COMMENT | Learning to live with Covid-19 must be our new narrative

COMMENT | Many rich and developed countries today are learning to live with the Covid-19 pandemic. Exit strategies have been designed for the UK, US, Germany, and Singapore. The desire to return to a familiar, normal life is overwhelming. Human beings are creatures of habit and routine, so this is understandable. But what does “learn to live with it” really mean?

Our brains control complex processes such as breathing, digestion and emotion. Humans who are more social than others like to chat and communicate on a wide variety of topics. Interaction is a very human trait, but it also exists in the animal kingdom. Research is unfolding about interaction within the plant world as well.

Then there’s the cerebral power of habit. Humans tend to have many habits. For example, your morning coffee brewing routine in your familiar kitchen. If you happen to be in a friend’s house that morning, your coffee routine becomes complicated and possibly, riddled with anxiety. It’s not your kitchen, you cannot find a cup, let alone your favourite mug. Coffee brewing is suddenly out of the ordinary, not your habitual activity and a source of stress and mental disruption.

Eighteen months ago, after Covid-19 first emerged, routines worldwide were disrupted. Daily rhythms were truncated. Worse still, they were imposed by governments and health officials, and economies everywhere took a severe beating. Scientists today are warning us that exit strategies are dangerous as there are variants emerging that are more transmissible. They warn us about mounting infections and deaths. Hence, the more...