With the spike in coronavirus cases has come the increase in the number of deaths, both being at levels not seen in weeks. The anxiety to reopen institutions may well be based on economic reasons, but it remains a fact that so far, no deaths due to starvation induced by the pandemic, either directly or indirectly, have been reported. There have been increases in poverty detected worldwide, but the government’s main fear seems to be the working of an overactive imagination. A greater risk to public health is the failure of the government to procure any vaccine, apart from what is given free to it.
The closing of educational institutions indicates the uncomfortable reality that the reopening, not just of schools, but also of shops and wedding halls, was probably premature, with anxiety about the economy driving the decision rather than best practices and the reality of the virus. Too much reliance was placed on the approval of vaccines against the coronavirus. It does not seem to have been realized that a vaccine could not stop the virus in its tracks; but that eradication would be a hard slog, of which a vaccine would only be a component. Authorities should keep in mind that the world does not have much of a record eliminating viral diseases, and the country is hardly a world-beater. Pakistan is one of the last redoubts of the poliovirus, and was the place where the last naturally occurring case of smallpox, the only viral disease eradicated by mankind, was detected in 1977. Going by that rather dubious record, Pakistan may well become one of the places where the disease establishes itself. The government’s cavalier attitude, shown by how it is treating it as an economic problem, and also by its casual attitude towards vaccination, is doing nothing to stop this.
At this juncture, the focus should remain on fighting the pandemic, and it seems premature to make attempts at post-pandemic adjustment. There secret to winning is vaccination. Not only are there procurement issues, but there are serious distribution issues. These will be best resolved by adoption of best practices from round the world.
