Israel and Corona

Husband here. Yes, I have a public health degree; yes, I was once an epidemiologist, no, I never dealt with infectious diseases. But people still like to ask me my opinion since you know, all public health people are the same, just like you would want to ask a dermatologist about your heart condition, so I guess I’ll give my opinion anyway though don’t take it for anything.

First of all, there were so many ingredients that came together to make this the world pandemic that it is, and many of those same reasons are why we are managing so well in the face of it. The main factor is of course large-scale globalization and intertwined economies. We can get around faster than ever before, and with a highly-contagious disease with a long lag-time, that is a recipe for disaster. Politically, it is also a strange time (though is it ever not), being that many world leaders, even of democratic societies are interested in consolidating power and are afraid of giving in to human or non-human enemies. This slowed the response time and gave world leaders fewer options when it came to combat the disease. The approach of pulling the plug on the economy only happened because leaders saw that otherwise they would be facing pictures of body bags lined up on the front page of their newspapers (and that may still happen -- as it is tonight on CNN in Italy).

The good news in my opinion is that it works, but it works slowly. That is not easy to swallow for our lives built around instant gratification. Staying where you are keeps you safe, and keeps others safe as well. Yes, the older populations are most at risk, but I know two people personally who are not in that demographic and either were or are fighting for their lives. It isn’t easy, and you miss your friends, and your kids may be driving you nuts, but the more we follow the rules, the faster we’ll be back on track. I also think that is the case for most of the economy. Many of the businesses affected by the virus are all things that will be needed once things return to some semblance of what they were before the virus, but obviously other things will take longer to recover. Look for your favorite restaurants and stores to come back pretty quickly, if they even close at all.

What really isn’t taking or getting enough credit is the internet’s role in all of this. While exceptions definitely do exist, the fact that so much more has been able to take place online over the past few weeks, without a noticeable slowdown in speed or quality is nothing short of amazing. Things would be a lot worse, especially from a first responders perspective, if the internet were not as reliable as it has been since this all got underway.

Lastly, I want to say that there are a lot of silver linings. Foremost among them is the time we are able to spend with our families. Even after two weeks, I have learned much more about my children than I knew before, understanding what they like and that they often want nothing more than just my/our attention, even if it is for a silly game of “Mother May I”. It is also fun to learn with them in unconventional ways, through baking, arts  and crafts and other ideas that can be found on various sites and pages of the internet and Facebook. Praying alone is hard, but then again I’m noticing that things I thought would be really hard (like learning to lain/chant entire Torah portions known to be difficult) might not be so hard after all. And knowing that in difficult times, people from different parts of the world, and different religious and political outlooks can come together and start to agree and move things forward is also kind of heartwarming. Yes there is a new “Normal” out there, but if we focus on the good that comes out of it we can all be better people and form a better world better equipped to take on the next set of challenges we face.

 May God bless us all and keep us safe from harm.