While new coronavirus cases have spread to many countries since the lockdown ended in mid-June, it is clear that we perceive this pandemic. The rush to restart the economy is causing a sharp increase in the spread of the virus and faster-than-expected death toll, suggesting an even more severe crisis than before.
The mismanagement that led us last February and March to forget about the ruthless spread of the disease and not to perceive the exponential nature of its transmission is being reproduced: the irresponsible calls of many governments to return to normality, combined with the inability of people to perceive the importance of preventive measures, are triggering new related outbreaks. for example, portfolio of migrant staff in the Persian Gulf or seasonal staff in Spain, restaurants, family gatherings or nightlife. Avoid contagion, and that reflect the real problem: we still think that the pandemic is temporary. We are not facing a momentary wave: we are still in the first one, and the way of doing things to the fullest remains the same.
The emergence of a highly infectious virus that did not affect humans in the past and is doing so now is not a transient setback. He does not “magically die” and is now part of our environment, he is with us and will remain so for a long time to come. Ignoring scientists’ recommendation or blaming them for delaying a return to normalcy is just creating the situations for a more serious and lasting crisis. There is no point in restarting important economic sectors, if after fourteen days, when the infection cycle is complete – we will all have to return to lockdown.
What to do in the face of a virus incompatible with our economic model?Given that the virus will not replace their behavior and that any vaccine we can invent will not be a silver bullet, the only option is to replace our business model. Change our lifestyle. He begins to think that many of the things we did before March of this year no longer exist. Discos, bars? Possibly we would not be late for a while. Important sectors of the economy? Of course, however, it is not the price that sacrifices lives. We are talking about price scales, not commodity accounts or profit and loss accounts.
What is the point of taking a check if in the 4 days it took to get the results you went shopping, to a party, to a family gathering and had a few drinks with friends?Either we continue to evolve our methodologies to obtain cheap, fast and undeniable diagnostic controls that we can pass regularly, or we continue to chase the shadows.
But beyond diagnostic testing or vaccine development, there are more radical problems, adjustments that many dismiss as impossible. A new ecosystem comes to a radical overhaul of many of our activities. Cities, restaurants, public spaces, travel, prisons, supply chains, healthcare, commerce, education, work, communication. . . A massive substitution that, obviously, the vast majority of the population has not yet imagined.
Most of us thought that once the lockdown was over, we would return to normal, dressed in masks, which for many other people is an uncomfortable, but transitory, measure that they can’t bother to wear properly. Now we are seeing the efectos. de this obstinacy.
There will be no return to normality. The pandemic is forcing us to rethink the economy, rethink our obsession with growth, locate tactics to the most vulnerable, use trusted apps to give clues to our contacts, percentage studies and learning, and rethink everything to put people, not benefits.
The only choice we have, and I’m talking about the only option, some kind of dilemma, is to reconsider our lives in terms of a new truth that will be with us for many years to come. Until we perceive this, we will continue to change stages of containment for stages of expansion, waiting for a recovery that in all probability will be a mirage, and in the meantime we will continue to die like bedbugs. Either we replace our mindset and redefine the economy we know it, or we continue to give opportunities for the virus to multiply.
This pandemic goes far beyond masks, hydroalcoholic gels or confinements. The renewal we want will not happen overnight. But the faster we perceive it, the faster we can ask politicians to design and implement it, the faster we can start dealing with it, and the faster we can realize that, even if we don’t already, the global has replaced, before our eyes, in a few months. And when your global replaces, if you insist on proceeding to do things as before, it’s not going to end well.