The pandemic has taught us one important lesson – you are never really prepared if you are not prepared. What does this mean? We have to be ready mentally and physically at an individual and at a societal level for any eventuality. We deluded ourselves into the eternal comfort of consumer culture and never really heeded all the signs of the collapse of the economy, healthcare and individual cooperation.

Let us take up the economy as it has become the main yardstick of society’s prosperity. The thought leaders of the world allowed what is essentially a health crisis to bring down the economy, which has now hit all sections of human civilization.

If the world had been prepared at a 25% level of healthcare facilities by public and private players, we could have isolated economic activity from the crisis and continued to thrive. With the health crisis becoming an economic crisis, the world has entered a vicious circle. Since the economy is down, there is no money to spend on pandemic health care and the deteriorating health care system is in turn not helping the economic activities to get back on track or restart. A reduction in economic activity reduces the circulation of money and with it, tax revenues. This reduces the finances available for the public-health countermeasures needed to control the pandemic. 

What has touched the raw nerve is that the pandemic has hit individuals and families, whose income has plummeted catastrophically. As companies close or reduce their activities, the consequences are felt by their owners, employees, and suppliers.

Let us get out of this vicious circle. It is time for financial institutions, governments and private individuals to turn liberal and help all the needy, financially. If we fail, they also will fail. We all are in the same storm and let us sail safely together.