top of page

Adaptation, Most Essential Skill

At a rare moment of downtime, worldwide, how will we re-evaluate our lives, reimagine our future and reshape who we are? The 2019-nCoV pandemic erupted in late 2019 and quickly spread causing dramatic shifts and changes across the world.   There is a great deal of uncertainty and tension around the prospects of society. While we are seeing increasing violence and war-fare in some cases, we are also experiencing growing solidarity among people and international communities. 


A global pandemic struck. China, the manufacturing giant, shut down production, and the rest of the world followed suit. A health and economic crisis hit the world in a truly, first of its time fashion. The 2019-nCoV pandemic erupted in late 2019 and quickly spread to nations and continents causing dramatic shifts and changes across the world.


Countries responded to the pandemic differently; those better prepared managed to contain the outbreak through their public health systems, while others struggle to keep the spread under control. In some cases, despite local government’s preparedness, we saw shortages of medical supply and increases in cases reported positive. One reason could be because we knew very little about the 2019-nCoV at the time of the outbreak and how quickly it spreads.


A National Emergency was declared across the world and people were instructed to stay home and practice “social distancing.” Alongside testing for the virus, social distancing has been advised as an effective method to keep the virus from spreading, due to how infectious the virus is and how easy it is to catch from simple interactions between people.


There is a great deal of tension around the virus spreading, especially among children, youth and families in conflict zones, war-torn areas, encampment and refugee camps, prison and jail cells, those places with high density populations with very limited access to healthcare supply and attention. The pandemic brings with it an economic downfall as well. It is clear: things will never be the same again.


Here on, there is a pre and post 2019-nCoV era.


While we are seeing increasing violence and war-fare in some cases, we are also experiencing growing solidarity among people and international communities. We saw pollution levels drop significantly during the weeks of quarantine, which is still in place to varying degrees from one place to another. The lockout put everyone to the test. At this rare moment of worldwide downtime, how will we each re-evaluate our lives, reimagine our future and reshape who we are?


Further readings and resources:










Photo: Emanuel Desousa

Comments


bottom of page