A return to normality? No thanks, let’s build a better future

As some governments begin to talk of a phased lifting of the lockdown and a return to normality, perhaps we should be asking ourselves just what normal should look like.

If one thing is clear, it is that this return to normal will be anything but the normal we knew before. In the absence of a truly safe, effective and proven vaccine or treatment for the disease, we must balance two variables: on the one hand, the need to continue to control the spread of the pandemic and to continue to protect those who are most vulnerable or who have not yet acquired the antibodies to deal with the disease. On the other hand, there is the desire and the need to resume productive activity, to get our economy back on track. Even as we try to pick up the pieces, an economic crisis the like of which we haven’t seen in a century is about to hit us.

Trying to speed up the return to economic activity could be a big mistake that will only trigger further expansion of the disease. In a country like Spain, deeply dependent on tourism, the post-coronavirus scenario is even more frightening. In this new phase, having begun to stop the spread the virus it is tempting to think about an early return to normality, but we must be careful about simply isolating some segments of the population and therefore concealing the true extent of the disease.