The deluge and after

Future historians may be tempted to draw a line between the Before Covid (BC) and the After Deluge (AD) world, given the impact of the novel coronavirus on the entire humanity. As our aptitude in terms of science, technology and medicine provide little clue to the pandemic, we need to reset the attitude, the way we look at the world. It was some kind of auto correction effected by the perfectly intelligent system like Nature. The unbridled consumption of humanity was untenable and the warning is loud and clear — mend your ways. Nature is a grand Supra-system, the planet earth being a sub system that needs to be in an equilibrium with the larger whole. When this is disrupted the remedial action to restore the equilibrium sets in motion. Of late, the faulty consumption patterns were disturbing the equilibrium and there were signals of distress coming up in many forms, climate change being one. However, they were ignored and rampant consumption went on leading to the present crisis. It is a typical case of market response to system. Now the system needs to respond. The big question is how. The forced lockdown is that act of penance that would train humanity to think anew. The whole perspective has to change. The outlook, the philosophy and the life styles will require a reorientation. The marketing driven, consumption fuelled economic philosophy will have to shift to a conservation oriented economic philosophy harping on the long run sustainability focused economic models that would check greed and discourage vulgar consumerism. As the scary future scenario painted by the mathematico-statistical graphics projected by many research agencies day in and day out warn of the possible apocalypse, the world never appeared so close to the deluge that the old testament talked about. Remembering the anguish of God that made him send the deluge may not be out of place. The relevant portion from the book of Genesis part 1 is paraphrased here. First, God created a world that was good and fit for mankind. But when man corrupted it with sin, God decided to destroy his creation, saving only the righteous Noah. Lest we forget, let us recapitulate God’s anguish as quoted — “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the Earth, and he was grieved in his heart.” So the decision to destroy man was there. Let us figure out what went wrong. Excessive and unethical consumption led to a huge disruption in the ways of the world creating a lopsided model of development. This tampered with the market or the nature. It has, finally, given a grim warning to mankind to mend its ways. Some were already saying that most of the consumption we did was unnecessary and not needed. Now most people are realising it. This has to be the way of life in the post Covid World and we must reset our moral compass to resort to more sensible economic models of development based on ethical consumption. Human beings must now realise that they were created to be the most supreme of creatures. In their un-tempered arrogance, they squandered this advantage. It is time to question where we stand today.

 

Rethinking public health

As the entire humanity reels under the pandemic impact an important question crops up. Do we give public health the same kind of priority that Defence gets? In all probability, no. The global obsession with war preparedness is rather an ancient phenomenon that indicates our insecurity and inclination to be ready to repel any attack from an enemy known or unknown. Even a cursory review of human history since the ancient times would reveal that wars have killed millions causing wide spread devastation. The economic, social and psychological costs of war have been huge in enormity and wide in scale. But, so also have proved the epidemics, in their impact on human history. If we take into account the disruption and death caused by epidemics it could be more than what wars have done. Why, then, have the epidemics been not accorded the same priority that wars get? Why our preparedness against epidemics does not reflect the same degree of concern? These questions may not be easy to answer as many would compare the budgets that are earmarked for defence and health. It is true that on this count many nations do show a tilt in favour of health. Nonetheless, there are some nations who are found wanting on this count as they put more money for defence than public health. But that, notwithstanding, budgetary allocation as a percentage of health is not the issue. That epidemics strike and disrupt irrespective of budgets is just one side of the story. The other and more important one is that preparedness is much more than mere allocation of funds. How much effort and planning goes in defence and how much in health is what makes the difference. So, despite allocating much more budget for health than defence, the US was in no less precarious position than Saudi Arabia and several others that had marked more funds for defence. This is the issue that needs to be resolved. But before that one important assertion. In many cases war and epidemic connection can also be seen if we take a closer look at many past major epidemics. Of course, there may be a few other variables, too, that would need to be examined, but some moderate degree of correlation can be found. The other significant pointer is the fact that epidemics have played more havoc at commercial hubs. All these factors need to be examined by the big data analysts who are busy finding out how many are going to die, when and where. To begin with the first lesson that governments all over the globe have to learn is that like equipping military to defend the borders, they need to equip the doctors and nurses to defend public health. Had there been a well oiled health machinery and a battle ready health army, many decisions that proved costly and painful could have been avoided. There is one more requirement. We must revive the idea of barefoot doctors, the concept that proved useful in the past but went out of practice. The paramedical personnel is a medically trained force, like the para military forces, that must be reared and trained for such exigencies. Nevertheless, this is not the last time that a pandemic has struck nations. Let good sense prevail so that we not only learn but practice the age old lesson that prevention is better than cure. And much less costly. Health is wealth, literally.