This essay examines how COVID-19 has transformed from an acute health crisis into a chronic disease emergency in the United States. Drawing parallels to natural disaster impacts, the analysis explores how the pandemic has disrupted chronic disease management, strained healthcare infrastructure, and created long-term mental health challenges. The paper demonstrates how COVID-19's impact extends beyond immediate deaths to encompass widespread chronic health emergencies affecting millions of Americans.
Bates (2019) wrote an article on long-term public health problems that are brought about by a natural disaster. While the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster is characterized by treatment and control of physical injuries and infections, long-term public health needs include psychological and mental health assistance as well as the re-establishment of health services infrastructure. The article provides significant insights into the immediate and long-term public health effects of natural disasters. In the article, David Eisenman highlights the impact of natural disasters on chronic conditions. He notes that natural disasters tend to worsen chronic medical conditions in the United States by affecting the health services infrastructure. As a result, Eisenman states that the major problem of most disasters is not the subsequent direct deaths that occur, but chronic disease emergencies.
Eisenman’s view that most disasters in the United States are chronic medical emergencies rather than direct deaths that occur is relevant to the current COVID-19 global pandemic. The pandemic has had significant impacts on people’s lives and public health systems across the United States. The United States is among countries with the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases and deaths worldwide. According to Katz & Banaski (2019), infectious diseases continue to emerge in different regions across the globe and affect public health systems. COVID-19 has essentially strained the U.S. public health system as new cases increase. An increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases and demands for hospitalization has demonstrated the severe impact of this public health emergency in the U.S.
As Eisenman correctly pointed out, the U.S. is faced with a chronic disease emergency due to the impact of the pandemic. In essence, the management of chronic diseases in the U.S. has been affected by the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, chronic medical conditions were among the top 10 causes of death in the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that six in 10 Americans are suffering from at least one chronic condition like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer (Hacker et al., 2021). In addition to being one of the leading causes of death, chronic disease is among the leading causes of disability in the country and accounts for nearly $3.8 trillion of annual healthcare costs. These statistics imply that prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic, chronic disease was a major public health concern in the U.S.
The advent of the pandemic has exacerbated the chronic disease emergencies facing the country. While the virus causes respiratory distress, it is also associated with some psychological and mental health distress because it has resulted in huge personal and societal losses. This implies that the mental health and psychological effects of the virus are among its chronic disease emergencies. Therefore, COVID-19 is a public health emergency whose psychological, mental health and emotional impact is yet to be fully known. This impact demonstrates how this public health problem has created a chronic disease emergency in the U.S.
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