The Top Ten Things We Have Learned Thus Far From COVID19:
1. History repeats itself—this is not the first, not the last pandemic. We need to stockpile medical supplies and join the “prepper community” as a planet—most countries were warned about this, but too lazy or arrogant to believe it.
2. People as individuals are selfish—many can’t see past their own circumstances and situations and will jeopardize the health of others for ignorant, unproven, wildly unrealistic reasons (you know who you are). Love, compassion, empathy and sacrifice will conquer all. What did Spock say: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
3. The worst threat is the one you cannot see.
4. Add gasoline to a fire and it explodes—add police brutality to a smouldering crisis and Minneapolis happens; on the other hand, add COVID19 to poverty, revolution, war—and the Middle East and India ignite.
5. Do not expect a politician to do what is right—the same charismatic, charming and manipulative personality that led them to power will become a systemic weakness in times of pandemic when you need level-headed scientific renaissance men and women to lead us calmly and expertly through this.
6. The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over—reopening the world too soon will unflatten the curve. Money, greed, power—beget nothing but a larger gap between the most poor and the most rich. Did we not learn this a million times since Adam and Eve?
7. Nature will rebound—during shutdown, you saw animals walking the empty streets, weeds overgrowing the parks, and smog leaving the cities—within 2 to 3 decades of humanity’s collapse—should that ever happen, the oceans will renew, the forests will renew, the air will renew, and the planet’s health would be restored. Why wait until the end of humanity to let the earth heal?
8. The wildlife trade must end—The majority of all human infectious diseases and pandemics have originated through the cross-species transmission of microorganisms from animals to humans. Here are some examples and a timeline:
1967: Marburg (Uganda)- bats.
1976: Ebola (Congo) -bats.
1999: Nipah (Malaysia) -bats.
2002: SARS (China) bats to civet cats.
2003: H5N1 Bird Flu (China) – chickens.
2009: 2012: MERS (Saudi) – camels.
2013: H7N9 Bird Flu (China) – chickens.
A(H1N1)pdm09 (US and Mexico) pigs.
Seasonal Flu (H1N1) – worldwide – birds and pigs.
2019-ongoing: COVID19 (China) bat to pangolin.
9. Human hyper connectivity carries higher risks for both transmission of new diseases and resource isolation in the event of a pandemic—the last 30 years of world development has increased global travel of people and products. Our reliance on this travel and shipping has become unrealistic. In the event of a pandemic and the need to shut borders, if we cannot produce our own products from our own resources, we are left in need. Relying on China or Taiwan to fabricate all of our basic needs—including medical supplies—left us vulnerable. We learned to repurpose factories to make essential items. But we did not prepare for this—private companies offered this.
10. Change is needed. In the words of Gene Roddenberry: “Change is the essential process of all existence.” And in the words of MJ: ”If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change”.
across the board music 