Coronavirus is our future TEDxSMU

Mar 30, 2020

I found this video on YouTube weeks ago and, ever since, it has proved more rightful than I hoped and thought. So, let me share it with you in case you haven't already seen it. And, if you have, watch it again to make sure that some of the concepts outlined stick in your memory

Alanna Shaikh is a global health consultant who specializes in strengthening health systems. You can read more about her here, here, here and here.

The talk is full of interesting concepts, previsions of what has actually happened and is happening in the world. From politicians not wanting to admit the seriousness of the pandemic, to lack of facial masks, to the crisis it is being on medical systems.

You can find the whole transcript of her speech on TED website; I've picked one passage I found particularly interesting, as it explains why what we're doing to our planet is turning against us in more ways than we can imagine:

This is not the last major outbreak we're ever going to see. There's going to be more outbreaks, and there's going to be more epidemics. That's not a maybe; that's a given. And it's a result of the way that we, as human beings, are interacting with our planet. Human choices are driving us into a position where we're going to see more outbreaks. Part of that is about climate change and the way a warming climate makes the world more hospitable to viruses and bacteria. But it's also about the way we're pushing into the last wild spaces on our planet. When we burn and plow the Amazon rain forest so that we can have cheap land for ranching, when the last of the African bush gets converted into farms, when wild animals in China are hunted to extinction, human beings come into contact with wildlife populations that they've never come into contact with before, and those populations have new kinds of diseases: bacteria, viruses - stuff we're not ready for. Bats, in particular, have a knack for hosting illnesses that can infect people. But they're not the only animals that do it. So as long as we keep making our remote places less remote, the outbreaks are going to keep coming.

Lastly:

Don't wear a face mask. Face masks are for sick people and health care providers. If you're sick, your face mask holds in all your coughing and sneezing and protects the people around you. And if you're a health care provider, your face mask is one tool in a set of tools called personal protective equipment, that you're trained to use so you can give patient care and not get sick yourself. If you're a regular, healthy person wearing a face mask, it's just making your face sweaty. (Laughter) Leave the face masks in stores for the doctors and the nurses and the sick people.

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