POST COVID-19 SOUTH AFRICA - HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER

Speaking on future global cataclysmic events, Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, commented in 2015 about the likelihood of a nuclear world war.

He discounted it from the top of the list due to widespread nuclear deterrence capabilities in all the super-power nations.BILL GATES VID15 This was not the case, he said, for biologic warfare using as weapons microbes such as viruses rather than nuclear bombs.

Here, all simulations showed that no country would emerge unscathed from a widespread, catastrophic new viral infection, whether it happened naturally or as an act of hostility. And he added that there was time to prepare - though not much - then.

But with Covid19 already here, that time is up. (The preparations he proposed were):

1.Strong health systems in every country,

2.A dedicated, well resourced, rapid-response medical corps specialized to deal countrywide with viral and other pandemics,

3.Military support in terms of transport, security, communications, lockdowns and other severe contingency measures,

4.Regular simulations so every citizen would know what to do when a real epidemic arrived.


But in South Africa and elsewhere, Covid19 has stripped the complicated algorithm of modern life down to its foundation, namely its basis on a healthy population.

And that we do not fulfil any of the preparations proposed by Gates.

We, as all other nations, need a strong health system. Unfortunately, putting in place a strong health system is a long-term measure that must now be partially delayed as we have a national health emergency.

But it is imperative to plant the seeds of certain Post-Pandemic measures now so that they may begin to germinate.

Our health system is fragmented into two: an inefficient, corrupt, under-resourced public health serving 80% of the population and an expensive, well-resourced, exclusive, profit-driven private health system serving just under 20% of the population. As such, we do not have a strong health system, public or private, in SA.

Strengthening any health system takes time as the various propositions on NHI have shown. But Covid19 is here, demanding action now if tens of thousands of lives are not to be lost. Post Covid 19 should and must see a merging of the two health systems.

Current Measures

More restrictions are in the pipeline, such as closing more businesses,  nationalizing private health facilities, as done in Italy and Wuhan. These are helping to decrease virus transmissibility and flatten the curve of infection, but to be effective, these measures have to be taken early and continuously evaluated for efficacy.

For instance, our 3 -week lockdown may need to be extended, as Italy and Spain have done.

Already, collaborations - touched by controversy - between government and the cellular telecoms industry have begun in order to be able to trace truant Covid-19 positves as well as contacts. 

Long-term measures 

Using the resulting close collaboration with the private health sector (due to Covid19),  to form a unified health system - which may have many but not all features of the current NHI proposals. 

Doing regular simulations with a dedicated corps so that the lessons of Covid19 save lives in future epidemics. 

As individuals we must also prepare for a different world Post Covid-19 because:

1.There will be massive unemployment due to the direct impact of the resulting global economic depression , with  widespread job cuts,

2.A culture of mutually beneficial eLearning is taking root as schools currently use the internet to bridge the gap between formal teaching and abandoning their  pupils to idleness at home. This group of course, represents the next generation of workers,

​3.Significant numbers in the youth group will not return to formal schools to continue with their education for one or other reason, and they need to be catered for  by extending elearning,

4.The healthier and cheaper digital way businesses are now doing things, such as using webinars,videoconferencing and  business-applied social media,

5.The rise of the 4IR, the Internet of things, Machine Learning and A I - which  all predate Covid-19, will gain impetus.

These facts dictate a change of mindset  and a blanket need for more resources to enhance our skills to match the new order.

​Fortunately, it is now possible to become skilled in almost any discipline, both home and outwardly- oriented, using online learning.