In the new normal

By Reyshimar Arguelles

With the country deciding to ease up its CoViD-19 measures, people seem eager to return to the way things were before the pandemic happened. There is talk about travel goals, business plans, and everything else that could have been accomplished had our friendly Red neighbor across the pond acted responsibly.

To many of us, it seems as though the nightmare had ended and we all deserve to live as if the world had not been through a major health crisis. And yet, like any previous crises — from world wars to financial meltdowns — we will have to confront a world far different from the one we were accustomed to.

It is clear that the pandemic has not receded even as countries like Italy and Spain have recorded significant drops in the number of cases and fatalities. Experts have warned of a second wave that could strike at any moment after quarantine measures are lifted. Until we can develop a vaccine to CoViD-19, we all have to make adjustments to the way we live. This is one fact we can never escape from.

In the midst of a pandemic, the world has become a strange place, like a setting of a post-apocalyptic film where people wear masks and scour empty cities for whatever resources they can find before tribes of marauders do. Apparently, we are far from the kind of world envisioned in films like 28 Weeks Later or shows like The Walking Dead. And I couldn’t think of anything more relieving knowing how people are, even as society doesn’t break down.

In spite of that, we may have to abandon the idea that it will be business as usual and that we will all have to accept CoViD-19 as a fact of life. I would think this as a cynical and lazy way of looking at a health crisis that has killed thousands of elders in the most emotionally distressing way possible.

Modern medical science can help us get through this, but to rely solely on humanity’s capacity to survive any crisis does not contribute towards making things a little less scary in the years to come. If anything, this crisis has taught us about our limitations and the fact that our institutions are built on soft sand.

Everyone feels as though the pandemic caught humanity off guard, but the cold hard reality is that this disruption to global health was closer to reality. Despite earlier warnings, governments have been less keen on advocating effective healthcare systems.

Added to that is the widespread misinformation plaguing social media. Taking the grotesque form of the flat earth movement and anti-vaxx parents, pseudoscience and conspiracy theories are making it hard for governments to implement rational healthcare programs.

And now that we have people who believe the insane claims that 5G networks cause CoViD-19 and that the pandemic is causing people to rely on microchips as though it could lead to a cyberpunk dystopia, the present situation could get worse in the next few weeks.

Governments would like to feel that they are in a quandary where they have to choose between opening the economy and protecting citizens from a lethal virus. For people at the bottom, it’s a choice between starving to death or risking their health for wages that allow only for minimum sustenance.

The new normal will highlight the need for virtual meetings, sanitation facilities, social distancing, and face masks. But some things will never change in a world that has been held up by a pathogen.

Inequality and the idea that the law only works for those who wield it will still persist. We can then say we haven’t learned anything from crises, and I’m afraid these problems will still exist long after CoViD-19 goes away.