Articles

COVID-19 has hurt the economy. Many businesses have closed. Some will not reopen. Airlines, restaurants, and hotels lost most of their customers. Millions of people lost their jobs. In the US, more people are out of work than any time since the Great Depression.

COVID-19 has also changed the environment. Fewer airplanes are flying. Many factories are closed. People are driving less. In many cities, the air is cleaner. The water is clearer. People can hear birds instead of traffic. Wild animals walk down the street.

What did you do on New Year’s Eve 2019? Did you have a party? Watch TV? In Wuhan, China, scientists were studying a new virus. It had made dozens of people very sick. Soon it would sicken people all across the world, causing a global pandemic. The virus was COVID-19.

Pandemics have been around for a long time. They spread when people travel throughout the world. One of the worst pandemics was the Black Death. Traders in the mid-1300s brought spices from Asia to Europe. They also brought bacteria that carried the Black Death to Europe and other areas.

Farmers and farm workers go to work every day to grow and harvest our fruits and vegetables. They milk the cows. They feed the chickens and gather the eggs. The good food we eat begins with the farm helpers!