David Pratt: The post-virus world must trust experts and facts

Many things we thought insignificant have suddenly become important. Many things we took for granted will never be regarded that way again. We have all learned lessons from the impact of the pandemic, or have we?

It was former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan who once referred to climate change, diseases and terrorism as “problems without passports”.

These are problems that cannot be stopped at any border and that can only be tackled if we co-operate internationally. If Covid-19 has served any “useful” purpose, it’s been in exposing the extent to which we have many lessons to learn in this collective capacity.

Sure, looking for solace where we can find it, such as in the dedication and courage of healthcare staff, is understandable, but even here we owe it to those workers and ourselves to make a mental note of how we would like our post-coronavirus world to look. Even more importantly, perhaps, we have to insist it’s a better one.

The obvious place to start is by making sure that there must be an accounting of this entire devastating episode after we come out the other end.

By this I don’t just mean here on our own doorstep, though God knows there’s no shortage of places to start there. I’m speaking instead of on a wider global scale.

I’ve no doubt that all of us could all reel off a list of the lessons we feel should be learned or things reconsidered in light of the pandemic’s impact. For what it’s worth, though, in this short column, here are few of my own thoughts.

The first is that truth and facts matter. Personally, I’m a little weary and increasingly irritated by the constant attempt to couch the language of the pandemic in the context of a war. But if there is one startling similarity in this respect, it’s to be found in the old saying that “in war, truth is the first casualty”.

Let’s not forget that this virus first got out of control in China because of their government’s insistence in attempting to hide the truth and silence whistleblowers. In the United States, meanwhile, President Trump’s abandonment of truth and embracing of lies has included totally misleading messages like the virus weakening “when we get to April”, or that “anybody that needs a test, gets a test”.

All of this is patently untrue, of course. So, too, is Trump’s claim to have “total” power over the states in the US to end the lockdown and rev up their economies, or that somehow the World Health Organisation (WHO) is solely to blame and not deserving of our global donations.

Trump is part of that species of politician far more interested in deflecting blame, especially when elections loom or inflated egos are in need of bolstering.

As I said, it’s not unique to Trump. Here on our own doorstep the likes of Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock and Home Secretary Priti Patel appear just as willing to operate a perverse Orwellian version of the truth when it comes to presenting us with the latest on Covid-19’s impact on our fellow citizens.

Once again, if coronavirus could be said to have served any useful purpose, it’s in how it has exposed those global political leaders who continue to display a resistance to transparency and accountability. In other words, ideally we must see the pandemic as an opportunity to recalibrate the relationship between rulers and the governed.

The current crisis alone should be enough to make us think again about the future worthiness of elected officials as well as their abilities to manage such a colossal challenge as the one we currently face.

Which brings me to the second lesson I think worth noting for our post-virus world and those that would seek to govern in it. In future we need to also reject any urge to elect political leaders who disparage expertise and deny widely accepted scientific findings.

ACROSS the globe, open political hostility – often from the right – toward independent sources of information prevail in so many places. Whether it’s demonising all media irrespective of sound facts and credentials, or scientific associations and professional bodies, this pernicious tendency in the face of the pandemic has proved itself dangerous to us all.

Continuing to accommodate such myopic politicians will only result in us falling foul of such deficiencies again in the future.

The virus, too, has provided us with another wake-up call and valuable lesson in the shape of international collaboration. Few of us will perhaps have heard of “Black Sky hazards”, a term used by global scientists and security experts to define catastrophic events that severely disrupt the normal functioning of our critical global infrastructures in multiple regions for long periods. Besides pandemics, other natural threats or manmade – ones like massive cyber attacks that crash the internet and power supplies all fall under such a definition.

All are “problems without passports” and as such would require a collective global response. If Covid-19 has starkly brought home one other lesson it’s that the international community require forums and bodies – even with shortcomings – that can work together to come up with solutions for ever more entangled problems of global consequence like climate change.

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us in the clearest terms possible that our very survival depends on managing the future in a responsible and co-ordinated fashion. In an interdependent world, working with others is not a weakness, despite what some political leaders would have us believe.

Based on past experience of witnessing its shortcomings, I’m no fan of the United Nations as it stands. But in this a year when we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the UN in the midst of a global crisis not experienced since the Second World War, serious consideration must be given to what it might take to reform institutions like it making them relevant to meet current and future challenges.

When this crisis passes, it’s incumbent on all of us as global citizens to remember the need for the reshaping and collaboration of such bodies. Along the way, though, we must never again forget that truth matters, science matters and political accountability matters.

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