Hook: Feeling stressed out during this quarantine that we are having right now? How much longer will this quarantine last?
Statement of problem/debate: During this pandemic quarantine is the first opinion that was taken to prevent the spread of the disease, it has been a year now there is still no actual cure to this disease. Quarantine is not a long term solution to counter this pandemic, many health issues and economic stress has been brought to many families.
Thesis: Quarantine is not a long term solution to the pandemic.
Subargument 1: Quarantine leading to obesity
Support 1: “due to the anxiety caused by the hypothesis of a future food shortage, people buy large quantities of packaged and long-lasting food rather than fresh food. Foods with a long shelf life have a high content of salt, sugar or trans fats which increases the risk of obesity.”
Support 2: “One of the consequences of quarantine stress is a change in lifestyle and eating habits reported that stress-related eating (defined as trying to make oneself feel better by eating or drinking in a stressful situation) was significantly associated with obesity, mainly in women. There may be a gender-specific response to stress in which women are more likely to use food to deal with stress, whereas men are more likely to use other oral behaviors such as alcohol consumption or smoking as strategies to cope with stress”
Support 3:It is well known that obesity is associated to a chronic, sterile, low-grade inflammation which contributes to the activation of atherosclerothic plaques, making patients affected by obesity more vulnerable to cardiovascular events. Inflammatory markers were seen to increase by short-term as well as long-term stress.
Subargument 2: Psychological impact of quarantine
Support 1:Three studies showed that longer durations of quarantine were associated with poorer mental health specifically, post-traumatic stress symptoms,avoidance behaviours, and anger.Although the duration of the quarantine was not always clear, one study showed that those quarantined for more than 10 days showed significantly higher post-traumatic stress symptoms than those quarantined for less than 10 days.
Support 2: Participants in eight studies reported fears about their own health or fears of infecting others and were more likely to fear infecting family members than those not quarantined.They also became particularly worried if they experienced any physical symptoms potentially related to the infection and fear that the symptoms could reflect having the infection continued to be related to psychological outcomes several months later.
Support 3: Confinement, loss of usual routine, and reduced social and physical contact with others were frequently shown to cause boredom, frustration, and a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, which was distressing to participants.
Subargument 3: Financial crisis caused by quarantine
Support 1: In the reviewed studies, the financial loss as a result of quarantine created serious socio economic distress and was found to be a risk factor for symptoms of psychological disorders and both anger and anxiety several months after quarantine.
Support 2: Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, surveyed around 3,500 respondents nationwide in July and early August and found that nearly half of American households faced lost jobs or pay cuts during the pandemic.
Support 3: Potentially related to financial loss, participants with a combined annual household income of less than CAN$40 000 showed significantly higher amounts of post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms.
Subargument: Isolation caused by quarantine
Support 1: These social distancing efforts have led to remote working; remote or online education; cancellation of sporting, entertainment, and professional events; and, closures of museums, parks, churches and much more.
Support 2: Dissociating is a natural response to high stress situations (especially trauma) and exists on a spectrum.
Support 3: Being lonely has several adverse impacts on mental health. Reduced time in bed spent asleep (7% reduced sleep efficiency) and increased wake time after sleep onset have been related to loneliness
In conclusion, quarantine might be a great way to stop the spread of covid-19 but it is not the long term solution to the pandemic, it caused many issues like obesity, isolation, financial crisis, as well as mental impact. It is a better solution that the government should put in more effect to find the cure to the disease so that the stressor would be gone and our society could go back to the way they were.
Holt-Lunstad, J. (2020, June 22). The double pandemic of social isolation and covid-19: Cross-sector policy must address both: Health affairs blog. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200609.53823
Price, S. (n.d.). Pandemic Pressures:COVID-19 poses serious behavioral health challenges By Sean Price Texas medicine october 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.texmed.org/TexasMedicineDetail.aspx?id=54816
Life doesn’t feel real anymore: Dissociation in the time of covid-19. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://mhanational.org/life-doesnt-feel-real-anymore-dissociation-time-covid-19
Define_me. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30460-8/fulltext
Spinelli, M., Lionetti, F., Pastore, M., & Fasolo, M. (2020, June 22). Parents’ stress and children’s psychological problems in FAMILIES facing the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01713/full
Pak, A., Adegboye, O., Adekunle, A., Rahman, K., McBryde, E., & Eisen, D. (2020, May 18). Economic consequences of the covid-19 outbreak: The need for epidemic preparedness. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00241/full
Farmer, B. (2020, September 28). Nearly two-thirds of U.s. HOUSEHOLDS struck BY covid-19 face financial trouble. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/28/916605221/nearly-two-thirds-of-u-s-households-struck-by-covid-19-face-financial-trouble
Mattioli, A., Pinti, M., Farinetti, A., & Nasi, M. (2020, December). Obesity risk during collective quarantine for the COVID-19 EPIDEMIC. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7282788/
Nice start, I think you have a good essay lined out, but personally I think points 2 and 4 sound way too similar. It might be just me but when I read the sub-sub arguments I thought they were almost the same. I would suggest talking about something else like going more on the side son online school and how that is not a good solution to teach kids. I think combining your second and fourth argument into one is a good idea, and make a new different point to talk about. I am not sure if you are supposed to actually say this, but at your conclusion maybe give some ideas about some actual solutions if quarantine is not the long term solution, come up with some ideas, but I do not think you need to go off on them.
Nice Hook, but I think you need to provide some more background information in your statement of problem, like what causes quarantine? Also, you need to work on your thesis, because it seems like your personal opinion, and it is a little vague that your audience might not understand what you are trying to talk about? Your bodies are well connected to each other and talk about how quarantine affects people in three different ways, but I personally think that you can use how quarantine affects people’s physical health as the first subargument. You can use the research that you did for obesity as one of the supporting evidence, so in this way, your first subargument can include more information rather than just talking about obesity. More than that, you need to add citations in your supporting evidence rather than just adding them to the reference in the end, so that you won’t be caught as plagiarized. Last, Nice conclusion that concludes everything that you have mentioned in your bodies, and offer something for your audience to think about.