….this pandemic has been, and continues to be, a revelation. It’s shining a light on much that is wrong with our societies.
Why does this virus cause such alarm? I reckon there are, at least, two reasons, one collective and one individual.
The collective problem is inadequate, under resourced, under staffed health services. It takes only a few hundred extra people a day to need hospital care in a country with a population of millions for the system to break – over extended, exhausted staff struggling to cope and hundreds of thousands of patients with non Covid conditions side lined and denied treatment. Whether here in France or back in my home country of the Scotland there haven’t been enough doctors, nurses, carers, therapists or clinical facilities for years. Covid is just the final straw.
The individual problem is there is no treatment. All those people who have tested positive but haven’t required hospital care have been told to isolate and wait till it’s gone. No treatment. Those who have required hospital care receive medical support, not a cure for Covid, because our system and method of health care rarely focuses on cure – it focuses on management. You think that’s not true? Well I reckon any treatment which has to be taken for life isn’t a cure. Modern Medicine doesn’t cure hypertension. It doesn’t cure Multiple Sclerosis. It doesn’t cure Dementia. I could go on. And it doesn’t cure Covid – neither the acute form nor the long form.
If we had adequate health services and treatments which cure can you imagine how different this pandemic would be?
If we had adequate health services and treatments which cure can you imagine how different health care would be?
Is that too much to hope for? Is that beyond our wildest dreams?
It’s shown a bright, bright light on much else too, not least the vulnerability and lack of resilience in our societies. Covid hits hardest those who live in poverty, in over crowded housing, those fed a diet poor in nutritional quality by corporations which produce and sell high sugar, highly processed foods. We see the results of that. It hits hardest those who already need the care which we fail to provide. It hits hardest those with precarious employment in poorly paid jobs.
I hope this pandemic drives a demand for change – towards creating sustainable, resilient societies where people are supported and cared for.
I hope this pandemic drives a demand for change – towards cures and at least adequate care for those who need it.
I hope that isn’t a crazy hope. I hope it’s the beginning of a dream and a demand.
We can live better than this.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Yes, we can expect much better but are we getting presently. No we are not.
There’s another thing which has been highlighted by Covid and the reaction to it, and unfortunately it’s not very attractive – the propensity of so many people to believe lies and conspiracy theories. This was already an increasing problem pre-Covid – climate change denial, Qanon etc – but it’s even worse now. Covid is a hoax, we don’t need vaccines, it’s all a plot by Bill Gates or George Soros to put microchips in our DNA, and so on. An illustration of what Alexis de Tocqueville said in the 19th century: it is easier for the world to believe a simple lie rather than the complex truth. Like you, Bob, I hope that the pandemic somehow results in a change for the better – in this case, a realisation that truth matters and that lies and conspiracy theories are dangerous and must be rejected.
The whole conspiracy theory thing is quite bizarre Martin. Why do so many of them involve believing the world is controlled by giant lizards??
I think it’s a complex phenomenon but I’m pretty sure loss of trust in politicians and corporations has something to do with it – too much secrecy, dishonesty and jiggery pokery!
I have a hunch improving transparency and accountability would help
Loss of trust in corporations and politicians – I agree that that has a lot to do with it. But the even more bizarre aspect of this is that it leads lots of folk to put their faith in politicians who are the most dishonest and untrustworthy of them all – Boris, Trump, Orban, Modi, Le Pen, and many more!
Yep, go figure!!
You have always a good point of view, and we have a lot to think about what to change… but, I must say, I am pretty hopeless at the moment, unfortunately I can’t find any positive energy to dream about a better society.
You’re right Alessandra, these are tough times and it can be difficult to find hope and positive energy. But I think dreams are about imagination. We humans have the most astonishing imaginations. We can imagine all kinds of beautiful, wonderful, terrifying or dreadful things! I think dreaming is one way to channel the imagination towards the positive.
I also think that what we imagine, what we visualise, sets a magnetic pull on us. We are drawn towards what we imagine.
So I like to do two things – find something amazing in the everyday and dream big.
Bon courage Alessandra