Hopes and fears about post-COVID-19 world

Even as the killer virus that spreads Covid-19 continues its depredations worldwide, speculation is rife on how it will affect life on earth.  Quite naturally, Americans are in the lead in the business of speculation. Taking the cue from them, in India too people are indulging in the pastime.

Among academics trying to look ahead, there appears to be a consensus that the world will not be the same again. However, there is no agreement on what impact the pandemic will have on the way people live and governments govern.

At an early stage in the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there might be no going back to the pre-coronavirus days.

An American commentator recalled that the 9/11 tragedy, which claimed 2,977 lives, had led to enactment of “inspiring national security policies like the Patriot Act, jump-starting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter of which has become the longest-running war in US history”. Covid-19, he suggested, could be the “equivalent of 30 to 60 9/11s”.

With the US taking the top spot on the global COVID-19 casualty table, the America First slogan came true on Saturday, sadly not in the self-serving manner in which President Donald Trump had been using it.

The world is no doubt facing a colossal tragedy and policy changes are needed to ensure that national administrations are better prepared to deal with situations of this kind.

The experience so far shows that nations with public health systems oriented towards the needs of the people rather than of hospitals and drug manufacturers are more successful in the battle against the pandemic than others.

Within India, the state with the best record is Kerala, which has a better public health system than the rest.

Half a century ago the United Nations had noted that, though economically backward, Kerala had social development indices comparable to those of the industrialised West. Since then Kerala has registered remarkable economic progress, aided by remittances from expatriates, mainly those working in the Gulf States, and growth of a domestic service sector.

The US needs to think of improving its healthcare policy, and not of new military adventures, which are proving counterproductive anyway.

Some observers believe restrictions on freedoms, imposed to check the spread of the virus, may be a part of the post-COVID-19 normal. Apologists of authoritaniasm are working overtime, applauding the virtues of restricted freedoms.

Curbs on movement played a critical part in China’s success in containing COVID-19 within Hubei province where it originated. Beijing could do it with comparative ease as the Chinese were used to restrictions since the Communist Party came to power seven decades ago.

Other countries have experienced varying degrees of resistance to covid-related curbs. Among those who staged street protests in the US in the last few days were nurses. They said they were not adequately protected against risk of infection.

Coronavirus came as a blessing in disguise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was facing stiff opposition to his discriminatory citizenship policy. He will be making a grievous error if he thinks he has gotten over the problem.

As long as hate politics remains, opposition to it too will remain. The problem will, therefore, flare up again when the government takes up the Nationaĺ Population Register project, which has been postponed.

The virus attack began when the global economy and several national economies, including India’s, were in trouble. It aggravated the situation. Changes dictated by the economic distress cannot be attributed to the virus.

Unless there are beneficial attitudinal changes the post-covid world is not likely to be much different from the earlier one.