Running head: THE COVID-19 VIRUS 1

The Covid-19 Virus

Jessica D. Rangel

Young Women’s Leadership Academy at Arnold

December 3
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Beran, S. L. (2020, December 02). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

This interview was incredibly informative because the interviewee was the director of

student COVID response and assistant director of health services for GPISD. Beran talked about

her passion for being a nurse and what education she took to be in the current position she is in

right now. She also talked about what a virus is, how they’re transmitted, and what symptoms

they may cause on a person. Beran also talked about contact tracing and the cleaning schools

have to keep students safe. We also talked about how people with Covid-19 have a bit of

immunity towards Covid-19 because of their antibodies that have built up, but only for up to

three to six months.

The credibility of the interviewee would be the position they currently have and the

education that they have done. They are a;so credible because they were referencing what the

CDC has informed them about, and the CDC is also a reliable source to get information. The

information I have gathered from this interview helped with my research because it provided me

the information I needed on the different coronaviruses, what contact tracing is useful for and

what symptoms are shown when we get infected. The purpose of this reference was to have a

professional tell the students more in detail information about what Covid-19 is, what it does,

how it spreads and much more. She thoroughly explained what to do when a student has been

infected and what the procedure schools take when there has been a case.

This resource was really helpful and informative for the students and myself because of

the abundance of information that was easy and simple to understand. This interview will be

used in one of my modules along with the other interviews so that students and teachers can go
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watch them. Students will then be able to watch the three interviews I have done whenever they

like and I will put in how long they were also so if they need quick information to look at the

short ones but if they want in detail information they could look at this one which was almost

twenty minutes long. My knowledge on this topic expanded because before I didn’t know that

people who have been infected with Covid-19 have around three to six months to be immune to

Covid-19, but still isn’t really reliable since this virus is still new. I have also learned that once

you come into contact with a Covid-19 you can get symptoms two days later or right on the last

fourteenth day while you’re quarantined.

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Boopathi, S., Poma, A. B., & Kolandaivel, P. (2020). Journal of Biomolecular Structure and

Dynamics. ​Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics.​ Retrieved November 16,

2020, from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2020.1758788?scroll=top&need

Access=true

The journal entry I just read was about how the virus Covid-19 is able to rapidly spread,

it’s structure that was made with a computer, and treatments that have been tested to try to find

the most suitable to help stop this virus. The article starts by mentioning what family and other

viruses that are related to Covid-19 which is the coronavirus family, this family is also the cause

for common colds. The authors explain what effects it has and how it takes over the host cells of

living organisms and starts to replicate. The journal entry also includes how they have been able

to get the crystal structure of Covid-19 and what it is mainly composed of. They also included

many experiments and tests with FDA approved drugs that help lessen the effect of Covid-19 on

animals and humans too.

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The credibility for this journal entry is that there are many more volumes and a whole

textbook about other medical information about diseases, viruses, illnesses and many more

things others have researched. The information in this journal has helped me understand more on

how Covid-19 is able to spread so easily, the inside structure that composes it, and that there are

people who really are doing something about this virus. The credibility also comes from the

examples they give of the experiments that they have done with the different FDA approved

drugs and the results that have shown after comparing them to how they are being treated

normally. Sadly, the experiment they were trying with lopinavir-ritonavir antiviral drugs didn’t

show a good result because they had 199 people in total, 99 went to try the drug and the other

100 went to do normal treatment and at the end they had similar results to the normal treatment

so the drug showed that it wasn’t too useful to use on people. Another credible point is the

research that is being done on plasma therapy, they included this because there are others who

are researching plasma from certain people that have a specific human monoclonal antibody that

can bind to the receptor that Covid-19 has making it less powerful.

This journal entry was a very good resource for me and it was a very interesting read.

This journal entry was an excellent mind opener to the deeper understanding of the virus

Covid-19. It helped me understand the structure of the outside and inside of the virus, they

explained how the shape was made, gave some images too on all of the structures it had and all

of the proteins and enzymes that made it up. The section about the testing of drugs and

prescribed medicines also helped me learn about the different drugs that have the most and least

effect on Covid-19. Although it’s quite obvious, I understand a bit more on where the virus

affects an individual the most which is the lungs.

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Control and Prevention, C. (2020, May 07). Reopening Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting

Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes. Retrieved November 16,

2020, from

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/reopen-guidance.html

This website was able to teach anyone who wanted a clean school, business, any public

home, or even an individuals home. It taught a plan that will help you keep your place clean,

different cleaning supplies you can use, and how to avoid getting infected. The plan they

provided has three simple steps: develop your plan, implement your plan, and maintain and

revise your plan to make it more efficient. They also included how to clean different surfaces

that may be outside, glass like surfaces, and commonly touched surfaces. They gave us tips and

more information on how we can avoid getting infected by Covid-19 such as, social distancing,

frequently washing our hands with soap and water or alcohol based hand sanitizer, and wearing

masks.
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The credibility of this website is credible because after almost each paragraph about the

different topics has a link if you want more information on that topic that will lead you to a more

indepth article about what you wanted to know. Also, at the end after the conclusion it gives you

many websites to go to about other related resources with more specific recommendations that

will inform you more. This website was useful to me because it will be able to help me explain

how long the virus can live on surfaces without living in a host cell, what kind of cleaning

equipment is best for killing the virus and how we can clean different surfaces that have been

recently touched and those that haven’t been touched in a while. The purpose of this resource is

to help the module I will have about keeping a clean environment. I will include the plan that

they mentioned and also have some of the links they included, because it talks about what kinds

of disinfectant have been EPA approved and what some personal protective equipment to use

when using these disinfectants.

This source was indeed very helpful to use in my senior project because I will be able to

provide the students with a plan they could use to keep their homes and other places clean. I will

also include the safety precautions that they list because it can help the module slide I will have

about preventing the spread of Covid-19. It has also expanded my knowledge on the proper way

to use some disinfectants because before I didn’t know that you had to keep the place you’re

cleaning ventilated so that the fumes they create won’t affect you. I found it interesting was the

24 hour duration of a clean surface when you use bleach compared to any other disinfectant. It

has also helped me learn how to clean different types of surfaces that I didn’t think about

cleaning before such as carpets, rugs and porous material.

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Graham, R. L., Donaldson, E. F., & Baric, R. S. (2013). A decade after SARS: Strategies for

controlling emerging coronaviruses. ​Nature Reviews Microbiology,​ 836-848.

doi:​https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3143

This journal entry was mainly focused on the different coronaviruses and not mainly on

Covid-19. It talked about where they originated from, the effect it has on animals and how it

could impact us and the types of vaccines that are used to treat us when there’s viruses so we can

become immune. Each topic went into detail and had many references stuck on them, so that an

individual could click on them and go look at where they got this information. The author starts

off by talking about the emergence of the coronaviruses, which surprisingly is mainly composed

of bats. Then the author starts to go more in depth on how these viruses affect some animals and

the tests that are being done to see what some of the symptoms they might have and how some of

these animals were able to overcome them. The author then proceeds to talk about the two main

ways vaccines are given to their patients which are the inactivated virus vaccines and the live

attenuated virus vaccines.

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The credibility of this journal entry is that there are many links embedded in numbers that

reference to other resources the author used in their research. This journal entry has many

references in the reference section as well making it more credible. The section about where the

coronaviruses emerged from will help with my project because I will know where they came

from and how they were transmitted through animals. The purpose for this reference is to let the

people that are viewing my canvas module know that I sourced the information from this journal

entry about the emergence of the coronaviruses and how it was able to evolve. It was also useful

on the information about the vaccines and how the viruses are handled so that they don’t actually

give an infection to the patients.

This journal entry was very useful to me because I will use the information on how the

coronaviruses came to be and how the symptoms affect animals. This article expanded my

knowledge on this topic because before I did not know that the virus could infect an animal and

then an animal could infect a human. The tests that were also made on the animals to see the

symptoms that they would have when infected with the coronaviruses were also something I

didn’t know because I didn’t think that animals would be affected by these viruses. It was

surprising how some of these animals were able to overcome the coronaviruses because of the

defensive immune systems they have. Another new thing that I learned was that it doesn’t really

affect young people and animals as much as it does to the older aged people and animals.
THE COVID-19 VIRUS 10

Leger, J. (2020, December 02). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

In this interview the top three topics we talked about was what Covid-19 is, the

symptoms of this virus and what school’s will do when there’s a case in the school. Leger talked

about herself and what she had done to get to her current position and how school was going

with all of the limitations that Covid-19 had made at her workplace. She explained some safety

procedures they had the students follow to keep them safe and healthy. She also mentions the

problems she faces with these procedures. Leger also talked about how we could differentiate

what the flu virus was and when you had been infected with Covid-19.

The credibility of Jennifer Leger is credible because she explains what her education has

been and what she has learned throughout her time in being a registered nurse. The information

from this interview was very useful because I got to understand what these school nurses have to

go through to keep their students safe. This interview also fit in with my research because I was

able to know what they did at their school and compare it to what our school did. It also helped

in knowing what safety precautions they had implemented since they have a bigger high school

with a lot more students. The purpose of this reference was to gather more information on the

safety procedures schools have, what the nursing staff is doing to keep the students safe, and how

they are feeling with this situation.

This source was useful in gathering information from their school and how they’re

handling the situation. It did expand my knowledge by knowing how similar the Covid-19 virus

is with the cold and the flu virus. I will use the video I recorded through zoom on my modules to

let the students see whenever they’d like. I feel like i'm going to make one whole part just for the
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three interview videos I took so that the students will be able to find them in one spot. My

impression on this interview was that it went really well, I got the information I needed and nurse

Leger was very nice about letting me interview her.

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Levitt, A. M. (2015). ​Deadly outbreaks: How medical detectives save lives threatened by killer

pandemics, exotic viruses, and drug-resistant parasites.​ New York, NY: Skyhorse

Publishing.

This book mainly talked about the spread of diseases, infections, viruses and how it

affects the environment. They explained how these different things may have spread and how

they affected their host. The author also gave different stories about different kinds of situations

where the area they were in was capable of being epidemic, which is when there’s a large spread

of a disease that affect many people in a short time, or when the situation could have been a

pandemic, which is when the whole country or world is affected by a disease that spreads

everywhere. These situations also included in depth research about all of the possibilities and

clues that could lead the team of researchers to know how they could identify what was affecting

the people and how to stop it. This book also demonstrates how communication is vital when

doing research with others because the information you know could help the other people that

are working with you on this subject, for example in the first chapter they were trying to

investigate why birds were dying as well as the people who were getting ill and if they had any

connection. The veterinarian that had already done necropsies, animal autopsies, had vital

information for them which they didn’t mention because they thought it was unimportant.
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The credibility of this well written book is credible because it had included the research,

the procedures, and what these people did to solve the problems different viruses had created.

Also, in the chapter notes the author included all of the references they used and the research

they found with their respective author as well. This source was of help to me because it taught

me how outbreaks, pandemics and drug resistant parasites and viruses can happen. This resource

will be used to explain how a pandemic can start and how easily it can spread. This source also

helped me understand what the health departments do to try to solve the cases that are first

brought up and how they try to investigate everything that may have caused it.

This book was very useful to me because it made me understand how all the people that are

specialized in certain areas in the medical field have contributed together to figure out a solution

for a disease, virus, or pandemic so that it won’t get blown up into a larger scale. What this book

has also taught me is that viruses can be spread other than being airborne, like how Covid-19 is

transmitted. They can be zoonotic, which means that they are transmitted from animals to

humans, and they can also be arboviral, which means that they’re transmitted by arthropods like

mosquitos or ticks. This information can help me on my module by adding in how other viruses

can be spread around and use some quotes from the book about how you can prevent some of

these spreads. My opinion on this book was very positive, it provided a lot of information on

how laboratories, interviewers, doctors and the other people involved in the research help out

with coming up with an answer and a proper explanation on how they can let the public know

what they found without causing an uproar.

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Mackenzie, D. (2021). ​COVID-19: The pandemic that never should have happened and how to

stop the next one.​ Place of publication not identified: HACHETTE Books.

This book mainly talks about how the government was fully aware of this pandemic, how

scientists and other specialists in viruses had predicted that there was going to be a pandemic,

and how to prepare for the next one. She talked about how the government had known about the

probability of this pandemic happening and that they decided to put money in other situations

rather than the problem that would affect everyone. In China, the government made it so that

doctors and journalists couldn’t say anything or they would be shut down and fined unless they

were given permission. She also talked about how the scientists that witnessed the SARS

epidemic from 2003 have gathered information about the symptoms and other details explaining

why there would be another epidemic, in this case it was a pandemic because it wasn’t taken care

of earlier, and they had told the government. The author included lessons for the future as to

what to do when there’s another outbreak such as having “a high-level, authoritative system

bringing countries and international agencies together to collaborate on disease.”

The credibility of this book and the author is credible, because like the other books she

includes all of the references she used in her research. She is also credible because she’s been in

the research field for a while and has knowledge about this topic. The information in this book

was very useful to my research about the Covid-19 virus. I will use this information on my

module that will talk about the ways we can prevent the next pandemic. I will utilise the lessons

that she included and talk about them since they will be beneficial to know about and they also

give good information on how we can accomplish these goals.

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This reference was useful to my research because it gave me more insight on what the

government was doing during this pandemic, how past information could help the future

generations, and what we can do to stop the next pandemic. I will use this information to inform

students and teachers about the solutions we can do to stop the spread of the virus and what to do

to keep everyone safe. It also helped with more information about the origin of the Covid-19

virus and how it got its name as well. My thoughts on what I found out were positive because I

came to learn more about how China was able to make this virus become contagious. It basically

came from the wet markets that are around China, these markets sell live animals and have poor

hygiene, a perfect place for a virus to spread since the wet markets are usually filled with people

and large crowds.

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Shah, S. (2016). ​Pandemic.​ New York: Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

In this book some of the topics that it talked about was that viruses and pathogens adapt

to our bodies in order to use us as hosts, diseases use the same kind of transportations we do to

spread and infect others, and that pandemics will thrive in crowded places because some people

don’t follow the rules. The author includes how the SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome,

virus appeared in 2003 in a wet market in China. They also included a story about how a virus

infected animal had caused a pet to get it and then spread and infect seventy-two other people

because it was transmitted while they were traveling. The author mentioned that we gave

pathogens the ability to “fly” and spread more easily because of our traveling methods, such as

using the airplane. They also talk about how people not being able to keep their distance and

have really bad hygiene causes the start of what could have been a small sickness to turn into a

pandemic.

The credibility of this book is very credible, because the author lists all of their references

at the back of the book and included the numbers to what references they corresponded to. It also

shows the research and has various information about the stories she’s telling to the public by

using facts and statistics that have been shown to be reliable. This book was very useful to get

information about the different kinds of virusesThis fit into my research because it helps

understand the way that other different pathogens travel and spread. It also helped know how

some viruses are feared more than others when there’s more harmful pathogens close by.

The book provided to be very useful and helpful to my research about the different kinds

of viruses and how they are able to spread so easily. I can use this source to talk to the students
THE COVID-19 VIRUS 17

about how the spread of viruses can happen, how they are able to adapt themselves to our human

bodies and how we can be infected. My knowledge did really expand a lot while reading this

book, surprisingly. I never really knew how cases of these pandemics and epidemics could be so

common but the lack of media makes it seem like not that big of a deal. For instance, if we just

kept our hygiene up and had laws or regulations on throwing trash and having a cleaner life these

types of cases wouldn’t happen since we’re preventing them from evolving into more dangerous

and deadlier pathogens.

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Simmons, P. (2020, November 20). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

The interview I had with RN Patricia Simmons was very informative and helpful to my

research about Covid-19. The main points were about safety precautions taken at her workplace,

how the virus spreads and how masks should be properly used. We talked about how the surfaces

the students have touched are all disinfected and cleaned up after school so that it doesn’t spread

from not being cleaned. She mentioned that the Covid-19 virus is spread by droplets we produce

when we talk and although we cant see them they are being spread all the time when you’re

talking with someone. She also talked about how masks are being properly used at the school

and if there’s a girl that’s not wearing it right they will mention it to her and she’ll fix it.

The credibility of registered nurse Simmons is credible because she explained her

education, how many years she’s been a nurse and the courses she took to help with her career.

What we talked about helped me with my research on how schools are being cleaned and how

they’re preventing the spread of Covid-19. She explained the process of the cleaning after all the

students were gone which was that the janitors disinfect the desks, chairs, counters and any other

surfaces the students may have touched to make sure that the school is clean for the next day.

She also helped me realize that there are specific properties a mask needs to have in order to be

effective against the virus. She mentioned to me that if there was air coming out from the sides

of the masks that it wasn’t going to properly do its job because the droplets that are in the air

would be breathed in and there could be a possibility of you getting infected.

This interview was very useful to me because it helped me understand what schools do

and what they do to keep the faculty and students safe from this virus. What i’ve learned is that
THE COVID-19 VIRUS 19

there are specific requirements that are needed to make your mask useful. I also learned that

Covid-19 is transmitted through water droplets we create when we’re talking, but if you wear a

mask you’re keeping everyone else and yourself safe from the possibility of getting infected. The

information that I have gathered from this interview will help the module I have on interviewing

a professional and what they recommended us to do and how to stay safe. I thought that she was

explaining everything very well and it was a good change from just reading the journal entries.
THE COVID-19 VIRUS 20

World Health Organization. (2020, September 14). Considerations for school-related public

health measures in the context of COVID-19. Retrieved December 01, 2020, from

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/considerations-for-school-related-public-health-

measures-in-the-context-of-covid-19

This article posted by the World Health Organization on how schools can follow

procedures to keep safe from the Covid-19 virus. They displayed their main ideas by talking

about keeping the school clean, social distancing, and the proper ppe. When they talked about the

topic of keeping the school clean they mentioned how ventilation serves a big part in keeping the

students safe. It also mentioned different ways social distancing can be kept from being in your

community up to being in a classroom with your teacher and peers. They also mentioned the

requirements children and adolescents need to follow when they’re at school and using their

masks properly.

This article was very useful because it provided more in detail information about how to

keep classrooms and students safe from getting infected. The credibility of this article was that it

was written by a well known health organization that it is known throughout the world. This

article had also listed references they used for their credibility and for support on what they were

stating. This research ties in with my research because it talks about the safety precautions

schools take to try and maintain the cases of Covid-19 to zero. It also helped because it mentions

what to do when cases of Covid-19 get too high and when schools should close down again.

This article was useful to me because I can put it in my module that talks about how the

procedures schools take are important for both students and teachers. It also expanded my
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knowledge on the topic because it explains very well the use of masks and what to do when

there’s medical difficulties or what to do with children who aren’t used to them. This article was

easy to understand as well because it gave two tables that explained the information which would

help visual learners understand and see what they’re talking about. I can add those two tables in

my module talking about when to use the proper ppe and what to do when there’s been cases at

school. Overall, this was a very useful source and it was very informative about the procedures

that are being done at school to try to stop the spread of Covid-19.
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References

Beran, S. L. (2020, December 02). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

Boopathi, S., Poma, A. B., & Kolandaivel, P. (2020). Journal of Biomolecular Structure and

Dynamics. ​Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics.​ Retrieved November 16,

2020, from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2020.1758788?scroll=top&need

Access=true

Control and Prevention, C. (2020, May 07). Reopening Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting

Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes. Retrieved November 16,

2020, from

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/reopen-guidance.html

Graham, R. L., Donaldson, E. F., & Baric, R. S. (2013). A decade after SARS: Strategies for

controlling emerging coronaviruses. ​Nature Reviews Microbiology,​ 836-848.

doi:​https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3143

Leger, J. (2020, December 02). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

Levitt, A. M. (2015). ​Deadly outbreaks: How medical detectives save lives threatened by killer

pandemics, exotic viruses, and drug-resistant parasites.​ New York, NY: Skyhorse

Publishing.
THE COVID-19 VIRUS 23

Mackenzie, D. (2021). COVID-19: The pandemic that never should have happened and how to

stop the next one. Place of publication not identified: HACHETTE Books.

Shah, S. (2016). ​Pandemic.​ New York: Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Simmons, P. (2020, November 20). Covid-19 Interview [Online interview].

World Health Organization. (2020, September 14). Considerations for school-related public

health measures in the context of COVID-19. Retrieved December 01, 2020, from

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/considerations-for-school-related-public-health-

measures-in-the-context-of-covid-19