RESET FOR THE FUTURE

Well, COVID-19 came unexpectedly and sadly we can’t say it went, given that the South African curve wasn’t flattened by Lockdown, just postponed, to hit at a time when people are apparently most vulnerable, in winter?

So everyone is hoping and some praying for a vaccine, whilst all are expectant of a return to normal. But does a vaccine offer any assurance that a repeat scenario will not occur or that we shall be able to revert to some form of pre-COVID-19 “normal”?

We can argue all we want as to whether Lockdown was warranted or not and whether certain restrictions were rational or not, fact is, it all happened and it could happen again with a similar impact on international health and a cumulatively destructive affect on international economies!

This is not fear mongering or speculation but theoretic, scientific possibility. In a Nautilus article “The Man Who Saw the Pandemic Coming”, by Kevin Berger dated 12 March 2020, Dr. Dennis Carrol who “formed a USAID program called PREDICT, where he guided trailblazing research into viruses hiding, and waiting to emerge, in animals around the world", is quoted as follows:

 “PREDICT was a beautiful project. It was scientifically well executed. It was forward-leaning. But its scale was small. It discovered slightly more than 2000 viruses. If you’re going to have a public health impact, finding 2000 viruses out of a pool of 600 000, over 10 years, isn’t going to transform your ability to minimize public health risk. And PREDICT didn’t really navigate the second step in a critical equation – turning science into policy.”

(My highlighting)

The complete article is well worth the read and available here.

So only 0.33% of viruses, thought to have the potential of transmitting from animals to humans, have been found thus far and COVID-19 has clearly shown precisely how out of step governments are, policy wise, in dealing with novel pandemics!

So that is a single scientist airing his views in an article right? Well, take a look at the CDC web page titled “Why It Matters: The Pandemic Threat” which starts off with the ominous sentence:

“While we can’t predict exactly when or where the next epidemic or pandemic will begin, we know one is coming.”

 According to this page several factors contribute to this inevitability:

 -       Increased risk of infectious pathogens “spilling over” from animals to humans

-       Development of antimicrobial resistance

-       Spread of infectious disease through global travel and trade

-       Acts of bio terrorism

-       Weak public health infrastructures

See the full web page here.

It does seem to make sense doesn’t it?

So, what are we going to do? Are we going to continue with or go back to the same same-old, same-old or are we going to get innovative and creative and proactively position ourselves for maximal chances of physical and economic survival now? For me personally, adopting a wait-and-see attitude is comparable to an ostrich burying its head in the sand?

First we need to learn that there is a difference between theoretical science and empirical science. Empirical science is an accepted and proven scientific fact, above any and all contention (like the temperature at which water boils at a given altitude), whilst theoretical science is more abstract, containing assumptions or beliefs rather than conclusive or empirical proof of claims made. Maybe we should actually insist that governments make differentiation mandatory – that every author, manufacturer and scientist must specifically and unambiguously state whether the knowledge or product they are presenting is based on empirical or theoretical science, punishing a failure to do so with serious punitive sanctions?

Secondly we need to realize that sciences are mostly good retrospectively – we can treat diseases we know, but dealing with a novel health issue can be challenging and economic models and projections only function within known, experiential or controlled parameters. If the economy “breaks out” of the set parameters, you get mayhem and if projection models are too mathematical, denying a common sense or human factoring on the data, they can be very wrong?

Thirdly we need to realize that we cannot have a “Jelly Baby” attitude to our lives, communities and economic survival – we cannot sit back and expect things just to happen and be taken care of for us by someone else, regardless of whom. We need to take control of and manage our own personal, communal and economic well-being.

In reference to a Johann Rupert quote, as published by Bloomberg in a BUSSINESSTECH article dated 15 May 2020, ‘This is not a pause, it’ s a reset’, I am forced to raise the question: do you see it as a mere “pause” or a “reset”?

If you see it as a reset then you also need to answer the following questions:

 -       What changes are needed?

-       How will these changes be implemented or effected?

From my point of view, a total reset as to how we view our lives and livelihood is required, starting on a personal level, widening to a community or suburban level, to a city level, a provincial and then a national level – bottom up restructuring rather than a top down approach as touched upon in my articles titled A Novel Analysis of a Novel Virus COVID-19 Efficacy of Lockdown and A Novel Analysis of a Novel Virus COVID-19 Morality of Lockdown.

Fact is if we don’t take the initiative to rebuild our lives, businesses, and communities nobody else will, because governments of contemporary "superstates" tend to focus on macro and not micro economics? The alternative is, for many once productive and dignified members of society to be relegated to beggars waiting on some hand-out from someone or the government, if they’re lucky? We cannot continue to be “The Three Wise Monkeys” portrayed in the Japanese pictorial maxim, refusing to see (acknowledge), hear (observe) and speak (do something) about our circumstances. We need to reset and we need to do it now!

In keeping with this philosophy, Influentcer has launched Project Rebuild, an initiative aimed at resetting our lives from a personal level upwards. Please to visit the Influentcer website and join us in this endeavor!

-       The Influentcer

www.influentcer.com