COVID-19 – The start…

In December 2019 the world, as we know it began to change, not as we though by Climate change, but because of a Pandemic. A pandemic that in a few short months has swept across the world, killed millions, and does not seem to be stopping. As you know, my Headteacher blog is generally about the work we do focusing on climate change, climate literacy and environmental science. But, in a changing world, I thought I needed to adapt and start to catalogue how this virus is effecting us as a school, me as a headteacher and people all over the globe. Therefore, over the next few days, weeks, and months, I will attempt to archive what we are experiencing and how we, here in Bolsover are adapting. It first started in December 2019, while I was in Madrid, at COP25, all them months ago…
In December, news started to reach our shores from China. In a place called Wuhan, people were dying from a virus, which led to respiratory failure, it was believed to be a strain of the Corona Viruses. It is believed, the virus started in a wet market that sold animals (not proven), they stocked both live and dead animals. They think the origin of the virus was the bats in this market, that infected chickens, which in turn infected the population. The virus itself COVID-19, as it is now called, is a strain of the family of Corona Viruses, these viruses have been around for some time, in different strains.
The first Corona virus strain appeared in 2002 as a respiratory syndrome called SARS, which swept across the world. It infected about 8,000 people and killed 800, but soon ran itself out. A form of the virus also appeared in 2012, when there had been 2,500 cases and nearly 9,000 deaths in the Middle East. However, this modern form or Corona virus, COVID-19 is different, the symptoms range from minor to severe. Some people can carry the virus without symptoms, other have only minor coughs and respiratory issues, in some it can leads to hospitalisation and death. It is now believed to have divide into two strains, one more aggressive than the other.
With our world becoming smaller, with air, road and nautical travel made easy, the virus has travelled faster than anyone would have thought possible. It was not long until we heard of cruise a ship docking in harbour, with sick passengers aboard and countries beginning to go into ‘lockdown’ as we now know it, as their number of sick and dying population began to rise.
On 30th January, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a Pandemic, a situation of epic proportions that would rock our world to its core. It was set to change life, as we know, it forever and test the population of the world. People would need to become responsible for their actions, in order to save their loved ones and help their neighbour alive. Staying away from family would become an act of kindness, and staying home the new norm.