Part I described events up until mid-March 2020. It is now late-March and the outbreak hasn’t lost any steam. We continue to watch as our society scrambles to break the momentum.
Our friend correctly pointed out to us the correct moniker is “coronavirus”. One word. For some reason we referred to it in our last post by its parts “corona virus”. Guess it made descriptive sense, but it seems coronavirus is the class of virus and COVID-19 is the strain plaguing us at present.
Toilet Paper Crisis
When the crisis hit, thanks to panic stricken citizens we wondered to ourselves whether there were alternatives to toilet paper. Our solution was to try a bidet.
In our travels we noted that south-east Asian hotels offered bidet seats that washed backsides using streams of water. Although we saw them and found amusement in the rectal hygiene enterprise, we weren’t game enough to try. That was then. If ever there was a compelling reason to try one, a pandemic driven toilet paper crisis must be it.
While we shopped for one online, many others hatched similar plans. A few days after placing our order the supplier notified us of sudden stock shortages in bidet seats including the model we wanted, offering an alternative model. With our mission to bypass toilet paper having progressed well beyond the point of no return, we forged ahead with the alternative.
We’ve used our bidet seat for a few days now. Does it do away with toilet paper entirely? Despite featuring spray clean and blow dry functionality, we found that they do not eliminate the use of toilet paper.
The upside is they reduce paper usage by roughly a third, while affording a more hygienic clean than paper scrubbing – which is a win. So we can now stretch our toilet paper rations out longer. Fortunately, supermarket paper supplies seemed to have recovered. Slightly.
Developments
Last time around, “social distancing” made its way into popular expression. Recently, we’ve heard:
- “lock-down”,
- “herd immunity”,
- “flattening the curve” and
- “non-essential services”
We won’t bother defining each of these terms given that news outlets flog them regularly. The intent is to note them down for future reference. It goes without saying that the authorities “do their best”, presently it seems more like they’re flying by the seat of their pantswe love this expression. Not ideal, but acceptable given our society is facing this for the first time. In future, there could be a response plan at the ready.
This outbreak prompted those companies that could to allow employees to work from home out of necessity. Some predict that this will cause a cultural shift in how work is conducted in the future. With this event demonstrating the feasibility of longer term home-based work.
Recently, the major banks offered mortgage relief to their customers by way of mortgage payment deferral – while interest capitalises. Essentially a pay later arrangement, no free passes.
In the UK, “herd immunity” arose in discussions about how to handle the rapid viral spread. As strategies go, it seems to us a non-strategy. The idea to allow the virus to spread naturally as citizens go about their daily lives, letting the chips fall where they may, struck a nerve with critics. Herd immunity accepts that a fraction of the citizenry will die while the rest who survive the infection develop an immunity.
By our reckoning, herd immunity is an euphemism for “survival of the fittest”. While reading on this subject, we noted commentary that mentioned how it bordered on eugenics+1 vocabulary-based policy.
The coronavirus pandemic is shaping up to be perhaps the greatest test of our generation’s societal structure.
Structural Weakness
Structurally, our society isn’t configured to deal with viral epidemics. The necessary support structures don’t exist or require further development to cope with the burden of an outbreak.
Structural weaknesses include:
- a society unfamiliar with lock-down protocols
- authorities hastily cobbling together protocols
- citizens made complacent by cultural norms and civil liberties habitually convening in crowds, undermining social distancing directives
- a healthcare system with insufficient capacity
- need for a “flattening the curve” strategy that involves staged shut-down restrictions, a reactive approach
- telecommunications infrastructure with insufficient capacity to handle the internet load requirement of locked-down citizens
- slow logistical supply chains delivering products to supermarkets
- insufficient support for citizens laid off by either enforced closure of non-essential services, or industries struggling under a crippled economy (airlines for instance)
- inundated welfare offices
- citizens unable to meet mortgage obligations
- citizens unable to pay the rent
- economies built on citizens flying within and between countries crippled by travel bans
- citizens stranded in a foreign country, embassies with limited powers to assist
During the course of this ongoing pandemic, we happened to wonder: what is the evolutionary purpose of viruses? A quick Google search suggested that viruses were the mechanism by which a species adapts. If it doesn’t adapt, it perishes.
One theory, and we’re clumsily paraphrasing, is that humans no longer have natural predators and nor are they highly vulnerable to environmental conditions. So viruses present the most accelerated means of forced adaptation to human beings.
It seems humans are no longer a species whose fate is bound by the limits of their biology. The societal structures developed by humans sustain and protect them. This virus has revealed the weaknessesor opportunities to improve (+1 optimism) in our society. We watch with keen interest for signs of adaptation.