<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/14/the-guardian-view-on-covid-19-five-years-on-lessons-still-to-be-learned>
"“When asked what was the biggest disaster of the twentieth century, almost
nobody answers the Spanish flu,” notes Laura Spinney in her book
Pale Rider,
of an event that killed as many as one in 20 of the global population. “There
is no cenotaph, no monument in London, Moscow or Washington DC.”
Most of us will better understand that absence after Covid-19, which was
declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization five years ago this week.
Some cannot put those events behind them: most obviously, many of those
bereaved by the 7 million deaths worldwide (not including those indirectly
caused by the pandemic), and the significant numbers still living with long
Covid. Others want to forget the loss of loved ones, the months of isolation
and the costs to businesses, families and mental health.
Yet the political, economic and social ramifications are still playing out,
just as the personal ones are. We now know more about the toll of the pandemic,
and about how better preparation or a speedier and more adept grasp of the
challenge could have reduced it. Some responses were exemplary: Taiwan, New
Zealand and South Korea saved lives without excessive social costs.
In other places, secrecy, recklessness or complacency took a deadly toll. Too
often, health workers and communities excelled while governments fell short.
The first report from the UK Covid inquiry, published last year, pointed to
“serious errors” by the state in pandemic preparations. Its next report,
expected this autumn, will focus on political decision-making. The failures
there are glaring. Almost 230,000 people died; studies suggest an earlier
lockdown could have saved tens of thousands of lives.
A global reckoning is equally important. Though Covid-19 arrived just over 100
years after influenza swept the world, pandemics are not once-in-a-century
events. The way we live makes them increasingly likely. The next pandemic could
be caused by a virus more transmissible, more lethal, or both. Across
countries, as well as within them, it was poor people who suffered most. But
inequity in healthcare and vaccine distribution could cost everyone dearly.
Efforts to produce a global pandemic accord have stalled and need
reinvigorating when talks resume next month."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: March 20, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-march-20-124753023
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
