COVID-19 Pandemic and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

The COVID-19 Pandemic
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The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant threat to the national security of the United States of America (USA). According to Worldometer, COVID-19 cases in the USA have reached 34,494,677 infections, and about 619,424 people have died from this deadly disease (Worldometer, 2021). COVID-19 was first discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Indeed, it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. In the history of pandemics, Coronavirus has been identified as the deadliest virus. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic is an issue that should be addressed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since it endangers people’s lives and has interfered with individuals’ freedom of movement.
Before the deadly Coronavirus was identified in China, people used to perform their daily tasks normally. However, when WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, everything that individuals thought was a routine changed completely. For example, before Coronavirus, facemasks were only used by health professionals or in hazardous environments. Currently, they have become part of people’s attire. In addition, individuals used to enjoy their freedom of movement from one place to another and attended numerous public occasions, including weddings, cinemas, festivals, and rallies, without worries. Unfortunately, all these things came to an end when cases of the Coronavirus increased, and no vaccine was available at that moment (Clarke & Klarevas, 2020). As a result, COVID-19 has significantly disrupted people’s lives, and it is not clear whether there will be a time when the world will resume to the way it was before the disease.
The common signs of Coronavirus include dry cough, exhaustion, fever, sore throat, headache, aches, chest pain, and shortness of breath. These symptoms can be life-threatening or unnoticeable. The elderly and people with existing chronic health problems are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 (Yang et al., 2021). Coronavirus is transmitted when an individual breathes contaminated air or touches a surface with the virus and then rubs eyes, mouth, or nose. In that light, the risk of breathing air contaminated with the virus is high in public gatherings. The incubation period for COVID-19 is at most 20 days (CDC, 2021). Nevertheless, even if an infected person does not show signs of Coronavirus, one can spread the disease to others.
When WHO declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency of global concern, the USA was among the first countries to implement preventive measures to combat the spread of the disease. Some of these prevention measures include wearing face masks in public places, washing or sanitizing hands regularly, social distancing, and quarantining infected people. Others are lockdowns, closure of non-essential businesses, staying indoors, travel restrictions, and disinfecting surfaces and places touched or visited by individuals (Guner et al., 2020). Although these regulations were meant to reduce the spread of COVID-19, they brought up challenges to people since nothing like Coronavirus has been experi...