Six Significant Takeaways from the Pandemic Experience

By Dr Goh Seh Kai

6 Nov 2021

Since its outbreak almost two years ago, the pandemic has not been declared over till now. Due to the emergence of the Delta variant, the overall world’s current disease rate remains high, and we cannot foresee when the pandemic will run its course.

According to the news, since the vaccination has helped minimize severe illness and reduce the high fatality rate, more nations would become endemic or co-exist with the Covid-19 virus, allowing for more business activities and cross-borders travelling to resume.

At this juncture, it is worth reviewing what we could learn from the pandemic experience to minimize the negative impact of a similar disaster in the future. Therefore, in this article, I wish to share my six significant takeaways from this almost two-year catastrophe in the following.

Don’t take normalcy for granted: Although we could live peacefully for decades, we should not take it for granted since constant efforts are required to sustain our ecosystem system for better living. In short, our normality would not last unless we could maintain it, as evident from the current outbreak.

By now, everyone should also realize that consistent efforts are required to uphold our regular life. We ought to behave hygienically or naturally to prevent the epidemic from occurring and lingering. Hence, we would permanently enjoy pleasant life only if we could persistently assume our social responsibility to protect society.

Take healthy life more seriously: Life is superior to everything else, and we should not take it lightly. Therefore, to protect our life, we shall be vaccinated and regularly adhere to the mandated safety and health protocols — such as wearing masks, sanitizing hands, self-testing and isolation procedures, etc.

Likewise, it would be best to constantly aware of the evolution of the virus from time to time — if the virus has mutated, how infectious and virulent it has become, and how we should adapt to it, such as getting a booster jab, etc.

By taking safety and health matters more seriously, we would prevent ourselves from being infected with the disease and becoming seriously ill. Therefore, we shall not take healthy life lightly as constant efforts are required to realize it.

Behave according to accurate information: When making decisions or taking actions about safety and health risks, we should base on scientific data and evidence but not hearsay.

For example, some people do not want to be inoculated and refuse to constantly follow safety measures, such as masks wearing, safe distancing, hand sanitizing, etc., while in public since they might think these practices are useless. However, their beliefs are false as the facts and figures have already shown that all these preventive measures help minimize infection and fatality rates.

Their imprudent actions might be due to the vast numbers of fake stories or data on social media regarding vaccine effectiveness, safety protection procedures, etc. The unreliable information could easily mislead readers about the proper safety and health protection measures.

Likewise, it has increasingly become more challenging for the governors to persuade people to follow the mandated precautionary protocols. Thus, unless we could act according to accurate information, our efforts for overcoming the current crisis would be futile.

Be optimistic about our future: As it is a matter of time that our regular life will restore, it would be best to stay positive and endure the existing crunch. Moreover, it is unwise to possess a pessimistic mindset since it would not help the situation but undermine our willpower to survive the unprecedentedly challenging journey.

Since only those who could adapt well would live, what we should do now is to persistently and strictly abide by the legislative safety and health protocols and enhance our immunity through vaccination, regular exercises and healthy diets. If we could perform these willingly, it is a matter of time that we would win the human-virus battle.

Moreover, we shall think optimistically about the future as I believe biomedical professionals and research scientists should be relentlessly enhancing vaccine effectiveness now. Also, they would recommend more effective precautionary practices to protect our safety and health better soon.

Furthermore, due to the high vaccination rate, more nations would transition to endemic to boost economic activities and cross-border travelling, our world’s economic recovery is foreseeable. Hence, being pessimistic about the future is unwise and impractical.

Act ethically to protect our community: Ethics is about doing the right thing to avoid causing harm to other people, which is more stringent than law. Therefore, individuals shall behave ethically even without legislative restrictions.

To behave ethically, we shall protect others’ interests in society regardless of time and place as the virus will not mercy anyone if we act against its nature. For example, if we realize we are infected with the virus, we shall not go around since it might infect people in the community.

Similarly, when we are infected with the disease and feel unwell, we shall see a doctor immediately to avoid becoming seriously ill and a social burden. Also, we shall wear our masks properly while in public and not take them out when talking to others.

All the examples mentioned earlier show what ethical people have behaved — concerning others publicly and helping minimize infection rates. Thus, moral actions are paramount for protecting our community.

Juggle both economy and health: Although life is superior to everything else, a poor economy could cause hunger that affects well-being.

Health and economy are two sides of a coin that the governors should strike a balance on them. Although more infectious and virulent Delta variant has emerged recently, more and more countries have planned to go ahead to become endemic since their high vaccination rate could seem to reduce severe illness and fatality cases.

During the endemic, more business activities and cross-border travelling would be allowed due to limited restrictions, which shall be a good sign for businesses. However, it is pretty challenging for the governors to decide the best time to become endemic.

They should consider many factors that could affect infection and fatality rates — for example, the size of a country, the population density, safety and health protocols, attitudes and cooperation of people, etc. Therefore, the governors must make proper decisions, as sacrificing either one (economy or health) will harm the countries.

To summarize, we could gain the following six takeaways from the pandemic experience to help us reduce the adverse impact of a similar tragedy in the future.

· Don’t take normalcy for granted: We should constantly behave hygienically or naturally to prevent the epidemic from occurring and lingering, which would uphold our normality.

· Take healthy life more seriously: We must be vaccinated, regularly adhere to the mandated safety and health protocols, and constantly be aware of the evolution of the virus and adapt to it from time to time.

· Behave according to accurate information: We shall rely on scientific data and evidence regarding proper safety and health protection measures.

· Be optimistic about our future: We must stay positive and endure the existing crunch since a bright future is predictable.

· Act ethically to protect our community: We shall protect others’ interests in society regardless of time and place as the virus will not mercy anyone if we act against its nature.

· Juggle both economy and health: The governors must balance economy and health performance, as sacrificing either will harm the countries.

Thank you for reading, and your feedback is welcome and appreciated!