SINCE the beginning of the year Covid-19 and its consequences have dominated the news. Day in and day out, until we have become saturated by the science, the economics and the politics of the most disruptive and immediate global challenge that we have ever faced. And now, as we approach our fifth month since restrictive measures were advised and then enforced, the penny has dropped that life will never be quite the same again.
Like some kind of modern day prophet Bill Gates, in 2015, warned that the greatest global threat facing humanity today was “not missiles but microbes” and he urged governments around the world to shape up and put in place the arrangements and structures to create early warning and rapid response systems. This was after the outbreak of Ebola; but, did we listen? Did we learn the lessons that would bring about greater global co-operation on health issues which could have global consequences? Far from it – instead we have been living through a period of growing isolationism and xenophobia which have made it nearly impossible to eff ect a global response to a global pandemic.