What Covid-19 has taught us

Tunde Henry Oluokun & Matilda Thomas

 

Sir: There are stories to tell the next generation on our experiences — we are currently at war with COVID-19, ravaging the world with its venom.

The pandemic is a powerful wake-up call. It has changed our lives beyond recognition. The world is put at still — billions of people on lockdown, unable to work, unable carry out their daily activities or go to school.

Many have been separated from their loved ones. COVID-19 reminds us how vulnerable we are, the tragic loss of life and a devastation of economy wrought by a “once-in-a-100-year”— we as nation should grab lessons from this dire challenge — hence the need for a strict vigilance.

The pandemic has revealed a vast sea of kindness and benevolence in our communities. It has led to countless acts of self-heroism in hospitals, isolation centres and care homes.

It has incited us to prompt actions — to use our greatest strengths to serve mankind, giving our lives a new purpose — bearing the responsibility of health and well-being of others.

As we all know if we’re looking for a way out of this mess — the doctors and researchers are the ones that can proffer a lasting solution.

They work tirelessly, day and night to revive the world. Health workers are at the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus while hundreds of scientists and researchers around the world scramble to find a cure – placing the future of the human race in their hands.

So, this brings the question — how can governments better support them? One way is by increasing their compensation.

As a society, we are neither yet fully prepared nor capable of tackling the majority of health epidemics we are currently facing or will potentially face in the coming future — not even the leading countries are ready.

Taiwan, for instance, was able to effectively control the spread of the virus by cross-checking health databases with customs data from January onwards.

By quickly identifying and confining people who had travelled to high-risk areas, as well as those at higher risk from the virus, the Taiwanese authorities avoided many deaths and protected the most vulnerable citizens — because of the transparency of the Taiwan government, a bond and a trust was created between the government and the people, the people follow want the government says. So this has become an effective way for the public to follow the guidelines provided by the government.

We are learning how quickly humans can respond when faced with a common enemy, be it a novel virus or climate change.

Also, the pandemic has disrupted the education system — education has changed drastically, with a distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.

Globally, around 1.6 billion children are out of the classroom with schools shutdown all across the world. Most of these children are taught remotely and on digital platforms.

With a sudden shift away from the classroom in many part of the world, we wonder whether the adoption of online learning will persist after the pandemic and how this will affect the education system worldwide.

Also, tele-ophthalmology has been placed to practice despite its discovery decades ago — this refers to the practice of caring for patients remotely when the ophthalmologist and patient are not physically present with each other — this could reduce health risk of contracting any outbreak of diseases now and at the nearest future.

Months into this pandemic, even basic information about the coronavirus are still unclear. How infectious it was? How deadly? Leaders making life-and-death decisions based on best guesses.

“We are flying the plane as it is being built,” says Ashley Arabasadi, a policy adviser at the US-based institute Management Sciences for Health.

Some world leaders have acted swiftly while others have delayed their responses. Swift action, compassion, trust in science and also public trust in government mark the most effective responses to the coronavirus.

The world cannot win this war without cooperating. The lack of cooperation has weakened world’s response.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the danger of ignoring our interdependence and the importance of global cooperation. It shows us with crystal clarity that all of humanity is in the same boat.

Even in the aftermath of this virus, many have suggested the world as we’ve known it — will change permanently and it’d be shameful if the lessons learnt during this pandemic are quickly forgotten.

 

• Tunde Henry Oluokun & Matilda Thomas,

University of Ibadan.