The people most vulnerable to Covid-19 are those with co-morbidities or pre-existing conditions. This is true in many more ways than merely how the virus works in our systems. Covid is highlighting many issues in our lives - not just health issues. Here are some examples.
I have a daughter with autism who has had a terrible few days. Her wisdom teeth are coming through, and her autistic brain is dealing with the pain by basically turning her into a zombie. It’s not a simple thing to get her to a dentist for x-rays, and considering a possible hospital procedure for removing the teeth is not a straightforward call. Covid makes dealing with her right now quite tough. Autism is never easy to deal with, but right now it feels really hard, and is breaking my heart.
I’ve heard from a divorce lawyer that he’s had a massive upswing in enquiries. Being locked down with someone you don’t like appears to have pushed some relationships off the edge. I am grateful for my wonderful wife and marriage, but I fear for some of my friends.
While some businesses are struggling simply because of the industry they’re in, there are some businesses that are going to struggle because of underlying unresolved issues inside their organisations that are now critical because of Work-From-Home and shifts in management styles, systems and trust. Some businesses might just survive Covid only to discover that they can’t survive the rest of the 2020s. And sadly, some businesses are not just badly run; they are actually bad. They’re doing bad things to their people and the world.
For those people who didn’t have a job at all, or didn’t have good jobs before Covid, this is just making it worse. It’s easy now for some people to blame Covid Lockdown for the economic crisis, but truth be told, many of our economies had pre-existing conditions before Lockdown, and the real problem is not the coronavirus. It seems to me that the people shouting the loudest for us to open the economy up again, are also the people most likely to have been ignoring the structural problems in the economy before lockdown.
Covid is shining a massive spotlight on our lives and the world. In some situations that is highlighting some tough realities. In others it is making tough situations even worse. Either way, the solution is not to “go back to normal”.
Don’t just survive Covid. Do everything you can to use this time of disruption to fix the problems you can, build resilience into your systems and get help and assistance where needed. That’s good advice for individuals, families, organisations and countries alike.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
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