What has the Pandemic Taught Us?

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread, the deadly virus, despite causing devastation, has also given us all a valuable learning opportunity. The fact that the pandemic and our response to it has resulted in a significant reduction in other medical issues suggests that lessons can be learnt for the future of disease prevention. Indeed, influenza, has dramatically decreased following the effects of Covid-19, which suggests we have developed new ways of controlling it that can be implemented in the coming years

Other positives that could be drawn from the pandemic are the facts that crime has fallen and that pollution has taken a dip, thus reducing the negative impact of carbon emissions. We have adapted and changed our behaviour in the face of Covid and it would be good if we could continue to put into practice some of the new behaviours we have learnt as it benefits us and the wider world.


As a result of fewer engines running, less pollution and the decline in the use of electricity in places like schools and offices, animals have taken back the world they used to run free in. There is evidence wild bees have benefited from Covid-19 due to lack of air pollution, allowing them to smell flowers from afar and population numbers have spiked. In the seas, cruises have been cancelled, and only small boats are allowed to venture into the deep blue. Christine Gabriele of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Gustavus, Alaska, has said “It’s very quiet, that may mean the whales can spread out more widely. They’ll be able to communicate with each other over much greater distances than they would be if it was a noisy environment. It may also change how they call. Will they have longer bouts of communication?” she asks. “Will they have more complex vocalisations?” Whatever the answer to this question, the fact that Whales are being given an opportunity to thrive is excellent news and shows what can be done if we refuse to go back to the ways things were done pre-pandemic.




​


​












It seems that despite the horrors of Covid and the pain and suffering it has caused, we have been given an opportunity to reshape the future and make it a place where we and the animals that we live alongside can exist more harmoniously and more positively. 


Lets try and seize that opportunity.

---