What Pandemics Teach Us About Unity and Equality
We can learn from our hardships
Much has happened since my last article on this subject. Now, 114 countries are battling with the disease and COVID-19 has been designated as a pandemic. The number of new infections keep increasing. Italy and Spain are in total lockdown, Austria, Germany and France took tough precautions, the U.S.A. implemented a wide range of travel bans, and Israel is quarantining everybody entering the country. Major events are canceled around the world. Still, we cannot unite in response to a global health crisis.
Let’s be honest. The days of avoiding panic by keeping matters quiet is behind us. The world has been avoiding the obvious for months, pretending that COVID-19 was somebody else’s problem. Sophisticated modeling of the outbreak suggests that if interventions could have been brought in a week earlier in China, 66% fewer people would have been infected.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the first head of state to admit which direction we are heading: “The consensus among experts is that 60 to 70 percent of the population will be infected as long as this remains the situation.”
We can change this outcome, but not unless we recognize what lies ahead of us.
Today, different countries handle public health response in various ways. There are countries like France, Italy, and Spain, which have been struck hard by new infections. They have taken drastic measures to lock down entire regions. There is the South Korean method of vigorous infection tracking using electronic surveillance systems, supplemented, with self-quarantines and remote monitoring. Some countries with low infection rates are taking a more relaxed approach by advising event cancellations and social distancing.
No matter what steps they choose, there is a greater dilemma: the lack of a coordinated global response.
Locking down an entire country, like Italy undertook, may help to bring the infection rates down for a time, but we live in a global era. When the restrictions are removed, the virus may find its way back and erupt in another round of infection in a “second wave.” Before we know it, the outbreak flares up again and we replay the cycle.
To solve this problem, we need to flatten the infection curve in all countries at once.
This leaves us with two distinct choices. One is that we can listen to Darwinians and do nothing to contain the pandemic. If we allow this disease to take its natural course, the outbreak is destined to reach its peak and decline, but the price will be high.
Take a cue from the Spanish flu. In 1918, a strain of influenza known as Spanish flu caused a pandemic, killing around 50 million people in three waves before humanity developed herd immunity. The trouble with this Darwinian method is clear: a collapsing health care system, social disorder, an increased mortality rate, and a serious death count.
The second option is we slow down the outbreak to a workable rate and try to contain it. We have wasted valuable time and COVID-19 has become a pandemic. But if we unite our efforts and act globally, getting it under control is still possible. The obstacle is not the absence of tools, resources, or technology. We don’t lack knowledge either— human coronaviruses were first characterized in the 1960s¹. The true hindrance is mental: Arriving at a solution requires competing countries to cooperate without deception. It demands that we put the classic rhetoric of capitalism aside and assign a higher value to human well-being. We call for a fresh way. We need solidarity.
A Few Steps to Consider for the Global Response to Work
- All nations must jointly declare a one-month stay-at-home period.
- We must halt all social events and non-essential commercial activities in the same period.
- Central banks around the world must step in and offer enough financing for governments to provide paid sick leave programs for everybody who can’t work remotely.
- Companies must likewise be allowed to apply for emergency financial aid when required.
Think these are impossible steps to take? Think again. With so many countries closing borders and locking down cities, we are already entering an international quarantine phase. But, without working collectively to provide a united response, our troubles will last longer and the economic impact will be bigger.
What Could a Coordinated Global Response Provide Us?
- It could diminish mortality and bring the global infection rates under control. A shortened stay-at-home period would reduce socio-economic damage and allow us to lift bans bilaterally.
- A universal paid sick leave program would assure that the most vulnerable members of the society have an equal reason to join the effort.
- It would protect not only a select few, but the entire society from the short-term economic fallout.
- It would ease the impacts of supply chain issues, prevent some companies from being penalized while others gain unfair advantage, and allow for an easier transition to resume work after the stay-at-home period.
Implementing a worldwide response is not a simple task, but we already have the proper mechanisms to figure out the details. The United Nations (U.N.), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) can help nations to collaborate at the highest degree. The trick is that, instead of politicizing them, we allow these organizations to serve the common good of humanity.
Global health crises can bring out what’s dark and selfish in us, but there is still hope. This is our chance to realize that less greed and more equality is our best line of defense. After the COVID-19, there will be other events demanding a global response.
We are one big human family. It’s time to put outdated divisions aside and work in unity.
[1]: Kahn, Jeffrey S. MD, PhD*; McIntosh, Kenneth MD† The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal: November 2005 — Volume 24 — Issue 11 — p S223-S227
