Why vaccines won’t cure our ills.
They’re here. I applaud the amazing work by medical professionals, epidemiologists (yes, I had to look that up), and advisory bodies in dragging us kicking and screaming through this terrible time. We are indebted to you. And here we are; vaccines are ready and set to go. At the time of writing the UK, from Monday the 7th of December, will be the first country to vaccinate against the Corona Virus.
I am optimistic. People will take it. It will work. And we will be finally back to normal. But that worries me. Covid blew a hole wide over in the thick tarp we used to cover over many of the glaring problems that we have in the world. For some, it was refreshing. For others, it was a startling wake-up call for how bad things have been that we simply ignored.
HEALTH CARE.
Surprise, surprise. When you have hospitals that annually report bed and staff shortages, trained doctors and nurses emigrating for better pay, you get overrun by a global pandemic. And that’s just Ireland! No one is surprised the United States of Health Insurance is being pounded as we speak.
While yes Covid was new and easily misdiagnosed in the beginning, we can’t pretend that the medical profession wasn’t in dire straights long before this, suffer year after year of cuts, hospital closures, and growing expenses. We have seen national health not as something of the utmost importance but reluctant expense we cheekily chip away at. We literally owe our lives to these people and we have treated them as shit. They have been on the front lines (I hate the war analogies that have been used this year), risking and sadly losing their lives for us. And what did we do, as we allowed the Dáil to give themselves pay rises?
We clapped like trained seals.
FAKE NEWS.
Brexit happened because of a lie about a bus. Trump happened because of a lie about a pizzeria. Christchurch happened because of a lie about a mosque in New Zealand. Jo Cox’s murder happened because of a lie about Labour.
Are we really shocked that misinformation spread in the time of Covid?
It was a problem before, it’s a major problem now, but it’ll be a problem after. Sadly, the effects of social media’s propensity for spreading wild claims will not be slowed down by the vaccine (arguably it may briefly speed it up as paranoia of the vaccine grows). But checks into the likes of Cambridge Analytica use targeted ads, Facebook’s encouragement of immediate reactions for the sake of “engagement”, and communities obsessed with Q and the Deep State have essentially got lip-service when compared to the hearings and investigations into a possible bias against conservatives (many of whom spread these false claims). Covid conspiracies weren’t the first (nor sadly will they be the last) to contribute to preventable deaths and acts of violence.
EMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE.
Here in already the PUP Scheme (Pandemic Unemployment Payment) was set up to help keep many families afloat during lockdowns where as many as 100,000 people were forced to leave work since they were largely hired in retail, hospitality, venue, and entertainment industries, all of which were forced to close. The initial payment was of €350 (about $424/£315). For many it was the first time they had ever been made unemployed and a sobering reminder that those on the welfare are not living the life of luxury tabloids and Fine Gael would have you believe.
To this I say… no shit, Sherlock.
The top payment for those on Jobseekers Allowance is €203 ($245/£183). The government’s decision to set up the PUP at €350, though well deserved, is an admission that this entire time they’ve been aware €203 was nowhere near what people need to survive. It seems always sick; those who didn’t find a job before Covid should be treated less than those who had one, despite both groups being equally unable to return to work?
But what about those still working? Those working from home? Well, it’s strange, isn’t it? Productivity hasn’t fallen. In some cases it’s improved. People free more at ease, less stress, saving money not having to commute. Can anyone really argue that when all of this is done with that it’ll make any sense for thousands of people to cram back onto the roads and tracks, contributing to the same daily mass migration that helped Covid spread in the first place?
And of course there’s the essential workers. The aforementioned medical staff, but also the few essential shop workers, food producers, and delivery drivers who kept everything running. They are often the lowest paid and most underappreciated. Will we support them in the future when they rightly expect raises for their labour, or will we just go back to sneering at them?
COOPERATION.
Before Trump blamed China, before China kept cases in Wuhan from the world, before bodies like NPHET or WHO were ridiculed and questioned, we had Nigel Farage mocking the EU, America pulling out of the Paris Agreement, North Korea dipping in and out of threats with South Korea and Japan, the British Conservatives backstabbing the DUP over Brexit, EU countries passing the Refugee crisis on to their neighbours, and even US forces abandoning their allies, the freedom fighters of Rojava, to fight off both Turkish, Syrian, and ISIS forces closing in around them.
Covid showed countries and organisations fighting with each other, desperate to point the blame on anyone but themselves. But this zeitgeist of isolationism and finger-pointing has been growing for some time. Maybe Covid has imbued a slight sense of comradery (more in smaller communities than larger nations), but can we expect something similar with the other great threats, bigger than Covid, looming in our future? The biggest pollutants in the world (US, China, India, Brazil) are still unwilling to seriously follow guidelines for cutting Green House gases, lest sea-levels continue to rise. In case we’ve forgotten, we were warned we had 12 years to do something until we reach a point of no return. That was nearly 3 years ago. We’ve wasted a quarter of that time.
OURSELVES.
Perhaps the vaccine could solve a lot. Maybe the miracle quick turn around of will renew a sense of appreciation for health care. Maybe the effectiveness of the vaccine (currently sitting at 90–95%) will prove to dispel so many of the myths people choose to believe in. Maybe UBI, flexible-work, and a shorter work week will work in tandem with the vaccine to cut down infection cases. And maybe, with a world reconnected, allowing people to travel and meet again, we’ll see a new birth for global humanism and cooperation.
But these are all maybes. It takes us, all of us, to make these possibilities certain. And to change things for the better, we have to change for the better or else when we say “get back to being normal” we really mean “get back to being oblivious”.
