When denial runs too deep, it becomes delusion.

We are fast approaching the one year anniversary since WHO declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic. One year. Can you believe it? And while we’ve learned plenty about Covid-19 and how it behaves, we’re still in the dark as to how to contain it. I mean, we KNOW how to stop it, we’re just not doing it. Numbers in our region are on the rise, despite all the measures in place, again because not enough of us adhere to them, leaving me to wonder: is it time to move on?

We’ve come up with a vaccine in record time, which is amazing, but getting that vaccine to the masses has been challenging. Availability is limited, willingness to get it, not shared by all. How effective or lasting the effects of the vaccine will actually be remains yet to be determined, and with the new variants at play, who knows where this will all end. Will we need it every year? If so, how do we navigate this? Even if we vaccinated 1 million people daily, it would take the United States a full year to get its entire population inoculated. Hard to achieve herd immunity in those circumstances, especially if immunity is short lived.

The virus is here to stay. Then what? What is the solution? how do we continue living without constantly risking dying? We can’t be on lockdown forever… We can’t stay away from people for the rest of our lives…

We need to shift.

I believe that we need to mourn the life we once had, accept the fact that it is not going to return to the exact same way it was before, and redirect our efforts and energies into figuring out ways to keep some semblance of the old “normal” while adapting to the new.

We’ve been shown. When the world scientists work together towards a common goal, there is no limit to what can be achieved. When all governments are united and invest money towards that goal, we end up getting vaccines at warp speed. You take greed out of the equation and you achieve greatness.

We’ve made such unbelievable technological discoveries over the last hundred years, what stops us from finding a solution? Maybe it’s inventing a mask that kills viruses or a personal bubble that protects us? Maybe it’s a helmet that filters the air going in and out… Maybe it’s a UV light that obliterates every living virus in a room. Yes, it sounds right out of a futuristic sci-fi movie, but hey, the future is NOW and we need new ideas, innovative concepts. It’s time to get our heads together and think outside the box.

The last pandemic died on its own. But the last pandemic happened when there was barely 1 billion people on the planet and cities like New York, Shanghai or Mumbai weren’t so overcrowded yet. Still, it infected one third of the world population and killed between 20 to 50 million people in two years. But at least, those who got it developed lasting immunity. And people obeyed the regulations put in place. Here? Now? Not so much.

In situations with no solutions, there is a need–no, a necessity– to find new ways out. As William Blake said, “Great things are done when men and mountains meet”. Well folks, we’re in front of a hell of a mountain. Let’s get climbing.