A Good Analysis of the Pandemic's Effects, Present and Future

I've been trying not to turn this into a COVID-19 blog; there are more knowledgeable people who are doing a better job of that and the blog format isn't really suited for news. But every so often I come across an article that I have to mention, usually because it provides some in-depth background or analysis. This article by historian Margaret MacMillian, from Saturday's Globe and Mail is one of them. It looks at the history and causes of the pandemic, the current effects, and discusses how it is likely to change our world in the future. It's a long article, but worth the time.

Sooner or later, we will come to terms with the COVID-19. It may stay with us, flaring up from time to time; it may run its course and disappear, as did the influenza at the end of the First World War; or we may be lucky enough to get a vaccine that keeps it under control. Whatever happens, though, there will be no going back to the world before the epidemic. We will be living in a different sort of “normal,” with the knowledge that there will almost certainly be another pandemic or another sort of global crisis.

So it is not too soon to start asking what we have learned. Why did COVID-19 spread so quickly? Why do some societies seem to be coping better than others? Did we overreact, or could we be doing more or different things? And what lasting effects will there be on the world?

I found this passage particularly trenchant.

What we have also been reminded of is the importance of relationships. We all know how toxic bad ones can be, but perhaps we had not realized enough how important our friends and families are to us. Or even the importance of the casual “good morning” and “what a nice day," said in passing on the streets. I find myself regularly talking – mostly on the internet – to family and close friends and catching up with those I haven’t seen for ages. We can grant a grudging thanks to COVID-19 for reminding us that we are social beings.

And we owe another grudging thanks to it for showing us how important community is, as well as the web of informal and formal institutions that bind and reinforce it. The volunteers making personal protective equipment or taking food to the elderly, the grandparents teaching their grandchildren over the internet, the entertainers creating online works – these are just the latest manifestations of a willingness to help each other, which we do not always appreciate enough in what passes for normal times. Canadian society is coping now and will cope in the future because of the wealth of groups across the country who have for years supported charities, volunteered, participated in their communities, or gotten engaged in politics.

We are also realizing the importance of good government. In too many countries, including Canada, we have undermined our civil services. “Bureaucrat” has become a word signalling disapproval and disdain. Frequent reorganizations following the latest whim of expensive management consultants have left government departments under-resourced, demoralized, unwilling or incapable of offering strong advice, and unlikely in any case to get the ear of the minister who might rely instead on political appointees. Where the brightest and the best once aspired to work for government, they now go into business or the professions. We have some rebuilding to do.