COVID-19 LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
A year has elapsed since we started life under the shadow of the virus. It’s still there, but we have vaccines. It’s important to remember the lessons of the life under a global pandemic in the years to come
Reuters
Health workers wearing protective face masks react during a tribute for their co-worker Esteban, a male nurse that died of complications related to COVID-19 outside the Severo Ochoa Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Leganes, Spain, April 13, 2020.
2020 has come to an end. The year of coronavirus is over. But the virus is still around. There’s a new variant too. So what happens in 2021? Will our lives continue to be dictated by the pathogen?
There are no easy answers. Simply because the coronavirus continues to infect and kill. The new strain that has sprung up in the United Kingdom spreads faster. There will be more mutations. The threat hasn’t vanished yet. But we have vaccines.
Vaccine was a prayer. We now have a choice of vaccines that could prevent COVID-19. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have produced synthetic vaccines, while Sinopharm and Sputnik V went the traditional route. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, once the frontrunner, is the latest to be approved for immunisation campaigns. The vaccine, which can be stored in a standard fridge, will be rolled out in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2021. The challenge now is to vaccinate the world, and that requires mindboggling logistics to distribute the vaccines. Unless at least 70 per cent of the population is inoculated, we can’t beat the virus. And that would take a good part of 2021 and more.
Can we return to our normal lives? No, we can’t. The life as we knew it has changed irreversibly. Vaccinations won’t allow us to switch back to the life of 2019. We shouldn’t. We should remember the lessons of living under the shadow of the coronavirus.
Hygiene is what kept us alive. The importance of handwashing can never be overstated. It pays to keep a social distance and wear masks until the virus threat is truly over.
The virus made us realise all men are created equal. The virus didn’t differentiate between the rich and poor; it infected everyone. Fame and fortune too didn’t matter. True, it did make a difference in access to better healthcare. But the virus in many ways was a leveller.
It showed us the fragility of economies, taught us the value of austerity. Big fat weddings, endless parties and exotic holidays, all are a distant memory. A life of excesses, it really was in many cases. And it required a virus to give us a reality check.
Lessons, there are so many. But the most important one was the value of health. A healthy body was the key to fighting off the virus. Healthy people survived, the weak succumbed. That’s the biggest take away from the Year of the Coronavirus.
Health is the real wealth.
AP
Margaret Keenan, a 90 year old, is the first patient in the world to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. She received the first shot at her local hospital in England's Coventry, on December 8, 2020