Things have changed in a matter of time. The time is not of centuries or decades or years. This time, it is just a month, which has changed the world. We all were living our usual lives just a month ago. What we took as for granted-time with friends, daily commute, a flight to home, are not possible in current days. What comes daily as a routine is increasing number of infections and death tolls across the world, and in some cases, grief during personal loss. The entire human community in the world is filled with uncertainty about tomorrow; including the health of our near and dear ones, our business, our jobs, about the availability of food and medicines for our family members.
The impact is not just on human lives, the world is facing a severe economic downturn, worse than ever in history, post renaissance period. Businesses are being shuttered and people are losing their jobs. While Wall Street Journal editorial suggest that we need to make a choice between our livelihood and lives, I disagree. Nobody wants to have such a choice. Thoughts should be pondered on finding the solution rather than making such a terrible choice.
While the lockdown is going to lead the largest quarterly decline in economic activity, there had been no such incident in recent history, when people do not work, that entire country stays at home, maintaining, what we call as social distancing. The time is not to discuss about economy and GDP numbers, which many rating agencies and economists are coming up with. The questions is of our lives and livelihoods.
Much of the world’s energy and resources are invested in suppressing the spread of virus, we need rigorous measures to fight such situations. A lot of energy is being needed to stabilize the economy through various government-policy responses, being expected by various governments. We need to suppress the virus and initiate economic activities. And we must do both now!
The need of the hour is to work towards a situation in which most people can return to work, to family duties, and to social lives. The common goal of the humanity around the world should be to implement the best possible response to stop the crisis.
Global and local leaders should sit together and work on a common strategy to cope up with the virus and the economic impact of such measures. Thoughts must be pondered on how to reopen the ‘world lockdown’ and re-affirm the world’s growth.
It will take years or decades to take the world to the position where it had been a month ago, but it is possible with combined efforts only!
