Now that it appears there is light at the end of the tunnel and we seem to be starting to see the tail-end of this pandemic, a lot are asking how Covid-19 will have impacted us, and what changed after this phenomenon literally knocked us off our feet.
Many have claimed, written and shared that it has been a surreal period in the world’s history with people unnerved and not understanding what exactly to do next.
Now governments are endeavoring to jump-start the economy, trying to get it all back on track and yet there is an embedded feeling that the new normal is nothing we should be looking forward to.
Post-Covid-19 leaves so many loose ends we need to contend with.
What we saw happening around the world is odd, unreal and seems as if it has come out of a Hollywood movie; Contagion, The Omega Man, World War Z and Pandemic come to mind.
There has been chaos the world over; oil prices slammed to the ground; the world economy took a nose dive reminiscent of the great depression; civil and human rights have been breached in so many countries; spiritual rituals have been impacted with the cancellation of services and gatherings; we have seen a spike in suicides and domestic violence; our educational institutions are hanging by a thread; we have shifted from face-to-face learning and teaching to on-line programs with hardly any training; counsellors, psychologists, youth workers, social workers and family therapists who usually base their intervention on meetings in homes and clinics, are scrambling to adapt to new systems which are not as effective; people are not going to restaurants and not congregating – it is total bedlam!
And there’s more.
We walk in reverse when someone approaches us, we wear masks that block us from people and their facial expressions, we do not hug, we do not greet each other any longer – we are asked to act out of character. This, not to mention the cancellations of events that bring people together to celebrate, to chill out; the food and the hospitality industry, tourism, cinema have all taken the impact. Add to these; the exhaustion of staff and service users we are witnessing in care homes for the elderly; employees who work in prisons, in hospitals and in other institutions who have been working endless shifts with hardly any monetary rewards to make up for their contribution to the organizations; the migrants stranded out at sea because our ports need to be kept ‘safe’ to name just a few.
A study published by UNU-WIDER revealed that the pandemic will be pushing poverty up by an estimated half a billion globally, mostly people in developing countries. Data we will soon be launching as a Faculty (for Social Wellbeing) will see a massive spike in ‘loneliness’. Worldwide recession is a reality that we will have to contend with and studies show that long term downturn can possibly drop life expectancy. As happened in the 2008 crises, government could come to a position that it would need to bail out companies and as a result increase the national debt to avoid turning a recession into a depression. It is thought that the number of suicides will rise, some therapists I spoke to are already guesstimating that there is an increase of 20% in suicide ideation.
Another area that has taken a good beating is something we are experiencing as we speak. Migrants and other people with vulnerable immigration status highlight the enduring inequalities they face and the lack of funding mingled with moral panic could be another legacy of COVID-19 – in fact we have dozens of people stranded on harbor cruise ships.
This pandemic has warped our lifestyles, imposed changes and yet governments all over the world are so taken up trying to see us through economically that we are forgetting the impact that this pandemic is having on all of us psychologically and emotionally. The changes and the adaptations that are required are immense and as a society, as communities and as neighboUrhoods we should be preparing for this.
Many have applauded the Government and the Public Health Authorities on how they tackled Covid-19. Probably the timely move to shut down the airport and stop flights especially from Italy, Spain and the UK were game changers locally.
Yet, it has shown that the State’s reactionary system is not geared to sustain the impact of such unexpected social traumas. We don’t seem to have learnt from other pandemics and natural disasters of the past and the idea that ‘it will never happen to us’ lists our thoughts. But even though we weathered the storm it also shows the shortages of medical items, protective gear, hospital beds, public health response and hadn’t it been for an (unusually) disciplined attitude of our populace (naturally with the odd exception) and a number of key people who led the resistance, we would have imploded.
Covid-19 also hit us straight where it hurts, our governance mechanisms. Let’s face it, were it not for an abundant, and what has been referred to as an over-heating economy, we would be going round in circles. The measures taken by the government were judicious even though some sectors still risk total collapse.
Countries, Malta included, were not ready for times of extreme duress. In other words, our lifestyle, rituals, habits, customs have gone to the dogs – we just didn’t know how to act anymore. This is a wake-up call – who knows maybe Covid-19 will change this false sense of security and reassurance commensurate with alienation coming from industry and governments.