Natural Hazards Inquiry (Covid-19)

This week I have had a much more productive start than in some of my previous Inquiry's. I contacted an expert on the second day which is something I recommended that I do in my previous Inquiry's reflection. I did not manage to get any information from the expert I contacted because they are extremely busy due to the recent events in Covid-19. Everyone wants to talk to an expert in the field. I talked to Mr Atkins about my difficulty in finding an expert and he suggested looking for someone who has expert knowledge of Covid-19 and is not so busy. I'm not so sure a person like that exists right now but I kept looking and my mother gave me a few names from experts that had been interviewed on a podcast she listened to. One of those names was Jason Gurney, he's a Maori epidemiologist. Which would hardly imply that he isn't busy right now but I contacted him via email anyway. I was very surprised to see a long, information rich email from him the following day answering my questions in great depth. I was yet again reminded contacting an expert is extremely beneficial.

This week I have spent my time researching answers to my research questions and applying the information to my notes document. I have learn't plenty of interesting things about Covid-19 including the fact that Coronavirus refers to a family of virus's that Covid-19 is merely a part of. Most of the virus's in the Coronavirus family have not made the jump to humans but around seven Coronavuris's have. Six of these seven odd virus's all tend to cause mild flu like symptoms even in the elderly. This is very different to their angry sibling Covid-19 which causes severe respiratory illness in most adults and can quickly kill people with health impairments or the elderly. I have been reasonably productive this week (not as productive as last week), finding lots of good information form a multitude of different sources. Making sure my information sources are reliable. One thing that has become apparent to me during my research is that the information on Covid-19 is changing so rapidly is going to be very hard to source information that will still be accurate at the finish of my Inquiry. Let alone into the future.

I have been getting back into the school routine this week. It hasn't been particularly easy as I have encountered a lot of conflicting information from different teachers regarding time-tables and whether we should follow them or not. I have decided to follow my time-line for the purpose of keeping a consistent routine if nothing else. I have begun writing my report and am aiming to do even better than my last one. I have kept in mind what Mr Atkins said about keeping sentence lengths to a minimum and I'm making sure I do so. I contacted my second expert during the holidays. She is a nurse and works at the Tauranga emergency practice. I was really interested to know what precautionary measures the government is taking to insure the safety of our front-line medical workers. Patients must sit in there car upon arrival and await inspection as they don't want possible Covid-19 infected people in the waiting room. Not only would this put everybody within 15 meters distance of the person at risk in the waiting room, it would also contaminate all the surfaces in the waiting room. I have made good grounds in my report writing and completed most o the paragraphs. I will have to go in and proof read, no doubt I will decide to add extra paragraphs and more and more information as I come across it.

This week has flown by, I have managed to get everything done just in time. Not what I was aiming for given my last reflection stated that I need to spread my work out over the three weeks more effectively. I am proud of my result, however, and I know I have taken my report writing to the next level with this Inquiry. I have learn't a lot about the Covid-19 virus over these last few week. I have also attempted to gain a basic understanding of the complicated science behind the virus. This just made me even more thankful that I managed to contact an expert and ask them constructive questions. I have learn't about the economic damage Covid-19 has already made and is set to make. It amazes me the sheer number involved in a damaged economy. The protected loss in the global economy is thought to be somewhere in the ball park of 2 trillion dollars. And that's US dollars as well. So around 3.3 trillion New Zealand dollars!! The recession is also set to be worse than the GFC which is all very sobering information. On the l=plus side this Inquiry has mean that I have kept my finger on the pulse of what is arguably one of the most important things to keep track of at the moment. In my next Inquiry I need to stick to my time-sheet more and make sure i'm making manageable daily targets when I create it. That way I am more likely to try and stick to it.