what has the pandemic taught me ? essay (in India.)
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From rethinking office flow to virtual care services to cash reserves—the ongoing pandemic has already taught doctors of optometry lessons to last a lifetime.
From rethinking office flow to virtual care services to cash reserves—the ongoing pandemic has already taught doctors of optometry lessons to last a lifetime.8 lessons the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us
From rethinking office flow to virtual care services to cash reserves—the ongoing pandemic has already taught doctors of optometry lessons to last a lifetime.8 lessons the COVID-19 pandemic has taught usExcerpted from page 36 of the September/October 2020 edition of AOA Focus.
About eight months have passed since the COVID-19 outbreak first struck the U.S. And during that time, the world has had to learn how to live with a virus that has infected millions.
About eight months have passed since the COVID-19 outbreak first struck the U.S. And during that time, the world has had to learn how to live with a virus that has infected millions.According to a survey by the AOA Health Policy Institute, 80% of doctors of optometry provided emergent and urgent care services to patients during the pandemic while 11% did not provide patient care at all. More than two-thirds of doctors saw less than 5% of their typical pre-pandemic patient volume and three out of four doctors had personally taken a reduction in income to protect the practice during the pandemic.
About eight months have passed since the COVID-19 outbreak first struck the U.S. And during that time, the world has had to learn how to live with a virus that has infected millions.According to a survey by the AOA Health Policy Institute, 80% of doctors of optometry provided emergent and urgent care services to patients during the pandemic while 11% did not provide patient care at all. More than two-thirds of doctors saw less than 5% of their typical pre-pandemic patient volume and three out of four doctors had personally taken a reduction in income to protect the practice during the pandemic.It’s been a bumpy road, but some of the lessons learned have changed optometry practices forever.
What is a pandemic?
According to the WHOTrusted Source, a pandemic is defined as the “worldwide spread of a new disease.”
When a new disease first emerges, most of us lack the natural immunity to fight it off. This can cause a sudden, sometimes rapid, spread of the disease between people, across communities, and around the world. Without a natural immunity to fight off an illness, many people can become sick as it spreads.
The WHO is responsible for announcing the emergence of a new pandemic based on how the spread of the disease fits into the following 6 phasesTrusted Source:
Phase 1. Viruses circulating among animal populations haven’t been shown to transmit to human beings. They’re not considered a threat and there’s little risk of a pandemic.
Phase 2. A new animal virus circulating among animal populations has been shown to transmit to human beings. This new virus is considered a threat and signals the potential risk of a pandemic.
Phase 3. The animal virus has caused disease in a small cluster of human beings through animal to human transmission. However, human to human transmission is too low to cause community outbreaks. This means that the virus places humans at risk but is unlikely to cause a pandemic.
Phase 4. There has been human-to-human transmission of the new virus in considerable enough numbers to lead to community outbreaks. This kind of transmission among humans signals a high risk of a pandemic developing.
Phase 5. There has been transmission of the new virus in at least two countries within the WHO regionTrusted Source. Even though only two countries have been affected by the new virus at this point, a global pandemic is inevitable.
Phase 6. There has been transmission of the new virus in at least one additional country within the WHO region. This is known as the pandemic phase and signals that a global pandemic is currently occurring.
As you can see above, pandemics aren’t necessarily defined by their growth rate but rather by the spread of the disease. However, understanding the growth rate of a pandemic can still help health officials prepare for an outbreak