Humans have had always been overtly optimistic about the intimate inter linkages wreaked by economic interdependencies manifested broadly by privatization, liberalization, economic deregulations and globalization trends, rosily overseeing the potential costs. The deadly pandemic Black Death devastated millions of lives spreading through the spine of Eurasia. The plague arrived in 1347 when 12 ships from black sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. The Black Death remained the deadliest pandemic ever faced by humans killing up to 75-200 million people mostly from Eurasia and North Africa. Then came Spanish Flu aka 1918 flu pandemic caused by h1n1 influenza A virus, the death toll estimated somewhere between 20 million and 50 million. It spread out from USA to Europe then to Asia, killing millions of people. And now Corona Virus tracing it’s inception from China, spread out at an unparalleled rate through the mega economic project of contemporaneity i.e. modern silk Route. The point I want to overemphasize here is that all these horrendous diseases took their trajectories through the paths developed by humans for the convenience of trading and other globalizing maneuvers. All these dread diseases had inflicted burdensome repercussions on humans all over the world which had impacted all spheres of life. Corona virus isn’t an exception in that case. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 4.3 million confirmed cases and over 290,000 deaths globally. It has also sparked fears of an impending economic crisis and recession. Social distancing, self-isolation and travel restrictions have lead to a reduced workforce across all economic sectors and caused many jobs to be lost. Schools have closed down, and the need for commodities and manufactured products has decreased. In contrast, the need for medical supplies has significantly increased. The food sector is also facing increased demand due to panic-buying and stockpiling of food products. Indeed, this ferocious and a Savage tiny microbe had bought all countries to their knees irrespective of their status on the world stage. Both developed and developing countries had tried their best to cope strategically with this health hazard, striving to minimize its ill effects. Going through this problematic time the myriad loopholes of humans personal, institutional and psychological aspects sprouted out which I think the people will surely take in consideration in the post-Covid world. Some of these profitable changes in the human’s personal, institutional, psychological and apparatus are like: Cherish family time leisure People all over the world were busy in pursuing their goals ruthlessly without having enough time for their loved ones. The family members were being relegated to the corner of secondary importance. This pandemic came as an impetus for us to sideline the individuality and have some space for the sociability in our lives. The quarantine period has proved to be good in terms of quality time with family, a better understanding of kids and their day to day activities. We have been able to spend more time with our parents. The only thing affected is travel and personal visits, both official and personal. However, we are well connected through Zoom calls, telephone calls, e-mails etc., and work is going on as usual except field visits and travelling. Children have re-bonded with their grandparents and elders at home which pre-COVID-19 was seen a declining trend due to various reasons. As families stay together longer, familial relationships have fostered, steering the mental and emotional growth of young minds in a positive and progressive directions. Post Covid-19 times will be witnessed with a new outlook of familial and altruistic sensitivities in people.
Revitalizing the notion of Welfarism: The neo-liberal-welfare quandary, whether poor and neglected sections of the society which mainly comprises workers should receive an adequate attention and positive interference from state. Governments across the developed world have responded to the COVID-19 crisis by making welfare states vastly more generous. Historical parallels suggest that this munificence may endure even as the pandemic recedes. Welfare states will only, however, become permanently more generous if voters believe this pandemic poses an enduring risk to their incomes and if they make common cause with the people who have been worst affected. The most pertinent historical parallel to the current situation is the Second World War. After the conflict, governments dramatically increased both the number of people covered by the welfare state and the value of the payments they received. At that time, people were demanding greater social insurance in the face of universal risks and pervasive uncertainty. So this quandary going to diminish in the post covid world, people will vehemently struggle to get the welfare policies implemented which will uplift all people no matter where they lie in the socio-economic spectrum. Due attention to Psychic health Nowadays the people seldom pay heed to their psychic well being, because it isn’t physical. Research has highlighted the impact of this pandemic on psychological well-being of the most exposed groups, including children, college students, and health workers, who are more likely to develop post-traumatic, stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms of distress. The social distance and the security measures have affected the relationship among people and their perception of empathy toward others. From this perspective, telepsychology and technological devices assume important roles to decrease the negative effects of the pandemic. As reported in a recent survey administered during the Covid-19 pandemic, children and young adults are particularly at risk of developing anxious symptoms (Orgilés et al., 2020). The research involved a sample of 1,143 parents of Italian and Spanish children (range 3–18). In general, parents observed emotional and behavioral changes in their children during the quarantine: symptoms related to difficulty concentrating (76.6%), boredom (52%), irritability (39%), restlessness (38.8%), nervousness (38%), sense of loneliness (31.3%), uneasiness (30.4%), and worries (30.1%).I don’t want to say that these psychological disturbances are experienced by us only in the pandemic but I mean these psychic glitches are just exacerbated in this pandemic which should catalyze us for the transformation of our outlook towards both these arenas, physical as well as psychological. A renewed concern for spiritual side The current world crisis, COVID-19 disease, is different from any other world’s previous crises since it has killed thousands of people all around the world and made the medical science desperate. During the COVID-19 outbreak, spirituality can be one of the proper methods to create mental relaxation. In the current global situation that the number of COVID-19 deaths is updated and published daily, spirituality can be a good sedative in societies facing the outbreak. Several religions, despite all their limitations, create positive emotions in people. Spirituality and religion can help humans in bereavement and times of crisis. Although, for a long time, epidemiologists have been trying to answer this question that whether spirituality and religion are associated with mortality and health, the majority of the internal medicine specialists have positive attitudes towards spirituality. The study of dialogues between religion and psychology is difficult because experts in psychology often lack a strong understanding of religious traditions, and it requires to understand basic problems and materials to connect religion with psychology. Various longitudinal and cross-sectional studies carried out around the world support the theory of the correlation between spirituality and better physical and mental health. So no matter whatever the beliefs we are adhering to we should clung to these principles because during these demanding times religions had always been bedrock of hope. Taking a look at this scenario I think this spiritual aspect too will be taken into account by people after this pandemic. Concern About Environmental issues The worldwide disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous effects on the environment and the climate. The global reduction in modern human activity such as the considerable decline in planned travel was coined anthropause and has caused a large drop in air pollution and water pollution in many regions. In China, lockdowns and other measures resulted in a 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions and 50 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions, which one Earth systems scientist estimated may have saved at least 77,000 lives over two months. Other positive effects on the environment include governance-system-controlled investments towards a sustainable energy transition and other goals related to environmental protection such as the European Union’s seven-year €1 trillion budget proposal and €750 billion recovery plan “Next Generation EU” which seeks to reserve 25% of EU spending for climate friendly expenditure. So the world trend is being re-modeled in the favour of ecological conservation and environmental preservation that will be possibly retained after the pandemic too.
(The author is pursuing B.A Honours in Philosophy at AMU Aligarah. Views are his own)[email protected]