Dödligt virus från Kina orsakar panik (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19)

As new coronavirus cases spread in many countries since the end of lockdown in mid-June, it’s clear we don’t understand this pandemic. The rush to restart the economy is leading, earlier than expected, to a sharp increase in the spread of the virus and in the number of deaths, portending an even more serious crisis than before.

The mismanagement that led us, last February and March, to overlook the ruthless spread of the disease and to fail to understand the exponential nature of its transmission is being played out again: the irresponsible calls by many governments for a return to normality, combined with the inability of people to understand the importance of preventive measures, are sparking new outbreaks associated with, for example, pockets of immigrant workers in the Persian Gulf or seasonal workers in Spain, restaurants, family gatherings or nightlife. Habits that were part of our previous normality, situations in which it is very difficult or almost impossible to maintain the necessary precautions to avoid an infection, and which reflect the real problem: we still think that the pandemic is just passing through. We’re not facing a second wave: we’re still in the first, and the way we do most things remains unchanged.

The appearance of a highly infectious virus that previously did not affect human beings and now does is not some temporary setback. It’s not “magically going away” and is now part of our environment, is among us, and will remain so for a long time. Ignoring the advice of scientists or blaming them for holding back the return to normal is simply creating the conditions for a more serious and sustained crisis. There is no point in restarting vital economic sectors, if after fourteen days — when the cycle of infection is completed — we will simply all have to go back into lockdown.
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What should we do when faced with a virus that incompatible with our economic model? Given that the virus won’t change its habits, and that any vaccine we are able to come up with won’t be a magic bullet, the only alternative is to change our economic model. Change our way of life. Start thinking that many of the things we did before March of this year are gone for the foreseeable. Nightclubs, bars? We won’t be going out late for some time. Important sectors of the economy? Sure, but not worth sacrificing lives for. We’re talking about scales of values, not convenience or profit and loss accounts.
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There will be no return to normality. The pandemic requires us to redesign the economy, rethink our obsession with growth, find ways to protect the most vulnerable, use apps we can trust to trace our contacts, share research and learning, and redesign everything to put people, not profits first.
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This pandemic goes far beyond masks, hydro-alcoholic gels or lockdowns. The change we need won’t come overnight. But the sooner we understand it, the sooner we can demand that politicians design and implement it, the sooner we can start dealing with it, and the sooner we may realize that, though we don’t yet believe it, the world has changed, before our eyes, in a few months. And when your world changes, if you insist on continuing to do things as before, it’s not going to end well.