COVID-19 Pandemic Overview

One of the current pandemic health issues adversely affecting individual's health is COVID-19 which is evident as nearly 6.15 million cases of the disease are been reported with 372, 000 deaths been caused by it since May, 2020 which makes COVID-19 one of the worst-hit pandemic over the world (Hamzah et al., 2020). Thus, focus of the study would be regarding COVID-19 as it would help to analyse information in context to current healthcare challenges in managing COVID-19 to ensure taking steps in lowering its prevalence and mortality rate.

One of the recently published articles by the World Health Organisation (WHO) informs regarding the way COVID-19 can be prevented from spreading among individuals at the community level. This article is selected for analysis because it would help to provide effective advice regarding the way gathered evidence can be used in controlling challenging factors which are leading to spread of COVID-19. The article is selected by using electronic search strategy on Google with the help of using keyword “COVID-19 prevention advice”. The electronic search strategy is being used over convention search strategy because it allows selection of wide range of articles and journals without any geographic barriers (McGowan et al., 2016). The inclusion criteria used for searching articles includes articles published on and after 2019, written in English and published by WHO. This is because COVID-19 was first identified on 2019 and since the research have only knowledge of English language thus the specific criteria is used. Moreover, article by WHO is chosen as they provides most authentic information since the identification of COVID-19. One of the challenges faced in finding source for the information is lack of time due to which more authenticated research could not be performed.

The article by WHO (2020) known as “COVID-19 advice for public” is published and updated on 29th April 2020 (WHO, 2020). The key message or aim of the article is to encourage people to adopt measures which would help them to avoid spread of COVID-19 (WHO, 2020). The presence of a clarified aim in this article acts as its strength because it helps to determine intention of the study. This is beneficial as it provides overview of the information to be covered in the article that allows readers to determine whether or not it meets the area of interest of research (Jacobsen, 2020). In the article by WHO (2020), simple vocabularies and English language are used for presenting the information regarding COVID-19. This acts strength of the study as the language and vocabularies used lead to effectively communicate the information in understandable manner to the readers in the UK who predominantly speak and understand English. In the study by WHO (2020), it is seen that no appropriate methodologies are mentioned that are followed in collecting the information. The lack of mention of methodologies used in collecting information in this study acts as its limitation. This is because without information about the research methodologies it is unable to determine whether or not the data presented are gathered in a valid and reliable way (Green and Thorogood, 2018).

In this study by WHO (2020), it is seen that the data are presented in descriptive manner without mentioning the source, statistical information and the way the information is gathered. This acts as limitation for the article as it fails to provide effective verification and clinical test results that can be referred to determine the way results are gathered. Moreover, without statistical information and supportive references for the data in the article, there are chances a certain level of bias may be involved in presenting the data (Sharafi et al., 2016). Thus, the lack of availability of statistical or clinical test results to prove the data presented acts as limitation for the study because the authenticity of the results cannot be verified to be used for clinical purpose. The article of WHO lacks information about the researchers and their qualifications who have executed in the study. This also acts as limitation for the study as the readers remain unaware of the individuals and their academic efficiency in presenting the information in the study. It is evident as no name of the author or qualification of the individual or people who have compiled the article is provided.

The data presented in the article by WHO (2020) mentions that reduction of COVID-19 transmission among non-affected people can be ensured by frequently washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand rub (WHO, 2019). It is evident as amphiphiles which are fat substances present in the soap are similar to the lipids in the virus membrane that competes to damage the plasma membrane of the virus to kill it (Gupta and Lipner, 2020). The article by WHO mentions that people are to maintain minimum 1 m distance among them and others to minimise chances of community spreading of COVID-19 (WHO, 2020). The advice is effective in controlling community spreading of COVID-19 among the population. This is because the virus causing COVID-19 mainly spread through droplets from nose or mouth which are considered to travel within less than 1m distance between individuals (Bourouiba, 2020). However, the UK SAGE has advised the government to follow the strategy of maintaining 2m distance between people in social environment to stop spreading COVID-19 (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2020). In contrast, in all parts of the world it is seen that governments have announced lockdown over cities and places, asked people to maintain 1m distancing and banned social gathering to stop spreading COVID-19 (Lau et al., 2020). Thus, it can be seen that there is divergence in thoughts of WHO and UK SAGE but to prove which of them are scientifically correct further researcher is required which is currently not available.

The WHO publication may affect to create certain behavioural changes required among normal people to avoid the spread of the virus and increasing the prevalence of COVID-19. Moreover, the article has the strength to educate people about the do’s and don’ts of behaviour for avoiding contamination with the virus. However, the limitation of the publication is that it fails to focus on the barriers that may hinder the encouragement of the behaviour change asked in the article creating uncertainty of its actual effectiveness. This is evident as no strategies to overcome barriers for the successful implementation of the behaviour change mentioned in the article is provided (WHO, 2020).

The above discussion mentioned that the article presents a well-focused aim but fails to mention the research methods, data analysis and clinical results followed in presenting the findings which reduce the validity and reliability of the study.

References

Bourouiba, L., 2020. Turbulent gas clouds and respiratory pathogen emissions: potential implications for reducing transmission of COVID-19. Jama, 323(18), pp.1837-1838.

Green, J. and Thorogood, N., 2018. Qualitative methods for health research. sage.

Jacobsen, K.H., 2020. Introduction to health research methods: A practical guide. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Lau, H., Khosrawipour, V., Kocbach, P., Mikolajczyk, A., Schubert, J., Bania, J. and Khosrawipour, T., 2020. The positive impact of lockdown in Wuhan on containing the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Journal of travel medicine, 27(3), p.37.

Powell-Jackson, T., King, J.J., Makungu, C., Spieker, N., Woodd, S., Risha, P. and Goodman, C., 2020. Infection prevention and control compliance in Tanzanian outpatient facilities: a cross-sectional study with implications for the control of COVID-19. The Lancet Global Health. pp.27-39.

Sharafi, K., Karimi, K., Arfaeinia, H., Hosseini, Z., Sharafi, H. and Moradi, M., 2016. Application of response surface methodology (RSM) for statistical analysis, modeling and optimization of removal of phenol from aqueous solutions by aluminum-modified scoria powder. International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences (IRJABS), 9(10), pp.1789-1798.

Hamzah, F.B., Lau, C., Nazri, H., Ligot, D.V., Lee, G., Tan, C.L., Shaib, M.K.B.M., Zaidon, U.H.B., Abdullah, A.B. and Chung, M.H., 2020. CoronaTracker: worldwide COVID-19 outbreak data analysis and prediction. Bull World Health Organ, 1, p.32.

McGowan, J., Sampson, M., Salzwedel, D.M., Cogo, E., Foerster, V. and Lefebvre, C., 2016. PRESS peer review of electronic search strategies: 2015 guideline statement. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 75, pp.40-46.

Yuan, X., Xu, J., Hussain, S., Wang, H., Gao, N. and Zhang, L., 2020. Trends and Prediction in Daily New Cases and Deaths of COVID-19 in the United States: An Internet Search-Interest Based Model. Exploratory Research and Hypothesis in Medicine, 5(2), p.1.