Better informed, better prepared, but not all wiser!

There is no doubt that rather than just talking about COVID-19, people all around the world are sharing their experiences, thoughts and opinions in regard to their management of the respiratory pathogen, and we are all becoming just a little more informed, day to day, a little more aware, and a little more pragmatic.

One thing that is becoming increasingly more clear is that the human race, for all its scientific knowledge and prior research, is currently stuck somewhere between a rock and a hard place in terms of implementing a long-term solution to this third, after SARS and MERS, virulent member of the Corona virus family, yet we still have no absolute certainty as to its definitive origins, or how to manage, control or fight it most effectively.

Those governments who’s medical, health, intelligence, and even defense agencies warned of the consequences of a global pandemic should have had their warnings heeded, and the elected officials who ignored their warnings should pay the price, but that is history, and won’t fix the problem we all have now.

At the moment the major concern for us all is that there appear only two options in terms of future management of the pandemic, either the herd immunity method, where we wait for the human race to build an immunity through survival, which as a timeline of 12-18 months, and is based only, at this stage on statistical modelling which may not have legitimate statistics due to a lack of transparency by some health authorities, notably, it would appear, in China.

Plan B relies on us being patient and waiting for the researchers and scientists to come up with a vaccine, however even the most ebullient among the scientific community appear to be saying that it could be 12-15 months in coming. That’s a long time!

Just to digress briefly, this does beg the genuine question as to how, when we have so many virologists, and viral experts, you can see them standing to the left and right of world leaders when they appear in the media, we don’t have a vaccine yet, as the first member of the corona family, SARS, appeared twenty years ago? What have they been doing instead? Were they fiddling as Rome burned?

How each nation’s cultural and philosophical approaches are driving their national response to the pandemic is also of interest as the Sultanate has taken a very structured, low key, very much no-nonsense approach to the social requirements for disease control, without too much in the way of impositions, preferring a softly, softly approach where possible. The actions of the Supreme Committee have appeared to be reasoned, swift, and effective.

Much of the world is not saying what it is doing, as its hierarchies prefer to do their own thing. As a rule, the Middle East, South East Asia and much of Africa don’t do transparency, so we don’t know much of their responses. We do know America’s situation, as President Trump appears determined that he will lead his country through its very first ‘home soil’ threat. We cannot doubt his determination, but his practicality quotient does vary greatly.

The UK, led by Prime Minister Johnson, appears to have committed to the social support of its population in a significant manner, implementing subsidies for workers sent home, and insisting that the financial sector exercise compassion, well aware that earlier financial assistance for banks and institutions did not play out well. Unfortunately, the UK government’s first reaction was to go with a ‘herd immunity’ philosophy, but then they lost their nerve, and have now switched to a controlled scenario. Only time will tell which was correct! Johnson himself has been affected by COVID-19, which must limit the effectiveness of his leadership, but he does appear to still be in control.

Again, New Zealand, through its Prime Minister Ardern have shown the way, creating an apolitical working party which has made bold decisions, going into lockdown early, subsidising essential industries entire sectors, employers, and ensuring that nobody is alone and vulnerable, or without money. They put 6-month mortgage holidays in place, ensured nobody would suffer from rented house evictions, so that all of society is equally supported. Best of all, the main political parties are united, with political points-scoring a non-event.