YOU MUST CREATE YOUR SUBSTANTIAL INITIAL POST PRIOR TO THE START OF CLASS, AND SUBMIT IT WHEN THE DISCUSSION WEEK OPENS

Grading: This is an all or nothing assignment. Full points for substantial completion of the assignment (answer #1-6 as requested, short responses accepted though you must be able to defend your statistics and statements when follow-up questions are directed to you by your classmates or professor). Zero points for non-completion or non-substantial work for this assignment.

Compare and Contrast Spanish Flu, Swine Flu (1976 and 2009), SARS, and Covid-19. 

I have always used the activity to teach students to plan for a pandemic in the future…. Well, it seems the future is now!

I developed this activity around 20 years ago when SARS CoV-1 was an issue (see if you can find the actual dates SARS CoV-1 started and ended if you can…), and approached the College about a plan for online learning in the event it disrupted our education…….

Research each disease, and list your references in each post. (Be sure to use citations that hold weight…like the CDC and WHO …NOT Wikipedia!). My goals for this exercise are to educate you about the past and how we have handled pandemics (and yes, we do come out of them and return to normal), get you to think critically about something that is affecting all of us so personally, and to also show you that the Internet does not always give us the truth. Many of the sites I have used in the past to teach Pandemics have been blocked or re-written (re-written history and distorted facts). So, let’s get to work on this as a team and see what we come up with, and I’ll give you insights as we go along. Don’t be surprised if your information is not the same as others’, that is why we need the citations to conduct our search for the truth so we can make informed decisions about what is happening to us now.

For each disease (especially Swine Flu 1976!) note the following information:

1. When and Where did it occur? 10 pts

2. What are the symptoms? 10 pts

3. How many people became ill, and how many people died? 10 pts

4. What are the cures (if any)? 10 pts

5. What lessons can we learn from the event? 5 pts

6. How has Covid-19 (SARS CoV-2) affected you and your family, and perhaps how you are working around problems it has caused for you? Are there any “upsides” to this experience for you? 5 pts

Be thoughtful in your posts. Post at least one initial post with your research citations. Provide substantial information (if you pull directly from a source put it in quotations and cite the author) and pose insightful questions. We are living in an historic time right now.

Check your spelling and watch your language please (no inflammatory or political opinions, per the Netiquette rules for the College).

Minimum of 600 words