As the 21 day lockdown comes to a close, the crisis that thrust this lockdown on us shows no signs of waning. In fact, there are fears, that it might peak in certain places. Add to it the associated crises in terms of economic disaster, social turbidity, health hazards, educational breakdown, and a deep sense of despair. As the days pass by some of the associated crises seem only to be deepening. The world will have to think about how to deal with that, but that is only after we are reasonably past this crisis. Right now the world is trying hard to get past this pandemic, and it looks like a long way to go still. The high end research in the top most institutions of the related sciences will surely go on, ceaselessly, and with a great degree of urgency. That is a given.
The way science has developed in the last 100 years, it is in the systemic logic of this endeavour to find out a treatment to this disease. But how effective, how efficient that will be is difficult to say right now. We can’t even set a timeline to that. One doesn’t know when we will be ready with a mass scale production of a vaccine that can make this pandemic look like just another form of flu. But that is when it is. Right now we are in the midst of a crisis and mankind doesn’t actually know what to do other than breaking the chain. That is the only way we can save human lives, and save our healthcare system form an imminent collapse. To this end everything available, governmental and non-governmental, has bee pressed into service. It is painful, and painstaking effort that can bear fruit only if people sitting home patiently observe the directives. It goes without saying that this social distancing, and sitting home for weeks together, is a nerve wearing effort, but there is no escape. Better we take it positively as a responsible way to fight a crisis, than collapse in a pessimistic state of mind that for how long we are trapped in our homes.