SSC Stenographer 11th Nov 2021 Shift-1

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden decided early on in the pandemic to forgo lockdown in the hope of achieving broad immunity to the coronavirus. While social distancing was promoted, the government allowed bars, restaurants, salons, gyms and schools to stay open. Initially, Sweden saw death rates from Covid-19 that were similar to other European nations that had closed down their economies. But now, the Scandinavian nation’s daily death toll per 1 million people is 8.71 compared to the United States’ 4.59, according to online publication ‘Our World in Data’. Sweden's mortality rate is the highest in Europe.
"I'd say it hasn't worked out so well," said Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "I think the mortality in Norway is something like ten-fold lower. That's the real comparator." (Norway's daily death rate is less than .01 per 1 million people.)
"If you let this go or don’t try very hard or go about it in somewhat of a more restrained way rather than we have here, this is the price you pay," Rutherford said. "Maybe it didn’t hurt businesses, but you have twice the mortality rate of the United States. All those people who died were part of families and they were citizens and part of the fabric of Swedish society. And now they’re gone because of a policy that hasn’t worked out quite the way they thought it would."
Scientists estimate herd immunity for the coronavirus is reached when 70-90% of the population becomes immune to a virus, either by becoming infected or getting a protective vaccine.
Despite its relaxed response, Sweden is nowhere near to hitting that goal. Tests on 1,118 Stockholm residents carried out by Sweden's Public Health Agency over one week in late April showed that only 7.3% had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the disease. “I think herd immunity is a long way off, if we ever reach it,” Bjorn Olsen, a professor of infectious medicine at Uppsala University, told Reuters after the release of the antibody findings.
Rutherford said we can keep doing non-pharmaceutical interventions like contact tracing, mask wearing and isolation quarantines, but also develop drugs that work better treating people who already have the infection so they don't require critical care in a hospital.

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

Difficult times could create feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and fear. As we navigate through undesirable situations and uncertainties, we find that negativities surrounding the problems consume our mind. It is in those times that we have to exert ourselves to change our perspective and adopt a more positive and solution-driven attitude. Wise people have always chosen to leverage adversities as opportunities for growth and progress, rather than succumb to negative thought patterns. Saint Kabir described how different people respond when challenged by problems: “Gold, virtuous people and saints are resilient; you may break them a hundred times and yet they will re -join. In contrast, negative people and clay pots are fragile; once shattered, they are broken forever.”

The distinguishing feature of the successful is that they have a mind-set that enables them to remain positive in the face of adversity and even utilise the negative situation for their benefit. The eagle can teach us a few lessons on this. When the storm starts blowing, it does not cower down before it. It flies to a higher point and waits for the wind to blow over. When the storm sets in, the eagle spreads its wings and uses the draft of the wind to rise higher and higher in the sky. It does not run away from the storm, rather it uses the storm to its
advantage. While the storm rages below, the eagle soars above it.

The winning attitude to overcome despair and stress is to realise that adversities have opportunities inherent in them, and opportunities do not come without problems. Hence, difficulties and obstacles have a positive side to them as they make us grow from within. A gem gets polished with friction. The finest steel is produced by putting it in fire. Similarly, the more hardships we face, the stronger we become.