Notes from Harari's article in FT about the Covid Pandemic

Yuval Harari's (Author of Sapiens) excellent piece on the positives and negatives of Covid-19! A brief note to summarize the article which is a must-read.

> Agriculture wasn't affected much due to farm mechanization, especially in developed countries and many developing countries. No famines!

> Trade wasn't affected much because more tonnage can be hauled by a fewer number of people, thereby containing the pandemic. Maritime trade dropped by 4% only.

> No major internet outage despite every human interaction we know of moved online. Imagine if it crashed or the infrastructure is vulnerable in the future due to cyber-attacks?

> Science !> Politics - Some decisions cannot be made by science alone.

> Mass surveillance by governments can go unchecked if bottom to top surveillance is not established. "It is the job of politicians rather than engineers to find the right balance between useful surveillance and dystopian nightmares"

> While scientists cooperated and freely shared data without national boundaries or prejudice, world governments did not formulate a global plan that would be fair and equitable. Vaccine nationalism ruled the year.

> It is in the best interest of the rich and developed countries to see to it that poor and underdeveloped countries emerge out of the pandemic.

> WHO needs more funds and political influence to exercise its expertise and resources in preventing future pandemics. The leadership however needs to be unbiased and not proxies of powerful countries.

What are your thoughts?