Beating Covid-19; Physically & Economically

I have spent the last two weeks writing statements & press releases for different businesses to address their clients, employees and the general public about the spread & threat of Covid-19. For a lot of people, the general rhetoric is the fear of the unknown, as we continue to lose our battle against an invisible terrorist with an invisible sniper rifle that settles its invisible bullets directly in our lungs.

The simplest way to describe a virus is as an army of poisonous cells. Imagine that a cell spends its entire existence battling other cells for space by duplicating itself over and over, eventually killing off any other cells that were battling for the same space. Now imagine that our whole body is made up of little cells and that we have good cells and bad cells fighting for the same space within our body. If the bad cells takeover, they will convince our body to produce more viral material than genetic material and it will easily spread into other nearby cells. However, our body works hard to ensure that enough blood & oxygen can carry enough vitamins & minerals to promote the healthy reproduction of good cells, and when our body detects foreign / harmful cells, we have some amazing natural defences that will kick in.

Our immune system produces antibodies that can bind to the virus, preventing reproduction and it can also release T-cells, which work to attack and kill the virus, but some viral infections have shown to spread so quickly that they can outpace the immune system. 

Unfortunately, viruses can evolve much more quickly than the immune system can, which gives them a clear shot at uninterrupted reproduction, hence our current collective efforts to contain it (or slow it down) and to prevent its evolution, giving ourselves the best chance of building an immunity to it. In the meantime, it is vitally important to our own health, and to the health of the people around us, that we take all necessary precautions to beat Covid-19 inside and outside of our own bodies.

Beating it inside means that we need to help our bodies to be as productive as possible, so we are able to reproduce healthy cells at an adequate rate. It is more important than ever before that we are eating well, drinking lots of water and eating plenty of vitamins & nutrients with as little cholesterol & saturated fat as possible. It is imperative that we are sleeping well and consciously improving our own respiratory & cardiovascular systems, and we must also remain relaxed to reduce the production of cortisol (the stress hormone) throughout the body.

As we know, Covid-19 can also survive outside of the body, existing on workspaces, countertops, door handles, food packaging, trolleys etc. for as little as a few hours and for up to a few days. We all now know the importance of keeping our living spaces as clean as possible (even more-so than usual), but during this crisis, we must also make an extra conscious effort to disinfect as much as we can see. You will be doing a great justice to your community and to your own family if you are armed with anti-bacterial wipes to be used before and after making contact with any surfaces across public spaces (including in the shops).

A healthy body will win the fight against Covid-19 eventually, but a standard anti-bacterial wipe and a good hand wash can eradicate it before it even makes it anywhere near the cells in your lungs.

By all of us staying indoors, we are limiting the spaces in which Covid-19 exists. Every bus seat, bar top, park bench, dining table, classroom and office that hasn't had human contact will also be free from Covid-19, so it is our responsiblity as human beings to contain our own versions of this virus, and to beat it inside our body and outside of our body, before it is safe to share those spaces once again.

Meanwhile, if we believe in a life after Covid-19 and in an economy after Covid-19, it is important for us to adjust to this "new normal" on a personal level and collectively as a nation. Particular industries, businesses and people are bound to be caught in the cross-fire of this fast changing landscape but inevitably, we are going to see a completely different infrastructure by 2021. It takes approximately 21 days for a human being to adopt new behaviours so by then, the public will be more accustomed to life from home with a newfound appreciation for home-deliveries, home-workouts, home-working & home-life. Simultaneously, industries including networking, leisure & nightclubs, that rely heavily on interpersonal trust, may struggle to recover while online companies like Empathy Wines, TikTok & Houseparty pick up their marketshare and nurture the changing behaviours beyond the point of return.

Personally, I am a great believer in an economy after Covid-19, as it seems to be the single biggest priority for the governing bodies who are deciding the fate of the population. With that being said, I certainly don't think we will see the same economy after Covid-19, as we are going to see a definitive shift closer towards the dependence on technology, telecomms, logisitics, manufacturing, distribution, storage and unfortunately healthcare. It is not obvious how we can personally shift towards the new normals, or even what these new normals will be like when they stabilise but during any potential economical shift, we should all be conscious that retraining, upskilling and redesigning our future could be a genuine possibility, at least for the short-term. I urge everyone to spend the next three months considering the sustainability of their sectors and of their current roles, with the willingness to adapt with conviction.

For now, all we can do is stay healthy, stay clean, stay positive and stay in the game.