Matthew Ko A01 Week 1

The coronavirus pandemic is very shocking to me because I never thought would spread to literally the whole world. I've heard about this virus ever since late fall quarter when family friends back in China were telling my parents about how there was a new virus spreading crazily.  At that time, I did not pay much attention to the coronavirus because I was so focused on finals, the San Francisco 49ers, and Christmas! I just assumed China would have it taken care of and contained within the country. But then I started to notice some hints that indicated the severity of the virus. On instagram, Jeremy Lin posted how the CBA (China's version of the NBA) had to be canceled. I was shocked since professional sports leagues rarely cancel their season midway unless something serious occurred. When I returned back for winter quarter, it was then where news outlets, like CNN, started to talk about many Chinese people dies by the coronavirus and how the virus spread throughout neighboring countries. Nevertheless, I was still confident about how the virus will not reach America, or let alone Davis! Even when there were cases in California, I was still not concerned because I thought the only ones who got Coronavirus were the ones who just recently came from China, and that once they heal everything will be back to normal. It wasn't until when all these cases of "unknown" origin started exponentially appearing and the cancellation of on campus  finals where I finally thought, "oh crap, we're in trouble." Fast forward to now, I am still concerned about the progress of the pandemic as epidemiologists predict that there will be more deaths and also by the emerging articles that state that even if the quarantine is uplifted, life will not 100 % return  back to normal unless an effective vaccine is produced, which is predicted to come out by late 2021-early 2022 the earliest!  Right now, I am just filled with frustration, confusion, and questions: How can such a pandemic happen in the 21st century, especially with all the advancement in medicine? Why did America not take this seriously and enforced travel bans earlier? How come China did not warn us about the actual severity of this virus?
But then I think to myself that world leaders, like me, were probably over confident in our medical advancement and thought such an event like the 1917 Spanish flu or the biblical plagues that took place 2000 years ago can never happen in the 21st century.

I am looking forward to learning about the struggles Asian Americans had to go through, and also how they are able to overcome hardships. I expect to learn more about my culture and how life as Asian Americans today differ than that in the 19th century.

References:

Shaw, E. (2020, March 11). Photograph of announcement of postponement of NBA season amidst the coronavirus pandemic from vox.com. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/11/21176029/nba-coronavirus-canceled-utah-jazz-espn-brian-windhorst-recode-media