The social shock of a global pandemic has started to subside, in particular the fearful novelty for people in countries less familiar with experiencing zoonotic epidemics. Of course, the short term impacts of each countries reactions to the spectre of contagion are ongoing. But what about the longterm?
Whilst many will continue to self isolate we must release ourselves from self-censorship, born from the understandable fear of being unfamiliar with navigating such a situation. Now is the time to open up dialogue.
We must begin to understand what living means moving forward, whilst taking care of those more vulnerable than ourselves and all of our freedoms. It is crucial to understand what has happened and what will happen and what we need to do.
Amongst all the moving parts of this pandemic, from the epidemiology to the economics there will be different political establishments calling each other out. If we look across our neighbourhoods and countries, backwards and forwards in time an image of a complex spaghetti of a thousand different things starts to form amongst a sea of voices. Some agreeing some disagreeing. How do we navigate this messy spaghetti together?
If we plot a diagram in our minds looking at how all the different things connect or combat each other, one clear bottleneck emerges upon which all else is reliant: the cause and conditions that gave rise to covid19. The question then is:
What is the source of global pandemics like covid19?
If the causes and conditions that gave rise to covid19 continue then there is nothing to stop covid21, 25, 28, 32, 33, 35, 37, 2040 etc.
This is the bottleneck question because quarantine in its various forms (long lockdowns, regular lockdowns, distancing, dying alone etc) is not a solution to but a temporary measure to slow the impact of covid19, to “flatten the curve”.
If we confuse these quarantines with solutions and do not address the cause of pandemics then we have submitted to the equation life = quarantine.
Avi 