Our lessons learned from the years of Covid (Part:2)

About politicians

Despite the success of science and technology, the 2020 Covid-19 crisis has not been resolved. This epidemic has turned from a natural crisis to a political crisis. With millions dying of the plague, no one expected anything from the king or the emperor. About one-third of the English people died in the first wave of the plague, but there was no fear of losing the empire of English King Edward III. Stopping the plague was beyond the reach of the kings at that time, so no one blamed anyone for it.

But now, people have the scientific equipment to stop the Covid-19. From Vietnam to Australia, various countries have shown that epidemics can be suppressed using only scientific instruments other than vaccines. However, these equipments are very expensive economically and socially. We can defeat the virus, but we are reluctant to pay that price for success. And that is why the huge scientific responsibility has been placed on the shoulders of politicians.

Unfortunately, many politicians have failed in this task. For example, the United States and Brazil presidents played a terrible game. They did not listen to the experts and only speculated on conspiracy theories. They did not make any central plan to stop the epidemic but sabotaged the provincial and municipal authorities in various ways. This negligence on the part of Trump and Balsonaro has led to thousands of unexpected deaths.

The UK government was more obsessed with Brexit than Covid-19. The Johnson government could not isolate Britain from the virus because of Brexit’s separatist policies. My (Harari) motherland Israel has also suffered a lot due to political mismanagement. Israel is like an “island” for the border areas of Taiwan, New Zealand and Cyprus, with Ben Gurion Airport being the only entrance. However, the Netanyahu government allowed travelers to travel without quarantine or proper surveillance, even during the worst of the epidemic.

Although Israel and the United Kingdom have been at the forefront of vaccine discovery ever since they have had to pay a good price for the wrong decisions they made earlier, the epidemic has killed millions in Britain. They are in 6th position in terms of the death toll. On the other hand, Israel is in the 7th position. And in order to overcome this crisis, they have signed an agreement with the US company Pfizer entitled “Vaccine for Information.” Pfizer wants to vaccinate Israel enough, and in return, it has agreed to take personal information from Israeli citizens. Nowadays, personal information is a very valuable thing.

While some countries have been able to cope well with the epidemic, the whole world has failed to tackle the virus together. The early 2020s were a lot of slow-motion accidents. With the advent of modern communication, we have seen first-hand how the virus spread from Uhan, then from Italy and then from other countries through real-time photography. Still, no world leader has been able to stop this catastrophe. The equipment was in our hands, but we did not have the political knowledge.

The story of rescuing foreigners

Because of the success of scientists, they have worked globally. And because politicians have failed, they have become involved in racism. Despite working under extreme pressure and uncertainty, scientists around the world have helped each other with free information. Many studies have been done internationally on a team mentality. For example, a team from Britain, three teams from China and five teams from the US conducted a study on the effectiveness of lockdown.

On the other hand, politicians have failed to tackle the virus by building an international consensus. China and the United States, two world powers, have wasted no time in blaming each other. When the virus spread, they were accused of hiding important information. Many other countries were also confused by the false information about the virus.

In this information war, not only was there a lack of global communication but there was also a conflict over much-needed medical equipment. While examples of cooperation and generosity have been set, medical resources, global production and distribution have not been made open to all. In particular, “race-based vaccination” means that countries have been able to vaccinate people and those who have not; This has created inequality in the country.

Sadly, after many failures, we have come to a general idea about this epidemic: no country will feel truly safe as long as the virus continues to spread. Suppose Israel or the United Kingdom could suppress the virus in their own country; But millions of people have been infected in India, Brazil or South Africa. It has created a new mutation. Again this vaccine is ineffective for this mutation. And this new mutation could start another wave of infection.

In the current crisis, altruism is not something beyond nationalist interests. However, in this time of crisis, global communication is not altruistic. This has secured the national interest.

Anti-virus for the world

The debate over what actually happened in 2020 will continue for a long time. But political organizations have to accept three main points.

First, we need to secure our digital infrastructure. Even if we get rid of it during the epidemic, this digital platform may be the cause of our destruction in the future.

Second, every country needs to increase its investment in public health. While this is clear to us, sometimes politicians, and voters, ignore the most urgent issues.

Third, we need to create a global system so that we can observe and prevent future impending epidemics. From ancient times the wars of humanity and pathogens have been fought and people have been saved from danger. If a virus invades any part of the world, it will endanger us all. Although rich people in developed countries prefer to help the underprivileged people in underdeveloped countries, if a virus invades the human body from a bat’s body in a remote jungle village, the virus can reach Wall Street in a few days.

Although there are skeletons of anti-plague systems in the world in the form of the World Health Organization and many other such organizations. But their budget is very low and they do not have much political umbrella. So we should give these organizations some political umbrella and provide a lot of money so that they do not have to depend on anyone else. As I said before, no unelected expert should be given the responsibility of making complex decisions. The responsibility of decision-making should be left to the politicians. However, there should be some kind of autonomous world health authority to preserve medical data, risk monitoring, research conduct and development.

It is feared that Covid-19 will be referred to as a new wave of epidemics. But if we can apply all the above-mentioned teachings, then the epidemic will become a trivial matter for us. There is no way humans can stop the virus. It has been part of natural evolution for billions of years, and it will continue to do so in the future. However, at present people have the technology and knowledge in their hands, with the help of which it is possible to prevent the spread of pathogens and prevent epidemics from it.

If Covid-19 continues to be infected in 2021 and millions of people die from it, or if another deadly virus attacks by 2030, it is neither an indestructible natural disaster nor a God-given punishment. It will be a failure of the people, to put it more clearly, a political failure.