This festive season, think about the very few positive things this pandemic brought us.
Without a doubt, the pandemic has brought all sorts of challenges to our health system, our daily lives and our health. But, there is a silver lining in all the madness. According to Dr Alice Pong, a paediatric infectious disease physician and the medical director for infection control at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California, in the USA, during the pandemic there has been a sharp decline in a myriad of respiratory illnesses, such as influenza, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and human metapneumovirus.
“We track positive viral tests through our hospital lab and those numbers have gone down dramatically since everybody went into quarantine,” Dr Pong said in a news article. “We do think that’s a reflection of kids not being in day care or school,” she added.
According to Dr Pong, the probable cause behind this decline has to do with social distancing and other isolation measures, which means children are staying home when feeling sick. Also, Dr Pong said that the pandemic has made people take hand washing and other personal hygiene practices more seriously. “The public is seeing why public health officials have advised them stay home when they feel sick, for example, and why they’ve emphasised hand washing and covering a cough or sneeze. Kids growing up now will know this is how germs are spread,” Dr Pong said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive lockdowns in most part of the world. While this is nothing to be happy about for most of us, a positive result is a significant reduction in street crimes like assault and robbery. According to a study led by Dr Renee Zahnow, a criminologist from the University of Queensland, during the pandemic, there has been worldwide reduction in crime of about 37%.
“Brisbane recorded an average reduction in urban crime of more than 40 per cent due to these stay-at-home measures,” Dr Zahnow said. “Auckland, New Zealand, was just under 40 per cent, while the city of Lima in Peru had the largest overall reduction in crime rates.”
Among crimes committed during the pandemic, the study found that homicide had the smallest reduction, whereas theft dropped the most. “The average reduction was smallest for homicide at 14 per cent and largest for robbery and theft at 46 per cent and 47 per cent respectively,” Dr Zahnow said. “Burglaries reduced by 28 per cent, vehicle theft by 39 per cent and assault by 35 per cent within this range,” she added.
Another benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic has been seen on the road. According to a recent study, during the pandemic there were significant reductions in road accidents and associated deaths or injuries in about 32 countries. According to the authors of this study, in April 2020 there was a decrease of 50% in road-related deaths, compared to April 2019 in 12 countries. “Similarly, there was a decrease in annual road death in 33 out of 42 countries in 2020 compared with 2019, with a reduction of 25% or more in 5 countries, 15–24% in 13 countries, and by less than 15% in 15 countries,” the authors wrote.