The Covid response across the globe impacts us all
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Wick man Chris McIvor, regional director for Middle East and Eurasia with HelpAge International, considers the implications of Covid-19 in poorer parts of the world
Almost one year ago, I wrote an article for this newspaper about how a new pandemic was affecting our small corner of the globe here in Jordan.
I wondered then what I might be writing about a year later. Would Covid-19 be a distant memory from which we had moved on and hopefully learned some lessons?
Or would it have worsened into a scenario like the one we are witnessing now?
Like most people, a year later my mood swings between hope and fear, one day up when the newspapers announce a breakthrough in vaccines and the next day down when I read about ‘variants’ and ‘mutations’, and the explosion of cases in countries like Mexico, South Africa, and parts of Europe.
I have carried that same swing of opposites into my decisions about accessing news. One week I will limit what I read, not only because it is unsettling and uncomfortable but because I convince myself that no media outlet ever thrived on promoting just good news, so why indulge the doomsayers?
But the next week, whether out of curiosity, the wish to have an informed opinion, or simply because there is little else to do under lockdown, I will return to scouring the internet to consume as much information as I can.
An informed, objective and conclusive opinion, however, remains elusive. Trying to predict the future at present is like reading tea leaves. In the face of extreme uncertainty, I have decided that it is better to wait things out and confront the smaller challenges that face us in our private and professional lives.
In Jordan, we have had mixed fortunes. A benign summer gave way to an awful autumn and winter, where at one stage we had the highest infection rates for Covid-19 in the world.
It has improved over the last month but, mindful of what happened previously when figures were lower, there is a danger of complacency again.
In terms of vaccines, Jordan neither has the financial clout nor political profile to be in the front line of deliveries. Like many parts of the globe, we expect to be lower in the pecking order until the needs of richer nations have been satisfied.
The polarity between countries that can afford to pay their way to safety and those that cannot is becoming clearer each day.
Online education for children has been the norm here for the past year, although there are signs that a physical return to school may be imminent. I have mixed views about whether that is a good or bad thing. On the one hand while risk of infection may increase, I realise that children cannot continue to stare at the four walls of their home for another year, with no company but themselves.
Return to school is good news for parents too. From previously making sure that children follow up on the things they have learned at school, supervision of homework today has changed to delivering much of what an internet-based education seems unable to provide.
One positive, however, has been my children learning to appreciate small pleasures. It used to be that their enthusiasm for an annual holiday was measured in terms of the distance in miles from home. Nowadays a trip to the local supermarket, taking a walk around the neighbourhood or simply driving to another part of town generates the same level of excitement as previous trips to more exotic locations.
Has Covid-19 shown us the value of what we previously took for granted?
It is understandable, perhaps, that with so many deaths in our own backyards that concern as to what is happening elsewhere becomes more limited. In that sense, the pandemic has left other casualties behind than those physically impacted by the virus.
One of the countries I cover in my work with HelpAge in the Middle East is Yemen. A few days ago, I read that famine is now solidity established in that country, that hospitals have no medicines or vaccines for other communicable diseases, let alone coronavirus, that life expectancy is expected to decline even further than the bottom of the league table where it is now, and that a generation of children are being deprived of any schooling whatsoever, not having the luxury of internet and computers at home.
Has Covid-19 another lesson to teach us? We now live in a world where diseases do not respect boundaries, where we all sink or swim together.
So, if it is not altruism and good will that prompts a charitable response to what is happening in more unfortunate countries, then maybe self-interest will.
- Chris McIvor works for HelpAge International as the regional director for the Middle East and Eurasia Region. The work depicted in the photos is supported by Age International.
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