As countries around the world focus on how and when to ease restrictions, strategic wisdom must ensure that irrespective of second wave or third wave, the bone of contention must be prevention alone.
Governments around the world must realize that curbing the virus built on a lockdown model will no longer work and quarantine models are even far worse. Smart governments and safe citizens will pitch upon the prevention approach by creating safety nets.
Ensuring every citizen wears mask, and appropriate hygiene standards are set at public places is good enough to survive the pandemic.
Imposition of night time curfews, paralyzing effort to open up economies and help people survive is more devastating that focusing on prevention. All municipalities across the globe must impose severe fine for people violating wearing of mask at public spots at least for some months.
Reasons why lockdowns, quarantines and curfews are a past:
- Due to exclusive focus on COVID-19, Sustainable Development Goals have taken a downward spiral and crashed development completely.
- Ad-hoc funding channelized only to COVID-19 has stopped funding to focus on nutrition, primary health care and holistically building the social health model.
- Economies are already pushed into recession and imposing funny models like lockdown, curfew and quarantine serve no purpose.
- Cases of domestic violence, mental health issues, social isolation have sky-rocketed to such an extent that with current obsolete governance ideas around the world, mental health will be the next global pandemic.
Way Forward:
Ownership on prevention must be pushed back on citizens. Governments must stress on prevention than on continuing to paralyze society to such an extent, that recovery will only spell doom.
In the interest of every global citizen, the world must immediately open up, international travel started again, and life normalized like before with no room for any further blockade. The pandemic must be curtailed merely by ensuring preventive means.