Opinion | Why the world must avoid returning to ‘normal’ if and when the coronavirus crisis winds down

The world must change in the aftermath of the epidemic. Might a new political psychology accommodate more serious science and less narrow-minded nationalism? Blaming China for the outbreak misses the point that nations are in this together

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Published: 10:41am, 25 Feb 2020Updated: 10:51am, 25 Feb 2020

As horrible as the coronavirus’ spread looks right now, it may not be the worst thing facing us. My worry is that after the epidemic goes into remission, everything will return to normal. And that’s exactly the problem: the world’s “normal” hasn’t been good enough.

One example of “normal”: the governments that performed the most incompetently might fail to learn from those that did the best they could by any standard.

No one is perfect, but if a country like China can spend a fortune on upgrading its navy and Japan can quietly slip countless yen into missile development, just maybe there’s not enough left over to protect the public properly in the event of severe challenges to global health?

Also, it looks as if the Japanese authorities were all but brain-dead when it took them more than 72 hours to impose a lockdown on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Another “normal” the world shouldn’t return to: the smugness of institutions. Here, I reluctantly include the World Health Organisation, which either needs more power to intervene under international law, or more staff – or perhaps vitamin shots to get existing staff to move faster. And this is said with sadness.

Yet another “normal” to steer clear of for the time being would be the blame game. Whether it was all China’s fault or a series of blunders along the globalisation highway misses the point: nations are in this together.