Covid-19 and Public Health: A Message from Crash Course - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

Covid-19 and Public Health: A Message from Crash Course - By CrashCourse

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00:0-1	Hi , I'm john green and this is a slightly
00:02	different episode of crash course . We've heard from so
00:05	many teachers and students who are using crash course videos
00:08	to help with learning amid all this uncertainty and we
00:11	are really grateful . We've also heard from many of
00:14	you just how difficult it is to learn and teach
00:18	right now . This has made everything difficult these days
00:21	. It and this are often pronounced that require no
00:24	antecedent but ill defined them . Anyway . Covid 19
00:27	, a disease caused by the SARS cov two virus
00:30	has spread across the entire human community In the first
00:33	seven months of the pandemic , more than a million
00:35	people died of covid . Many people are out of
00:38	work and millions are learning or working from home or
00:42	learning in school environments that may feel and may be
00:46	unsafe . And because the virus spreads through humans doing
00:49	things that used to be considered normal , sharing a
00:51	snack , sitting in enclosed spaces with other people talking
00:55	with friends , the way we interact with each other
00:58	has shifted dramatically and suddenly . So when I think
01:02	about disease and its treatment , I usually first think
01:05	about like medicines and vaccines , and then if I
01:07	think a little harder , I might consider medical devices
01:10	, ventilators , dialysis systems and so on , but
01:14	diseases not only treated by those interventions . Similarly ,
01:18	I tend to think of infectious disease as being inevitable
01:22	, which in some ways it is , but only
01:25	in some ways like take cholera . For example ,
01:27	it is accurate to say that cholera is a disease
01:30	caused by the bacterium , vibrio cholera , which infects
01:33	humans who drink contaminated water or eat contaminated food .
01:37	And it is accurate to say that the disease is
01:39	preventable via vaccine and treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics
01:45	. But it is also accurate to say that cholera
01:47	is caused by humans . We spread the disease to
01:51	each other and it spreads because many humans don't have
01:54	access to clean water or safe sanitation systems . In
01:58	Yemen , for instance , a massive outbreak of cholera
02:01	began in 2016 during a civil war . As the
02:04	sewage system fell apart . Did vibrio cholera I caused
02:08	that disease outbreak . I mean in some ways ,
02:11	yes , but in other ways it was made possible
02:14	by human violence and the breakdown of human built systems
02:19	. So it's no coincidence then that cholera almost exclusively
02:22	sickens and kills poor and marginalized people . Infectious disease
02:27	affects people unequally because our governments and social orders treat
02:32	people unequally Disease amplifies injustice . It always has .
02:37	We see that historically , when cholera disproportionately killed enslaved
02:41	Americans in the 19th century , and we see it
02:44	today here in the United States , the COVID-19 pandemic
02:47	is disproportionately affecting black Americans , native Americans and other
02:51	marginalized groups . We see similar disparities from Australia to
02:55	Germany to Brazil . And so when we think about
02:58	disease and its treatment , we need to think not
03:01	just about drugs and vaccines and medical devices , but
03:04	also about humans . Human history and human choices and
03:09	human built systems . Medicine can treat cholera , but
03:13	so can sewage systems . I think it's important to
03:16	use this lens when thinking about the covid 19 pandemic
03:19	because while Covid is caused by the SARS cov two
03:22	virus , it is perpetuated by human behavior and human
03:26	choices and the functioning or failure of human systems ,
03:31	from health care to governance to transportation , medicines to
03:35	treat the illness and vaccines to prevent it are tremendously
03:38	important . But so are other interventions we may not
03:41	be used to thinking of as medicine , like for
03:44	instance , wearing a mask in public and washing our
03:46	hands and keeping physical distance between people just as covid
03:51	spreads through our behavioral choices , It can be prevented
03:54	by them . And so even if you're not in
03:56	a position of systemic power , there is a lot
03:58	of power to the choices you make as an individual
04:01	. And when we expand our understanding of health care
04:04	to include human choices , we can see what a
04:07	big deal public health really is . When we as
04:09	a society start building better sanitation systems , cholera disappears
04:14	. When we as a society use less tobacco ,
04:17	cancer rates drop and when we as a society keep
04:20	distance when possible and where a mask in public COVID-19
04:24	infections decline and fewer people are hospitalized and fewer die
04:29	. So our company complexly has other great channels like
04:32	health care triage with DR Aaron carroll and size show
04:35	that are providing in depth updates on covid 19 ,
04:38	but this is crash course . So we're going to
04:41	stick to our brand with some widely applicable evidence based
04:44	public health advice that we put together with the help
04:47	of our friends at operation outbreak and the Sabeti lab
04:50	at Harvard University . One of the greatest challenges of
04:53	Covid 19 is that people who have been infected with
04:56	the virus but don't show symptoms or haven't yet shown
04:59	symptoms can still spread . The virus communities are blindsided
05:04	again and again by this asymptomatic spread since people don't
05:08	know they're transmitting the virus . In fact , recent
05:11	research tells us that asymptomatic spread drives much of the
05:14	disease and can cause superspreading events , potentially infecting many
05:19	people at once . This happened at a biotech conference
05:21	in february where scientists and researchers from all over the
05:25	world congregated in boston . And while they didn't know
05:28	it at the time , at least one of the
05:29	attendees was carrying covid 19 , which they spread around
05:33	the conference . And later on scientists were able to
05:36	use genome sequencing on the virus to link that one
05:40	conference outbreak to infections in tens of thousands of people
05:45	. So you don't have to be sick to spread
05:48	covid . That's why we wear face coverings that cover
05:50	our nose and our mouths , regardless of whether we
05:54	don't feel good because we don't know Since the sars-cov-2
05:58	viruses primarily spread through respiratory droplets splattering from one person
06:03	to another . Anything we can do to prevent that
06:05	reduces the risk of transmission . This means wearing a
06:09	mask to physically block droplets from your mouth and your
06:12	nose physically distancing to reduce the amount of people who
06:16	are exposed to your droplets and washing your hands with
06:20	soap to get rid of any infectious stuff that you
06:23	may have touched . By the way . If it
06:24	sounds like I'm repeating myself when it comes to physical
06:27	distancing . Wearing a face covering that covers your nose
06:29	and your mouth and washing your hands . That's because
06:33	I am repeating myself . You might have heard of
06:34	these things in the context of flattening the curve ,
06:37	which is a way to say that slowing the spread
06:39	of infection will help us to avoid overloading our medical
06:43	clinics and hospitals with sick people . An overload of
06:46	Covid patients decreases the overall quality of health care .
06:50	And can mean in some cases that people don't get
06:52	care at all , which affects people infected with covid
06:55	19 , but also anyone who has any other health
06:58	problem . And we already know from experiences around the
07:01	world that more rapid spread of covid 19 generally means
07:05	that our communities suffer greater losses now due to the
07:09	great variety of life circumstances among humans . There's no
07:12	like one size fits all Covid 19 Protection advice .
07:16	Some folks have a job that requires them to be
07:18	in the same room as other people or they don't
07:20	have access to clean protective equipment or they have to
07:23	take care of an older family member . And for
07:25	many people involved in teaching and learning right now ,
07:27	All three of those things can be true at once
07:30	and many more . Every person's circumstances are different .
07:34	But what we know consistently is that we can decrease
07:37	the risk of the spread of covid in our communities
07:40	through physical distancing , wearing a face covering and washing
07:43	our hands If it sounds like I'm repeating those things
07:46	, It's because I am , there's also another important
07:48	strategy for limiting the spread of COVID-19 contact tracing by
07:52	keeping track of who we've come into contact with .
07:55	We can track a spreading infection through communities And intervene
07:59	to stop it . This can be an extremely effective
08:02	strategy . Was critical in the control of the 2003
08:05	SARS outbreak and the 2014 outbreak of Ebola . And
08:09	it will be extremely important with Covid , especially because
08:13	Covid can spread without symptoms for contact tracing to work
08:16	effectively . We need quick test results , something that
08:19	has been a big problem in many communities in wu
08:22	of that , we may need to have difficult conversations
08:25	with each other . For instance , you may need
08:27	to text a friend and say , hey , I've
08:29	been coughing , sniffing , feverish , having trouble breathing
08:32	, unable to taste or smell and or nauseated .
08:34	I haven't yet gotten my test results , but since
08:36	I hung out with you in the last two weeks
08:38	and I'm afraid I might have Covid , you should
08:40	probably get tested and consider self isolating , but like
08:44	, you know , put some emojis in there or
08:46	whatever . I don't know how people text . I'm
08:48	43 years old . When I send a text message
08:50	, I usually signed my name at the end of
08:52	it . Just so they know who it's from but
08:54	right I know it may be uncomfortable , but it's
08:55	important . One sick person notifying their friends can save
08:59	many lives by shutting down a potential path of virus
09:03	spread . Remember that conference where tens of thousands of
09:07	infections were traced to one place ? Of course telling
09:10	a close friend that they have potentially been exposed to
09:13	a global pandemic is terrifying . Asking your close friend
09:16	if they might have potentially exposed you to a global
09:19	pandemic is maybe even more terrifying . But having these
09:22	conversations is very , very important . It's the public
09:27	part of public health And right now we need to
09:30	make decisions with bravery and empathy . Also , all
09:33	these things we're learning right now can help us improve
09:36	global health in this pandemic , but also in the
09:39	future . We're developing radically new diagnostic testing and disease
09:43	tracking technologies and the World Health Organization is tracking over
09:47	170 vaccines and development right now , some of which
09:51	are in stage three human trials . A vaccine would
09:53	prepare our immune systems to fight off the virus so
09:56	they aren't completely taken by surprise and devastated by illness
10:00	, but it likely won't be a magic bullet to
10:03	end the pandemic . Instead , it will be another
10:06	tool we use to control the virus . Now ,
10:09	eventually , we will be able to talk about COVID-19
10:12	as a thing that happened and is under control instead
10:15	of a thing that is happening when you're living amid
10:20	history , it is very difficult to make conclusions about
10:24	it . We don't know how we will look back
10:26	on this time , but we do know that one
10:29	this will end and to our choices matter and can
10:33	help it to end sooner here . At crash course
10:36	we hear every day how hard it is for students
10:39	and teachers and parents to navigate education right now .
10:43	We hear that it's hard on physical health and also
10:46	on mental health experiences that used to be a given
10:49	. That you will walk in familiar hallways , that
10:51	you will hug your friends , play sports with your
10:54	teammates , sit in lecture halls or eat lunch in
10:57	the cafeteria while surreptitiously watching a crash course video to
11:01	cram for a test . Those may be gone for
11:03	now . Maybe you're also living with other , more
11:06	profound losses and all those losses are real . And
11:10	I'm sorry . So in addition to understanding that like
11:13	our choice to wash our hands is a form of
11:15	protecting health . I hope you'll check in with friends
11:18	and family , reach out for help when you need
11:21	it . And remember the active choices that you're making
11:24	to limit the transmission of this virus are a gift
11:28	to yourself and also to others . But even amid
11:31	these immense challenges , we must find ways to keep
11:35	learning . Let us find ways to go on learning
11:38	about science and history , trying to better understand the
11:41	universe and our place in it . Let us go
11:43	on learning about disease and how to treat it ,
11:46	not just with medicine but also by fighting for a
11:49	more just and equitable world where disease no longer disproportionately
11:54	affects the most vulnerable . Let us go on learning
11:57	about mathematics so that we can understand the implications of
12:00	exponential growth . Before we have to live with those
12:04	implications are species has been around for over 200,000 years
12:08	and just 1000 years ago , less than one half
12:11	of 1% of our history . We didn't know what
12:14	caused disease pandemics . We didn't know that lead was
12:18	dangerous . Few if any people knew that the earth
12:20	revolved around the sun . But because we are able
12:23	to accumulate and pass down so much knowledge through generations
12:28	, we now know all of that and so much
12:31	more . The people of the past work together to
12:33	learn and then handed down to us what they knew
12:36	as now we will work together to learn more in
12:40	the hopes that we can help humans of the future
12:43	learning together across vast expanses of time and space .
12:46	Is the human superpower to help you use that superpower
12:50	, crash course is hoping to develop a series on
12:52	public health because you know , we need to learn
12:55	more about illness and the factors that shape human health
12:59	and more generally , we hope that our videos can
13:01	be one tool among many to help keep people learning
13:05	. I don't want to minimize the challenges of this
13:08	moment . They are immense . This sucks . But
13:11	I really believe that even in these upended times we
13:15	must find ways to go on learning the best way
13:18	humans learn together . So thank you for being here
13:22	with us and remember your choices matter , You matter
13:46	. Yeah .

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