At the beginning of the pandemic, around the middle of November of 2019, a warning emerged from Wuhan, China of a strange and previously unknown virus that began to make people very sick. Many people who contracted this virus died. Warnings circulated despite the efforts of the Chinese government to suppress them. News agencies picked up the story in December, but the majority of the population and most governments around the world remained complacent. It wasn't until March of 2020, when cases of the virus turned up in every corner of the globe, and people became sick and died in large numbers, that governments became serious about trying to handle the plague. But it was too late: the virus had established a strong foothold and began to spread. The war against covid 19 was on.
In the early going, we were badly prepared. There was a hue and cry about the lack of Personal Protective Equipment ( PPE ) for hospital and Long Term Care ( LTC ) workers and other front line workers. People became alarmed at the lack of PPE and shuddered to think of LTC workers going in to care for their clients wearing garbage bags and spraying simple paper or cloth masks with lysol for the umpteenth time as they reported for work. But, eventually, governments ramped up production of PPE and, by late spring, there was enough to go around. Now, there is a constant supply of PPE and sanitizer for the general public. We identified a problem and we got about the business of solving it.
As the summer of 2020 unfolded, we grew complacent as the numbers dipped. Many thought the crisis was over and wanted desperately to resume normal life. But as the end of August arrived, and a new school year was about to start, the numbers increased. The "second wave" of covid was upon us and the numbers grew. Another hue and cry erupted about the number of covid tests being done. Medical professionals could not accurately predict how the second wave was going to evolve because there was not enough materials available for increased testing of the population. As a result, our leaders had no idea of the severity of the second wave until testing was ramped up. Testing equipment was manufactured in greater number and testing facilities were created in order to test larger numbers of people. More tests revealed more covid spread, more illness and more death. Lockdowns ensued, arguably too late to head off the worst of the second wave, but enough to start to mitigate the numbers, hospitalizations and deaths at the time of this writing. Again, a problem was identified and we got about the business of solving it. Testing is being done in record numbers.
In October of 2020, two pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Moderna, announced that they had perfected and tested vaccines against covid 19. The world rejoiced at the news. Other companies and countries are following suit with developing vaccines. But as we journeyed into the winter of 2020-21, shortages of the vaccine began to appear. Pfizer claimed that they needed to re-tool a facility in Belgium in order to meet the demand. Moderna has not provided a reason for their shortages. It is clear that these companies have put all their resources in developing the vaccine, but not in the production of the product. People are understandable becoming concerned as the vaccine roll out moves at a snail's pace. Surely this could have been foreseen by companies and governments ? Our hopes were raised only to have them dashed. Many people believe there will be no vaccine coming for the rest of the year. People have allowed their frustration with a year of isolation and their impatience in the "quick fix" not being right in front of them to make hard and accusatory statements about their leaders or their fellow citizens. Bad feeling abound. Another doom and gloom scenario is taking hold.
The experience of the previous crises, the arrival of the virus, the PPE shortage and the testing shortage, should provide some lessons for us.
First, when problems of a large magnitude arise, we are, as a society, very slow to react. This is mainly because we just simply refuse to believe there is a problem and that those who try to sound warnings are seen as either crazy or paranoid. We think that we just have to keep going as we always have and things will be all right in the end. Obviously, this is wrong and it seems that some of us have learned from this mistake.
Second, we have learned that, when shortages or lack of preparation occur, we are able to overcome them. But we don't overcome them very quickly. We've seen this before, in history. In the 1930's, few people took the threat of Adolf Hilter's Nazis seriously until it was too late. When war broke out, few countries were prepared for the challenge. But, eventually, the challenges were met and victory ultimately was claimed by the enemies of fascism. The same will happen in the war against covid. We WILL manufacture enough vaccine to get control of the virus. But it will take time.
The third and final lesson from all this is that those in leadership will pay a heavy price for their lack of foresight and their refusal to be proactive in dealing with this serious threat. In the 1940's, Winston Churchill, the man who foresaw the rise and threat of fascism and who eventually led Britain to victory, was defeated in the general election of 1945. People appreciated his wartime leadership, but wanted no part of him once the war was over. Current leaders will, undoubtedly, suffer the same fate. Trump has already, thankfully, been voted out of office, for many reasons, but largely because of his poor response to the challenge of covid 19. Voters will associate all leaders, rightly or wrongly, with the pandemic and will hold them accountable for the slowness of the response, the lack of proactive vision, and the weak will to mobilize the population to fight the fight.
What must be remembered, however, is that we, the people ..... all of us .... must take responsibility for the shortcomings. Few of us foresaw the disaster that covid has presented to us. Few of us did what was necessary at the beginning to lessen the effects of the virus. And most of us now have lost all perspective on how this will turn out. We must learn lessons from this. We must change the way we live our lives. We must change the way society does things. And we must demand more and better from our leaders.
As the comic strip Pogo once famously said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us !"
