Pandemic teaching us many valuable lessons
Virus underlines just how quickly world is changing, says Dr. Albert Ng.
It has been just over a year since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It has been a year of fear, anger, despair, anguish and disappointment. It has been a year of unprecedented change.
It has been a year of fighting unseen enemies that threatened our society in different ways — our health and our way of life.
As a family physician, I have seen people struggle with loss and uncertainty in the face of an unknown entity. I have seen the medical profession struggle with understanding the characteristics of the new virus and subsequently developing effective methods to contain, treat and now prevent the entity.
This has been the greatest challenge for the medical profession and likely all of society in 100 years.
The initial observation was of a respiratory illness — pneumonia that had atypical features and unusually prevalent, which was subsequently identified as a new entity. There was the initial identification of the entity being a virus belonging to the coronavirus family, similar to the previous SARS-COV-1 (2003) and MERS-COV (2012).
Transmission was eventually determined to be via respiratory droplets and fomite (surface) transmission. It still took time to learn the signs and symptoms of the infection and the natural course of the illness. The data became available only after people become infected with the virus.
Many things did not make sense. The toilet paper shortage made no sense. Nonsensical treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and bleach were proclaimed to be effective, not by science, but speculation or association, only to be proven ineffective with significant potential for harm.
Development of the vaccines has been at an unprecedented pace and the first vaccine was tested and approved within a year of the start of the pandemic, as compared to the usually required 5-10year time period needed to develop, test and bulk manufacture.
Our ability to gene sequence protein particles on the virus enabled a novel method of vaccine development which has resulted in an MRNA vaccine proven to be at least as effective, if not more than the traditional vaccines.
The challenges of the novel coronavirus relate to the fact that it was new. Emerging information was either incomplete or inaccurate. It took time to gather accurate data and evidence to characterize the virus and understand how to fight it.
There were so-called statisticians analyzing backward looking data and declaring that it was no worse than the yearly influenza or that death rates were no higher than normal and assertions that too many deaths were being attributed to the virus rather than the usual causes.
Declaring the virus to be a minor ailment was consoling for many, only to be proven to be terribly wrong later. As much as we wanted solace in the face of uncertainty, as we learned more, our fears and worst nightmares were realized.
In reflecting on the pandemic and the developments of a year, it is undeniable that technology has helped us find solutions more quickly and possibly more effective than were previously thought possible through finding, sharing and analyzing information.
However, this same technology has enabled the sharing of misinformation and faulty analysis through new platforms of communication such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.
We are a society that abhors uncertainty. So, in the face of this unknown we are vulnerable because we want information and we want it fast.
These online platforms can fill this void.
Moreover, technology has the ability to make anything look credible and real. There is no question the SARS COV2 virus has been the enemy, but just as formidable an enemy has been misinformation or fake news.
Fake news has taken centre stage fuelled by social media platforms that are fertile ground for echo chambers and amplification of voices. Missing was the filter that traditional media channels use to ensure factual reporting and accuracy.
This pandemic has seen the emergence of pseudo-scientists twisting data and evidence to suit their claims. There has been a perfect storm of an unknown entity with incomplete information, an unmet need for certainty and platforms that can amplify any voice with instantaneous speed.
Hopefully, as the vaccines continue to roll out broadly and as our world opens up, we all take some time to reflect on the challenges that we faced and how we responded.
There will be instances that speak to our resilience, but also times when we could have done better. This pandemic is a wake-up call and we have much to learn from it — especially in the context of a world that is changing at an unprecedented pace.