A correct New York Times article, “A Warning to the United States by the Author of ‘The Great Influenza'” through John M. Barry, professor of public aptitude at Tulane University and author of several books on ancient pandemics, describes the priorities for the future, and above all highlights the false dichotomy between controlling the pandemic and protecting the economy, his argument is simple: we will have to do whatever we want to prevent the spread of COVID-19, using all the measures in our disposition; the economy will do it later.
Biology is biology and it is not about what we think. Furthermore, the economy is a human entelechy that can be redefined in myriad ways. Now, more than six months after the first cases were detected in Wuhan and several months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, we know more about the transmission of COVID-19 than at that time. Array and what we know is very concerning: Social distancing in tight spaces does not prevent the spread of infection. Indoor transmission of the virus can take place among other people several meters away, which means that returning to tables in offices or reopening schools is simply unwise, and will only keep the number of infections and victims continuing. to increase.
The interdependencies of the economy are obvious: if we do not open schools, many parents cannot move on to painting and the economy slows down, but all this is based on a lie: that with safe security measures, it makes sense to reopen schools. . That’s not true. The reopening of schools is irresponsible because we know from several countries that have done so that the rate of transmission has soared and because we also know that children’s ability to transmit the disease is superior than previously thought. infection and, secondly, make sure we have to close them in a few weeks.
Returning to closed offices in past situations will have the same results: the only business resolution guilty of providing is to protect the fitness and lives of employees, and continue to operate remotely for as long as necessary, until advances in studies allow us to save it. spread of the disease and treat it more effectively. That’s what corporations do with a sense of duty. What we want to do in the meantime is virtual transformation, expand distributed execution methodologies and minimize the threat by being as conservative and prudent as possible.
This is a pandemic which, if we know anything, is that its effects are much worse than previously thought. The challenge is no longer that the numbers are shocking, but we also know that the infection causes many other people to have problems with blood clotting, thrombosis or permanent lung damage after they ‘heal’, assuming they ‘had a chance to do so. to survive. We also know that transmission increases dramatically with inscruent weather and touch in tight spaces. We face a challenge that will replace many facets of our daily lives: the rush to return to usually reflects our refusal to settle for reality. There will be no going back to generality. If we manage to control the pandemic, everything will be very different and will remain so for a long time.
There are too many people, many of them in positions of wonderful responsibility, who are absolutely wrong about the magnitude of what we are going through. As a result of those mistakes, we lifted the lock too soon and now we know this was a problem. serious error Let’s not repeat the same errors. We will have to apply locks where mandatory and impose all precautionary measures: the mask will have to be mandatory everywhere; we will have to attend for a long time the restaurants, the nightlife, the circle of family talks, the parties and any other instance that presents an opportunity for the virus to transmit. We want to expand and implement programs that allow us to monitor any new infections; we will have to fight against misinformation; we want to implement emergency measures, not sticky bandages, and we will have to do so through global coordination, learning from each other, joining forces and remembering above all that the virus does not respect borders.
But above all, let’s get to the false dichotomies: the economy is far less vital than allowing a damaging pandemic to become endemic and exponentially worse. The virus will have to be eliminated by all means necessary, the only way we know how to do it, and we will have to settle for the short-term consequences for the economy. Please: we want to clarify our priorities.
Professor of innovation at EI Business School since 1990, and now, school of piracy as senior for virtual transformation at IE University.
Teaching innovation at IE Business School since 1990, and now hacking education as senior for virtual transformation at IE University. BSc (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), MBA (Instituto de Empresa) and Ph. D. Management Information Systems (UCLA).