Fighting bugs and learning lessons
It is hard to get a grasp of all that has been happening as society attempts to get into the best position possible to ride out the COVID-19 coronavirus threat.
We’ve seen everyday life heavily disrupted, panic buying and even our wonderful autumn festival season come crashing down.
We’ve also watched news broadcasts saturated with warnings, recommendations and updates.
To say many people are frightened about what it all means and where it is leading would be an understatement. But as fear can fuel irrational behaviour, it can also unearth great strength and we join a chorus appealing for leadership in individuals, families and communities to help us get through to the end of this crisis.
The truth is the threat of infectious and potentially crippling or deadly disease has always accompanied humanity.
While overall what we’re experiencing is unprecedented, our history is dotted with all sorts of dreadful disease outbreaks – from AIDS, influenza, tuberculosis, diphtheria, mumps, measles and polio to even the bubonic plague. Goodness knows how many other potentially serious diseases, perhaps similar to the coronavirus, have cut laps around the planet in the past without many of us even realising.
What’s different now is our level of understanding and our ability, globally, to identify clear and present threats and to rapidly respond and share information to the masses.
Apart from anything else, we’re undergoing a test of resilience and everything from our character to levels of business savvy and willingness to learn and respond as a society is under the microscope.
What the threat will also do, and has already done, is clearly expose any socio-economic, health, security and self-sufficiency vulnerabilities.
If there is any good likely to emerge from the crisis it will be, through raw experience, that as a society we will never be better informed about our strengths and weaknesses when confronted with a national threat.
How we and our leaders respond to those identified strengths and weaknesses, especially in the times of plenty that will ultimately return, is critical.