PANDEMIC

By Larry & Arlene on Mar 27, 2020 in Blog | 10 comments

PANDEMIC   When preparing a Blog, I find myself sorting through the range of experiences we are having and trying to decide if any of them might make more interesting ground to be explored through writing. But never in my wildest imaginings had I considered the possibility that all our lives were about to have to deal with such a radical change brought on by a pandemic. I know we are not alone in feeling what we are currently confronting globally, seems surreal. Culturally, we are a people who celebrate ‘being in charge’, and now we are cowering in place in an effort to protect ourselves from something we can’t see. Mass biological calamities are not total strangers in a world brought in closer proximity through commercial globalization. No longer is it possible to ignore a serious disease outbreak in a remote corner of the world. The rapid, intercontinental exchange of people and goods ensures what happens elsewhere, doesn’t stay elsewhere. Scourges like Ebola, SARs and AIDs were identified and the likelihood of affecting human populations over wide areas was, in due course, understood and responded to in time to increase the effectiveness of the response. But something seems different this time with the COVID-19 outbreak. It is too early in this experience to understand the complex factors affecting the devastating effect this viral outbreak is causing. Standing in the midst of a crisis is not the best vantage point for perspective. But several components might be considered. Of course, there is the unique makeup of this strain of virus that was insufficiently understood. More on that in a moment. In addition, it is difficult to escape the perception that some politically fixated objectives seriously complicated timely, accurate assessment as to what the world was too soon to be confronting. In an authoritarian regime such as China, there is an institutional aversion to be a source of ‘bad news’ the regime would prefer to not have to deal with. The ingrained propensity of authoritarians to ‘kill the messenger of bad news’ does not encourage timely dissemination of critical information that needs to be confronted. Valuable time was lost both in the initial assessment of COVID-19 biohazard but also disseminating...