There may be a silver lining to the pandemic
- Given the pandemic’s toll, it is hard to see that it may produce some benefits. But researchers have found lessons for the future from clearer air, the wearing of masks, improved hand hygiene and social distancing, and fewer road accidents
As the world approaches a third year with no end in sight to the pandemic, we hear more and more from experts and authorities about the dangers to health posed by preventive measures such as lockdowns and social distancing – sometimes from those who would have us live with the virus rather than fight it.
The dangers include reduced access to non-Covid health care through curbs on mobility or reluctance to use public transport; economic stress caused by business disruption including lay-offs, forced leave and reduced hours; and mental issues like depression. The victims of the latter include children who have missed lessons, extracurricular and leisure activities, and normal social interaction.
Given the toll and suffering, it is hard to imagine such a cloud over humanity could have a silver lining. However, mainland and Hong Kong researchers have found one of sorts in the benefits of clearer air from less traffic and industrial activities, the wearing of masks, improved hand hygiene and social distancing, and fewer road accidents. They say these factors could have prevented an estimated 347,000 deaths on the mainland in the first seven months of last year, about 60 per cent of them from cardiovascular diseases. Then there are the savings in health costs and lost productivity.
Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, warrant reflection about community health and environmental policies in a post-pandemic world. “Our analyses show positive health impacts [of lockdowns], at least in China and in the short-to-medium term,” say the researchers from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Hong Kong University.
There is evidence already that Covid-19 personal precautions can reduce the severity of the annual flu season. Some, like certain social-distancing measures, would do nothing for a return to normal social and economic life. But there is both a health and economic argument for striving to make Covid hand hygiene habits the norm, along with the wearing of masks during respiratory infections or flu peaks, and more resolute strategies including time lines for reducing fossil fuel pollution from industry and motor vehicles.