When the coronavirus was first introduced, reactions varied. Some brushed it off thinking it would not blow up to be what it is today. Others on the other hand panicked and hoarded face masks and disinfectants. Eventually as it goes, the coronavirus did turn out to be a huge world pandemic, taking millions of lives, instilling great fear, bringing down economies, and drastically changing everyone’s way of living.
However, these past couple of weeks, we have been hearing about trial vaccines, perhaps the first actual hope in combatting this virus. Of course that is dependent on where you live because clearly, not every nation handled the pandemic the same way. It means world perception of hope is different. Some people never lost hope, while others lost it since the very beginning.
As of writing, over 140 candidate vaccines are being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) – a pretty decent number to make hope truly exist this time for everyone, including those who never had it to begin with.
But we need to remember that vaccines do not go up and running the moment they are finished. They need to be thoroughly tested to ensure safety for humans. Normally this takes years to fully determine but scientists are aiming for a year. Nonetheless, these trial vaccines together with our much modern time, are enough factors to give us real, tangible hope.
The trial vaccines provide a significant progress to where the world stands against this pandemic – crucially filling the gaps of those who performed poorly against it. Maybe it is even safe to believe that the end of this pandemic is near. However, there is one thing that should never be forgotten the moment this all ends – our response to the pandemic.
In journalism, news outlets always aim to be the first to crack a story. The reason is because news dies out really fast. People lose interest quickly.
Recently it seems as though people have already adjusted to life in the ‘new normal.’ Traffic is terribly back, malls are flocked, alcohol and face masks are always in stock again, and restaurants are gradually regaining their crowds. It makes me afraid that maybe we are already forgetting, and with vaccines underway, we might just completely forget.
In the event of a powerful vaccine that will stop the pandemic and bring all of us back to our ‘old normal,’ let us never forget these times when competency, incompetency, good, bad, helpful, opportunistic were brought to light. Let us remember those who set the bar high and those who deeply buried it down.
Holding people accountable is important. Simply moving on does not do justice to the fundamental aspects of our society, the ones that bring order and peace such as the law, humanity, and decency. If these were violated, diminished, and worst, abolished, then what does the future look for us? There will be other pandemics in different forms. In fact, they long existed before the coronavirus. They were in the form of poverty, hunger, injustice, corruption, and so on.
Here is to hoping that the vaccines will be safe and will finally end this pandemic once and for all. But here is to also hoping that we as a society would not forget those who put humanity above all, and those who crumpled it in the pursuit of personal interest.
Maybe, just maybe, the coronavirus was brought to us not in pure chaotic intentions, but also because it was meant to draw a clear line that would separate the good from the bad – and to make that clear to everyone. Is the pandemic soon behind us? Maybe the coronavirus. But there were other forms of ‘pandemics’ that came with it and would eventually have longer lasting effects.