns, the Covid-19 vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford in record time.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said: "According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone."

"Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic," it said.

Africa was among the largest consumers of the drugs with Ghana reporting that in September 2021, it received 1.5 million doses of the vaccine.

This is according to an official report on the country’s Ministry of Health.

The Telegraph recently reported in an article that AstraZeneca acknowledged that the vaccine, initially named Covishield, could potentially cause very rare side effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

This admission followed a class action lawsuit filed in the UK, alleging that the vaccine had resulted in deaths and severe injuries, seeking damages up to £100 million (Sh16.3 billion) for about 50 victims.

AstraZeneca confirmed in court documents in February that the vaccine could, in very rare instances, lead to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), characterized by blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

The vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute of India, was administered in over 150 countries, including Britain and India.

While some studies during the pandemic indicated the vaccine's effectiveness in protecting against the coronavirus ranged from 60 to 80 per cent, subsequent research revealed the potential for fatal blood clots.

AstraZeneca's acknowledgement contradicted its previous stance in 2023 when it stated it would not accept that TTS was caused by the vaccine at a generic level.

In April 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed the vaccine's potentially fatal side effects, citing reports of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome after vaccination.

In response, AstraZeneca expressed pride in the role Vaxzevria played in combating the pandemic, highlighting independent estimates that over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone, with over three billion doses supplied globally.

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