Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

Theme:

• COVID-19 pandemic took many lives and affected everyone in the world. While dealing with COVID-19, the world learned many lessons. And it’s important to learn the lessons to prepare ourselves for the next pandemic and prevent possible pandemics.

Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Countries should maintain transparency about the new infections information and should share the information with the international community immediately. Had China alerted the world about the severity of the situation immediately after knowing about the virus, all the other countries would have taken precautions much earlier and the virus could have been contained in one place. So, transparency among countries helps in taking steps to prevent the next pandemic.
• As Covid pandemic originated probably from the wildlife trading. To prevent new zoonotic diseases in the future, steps should be taken to stop illegal wildlife trading. Natural forests should be protected as they can prevent the contact between humans and wildlife animals.
• Lockdown to reduce the spread of Covid cleared the skies and reduced the pollution to a drastic extent. This made us realize that the damage we are doing to the environment is reversible. It taught us to focus more on sustainable development.
• The demand for luxury goods fell to a great extent in the initial months of the pandemic. COVID-19 hit consumerist culture badly. Everyone queued up at groceries stores to buy staple foods. That taught us about what is needed in life and excessive materialism is not needed.
• There are debates about whether Covid is a biological weapon. No one is sure about what is true but everyone agrees on the fact that the threat of bio-weapons is real. So, the international community must take steps to prevent the development of biological weapons.
• The fight against COVID-19 taught us to be better prepared for the future. Everyone understood that there is a need for more funding, equipment and human resources in the health care industry.
• It also taught us that vulnerable people like migrant workers will be most affected by this kind of situation. This phase taught us to take immediate steps to protect vulnerable people.
• Living in a globalized world has advantages and disadvantages as well. Almost every country is depending on other countries for many goods. During the COVID-19 pandemic phase, when supply chains are disrupted imports and exports are badly affected, and several countries realized the importance of self-sufficiency. Moreover, depending on one country for many goods too proved a wrong step. The countries, which depended on China for pharmaceutical products, and electrical & electronic equipment struggled when the Covid pandemic forced countries to impose transport restrictions. Now, more and more countries are diversifying their supply chains.
• During this phase, many companies especially IT companies allowed their employees to work from home. It reduced traffic and enabled people to spend more time with their families. COVID-19 taught companies that work from home option is not as bad as they thought. Now, several companies are opting for a hybrid work model, where employees can partly work from home and partly from the office.
• Many people are now relying on the internet for many purposes like educating their children, availing telemedicine facilities etc. But still many people are deprived of internet access. This COVID-19 phase taught us that internet access should be available to all to prevent deepening inequality. In India, the supreme court declared that internet access is a fundamental right in the year 2020.
• In general, Covid infection was more severe in people with low immunity. So, the pandemic taught us to focus on our eating habits. Now many people are consuming healthy food and avoiding junk food to boost immunity.

Conclusion:

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