There isn’t an easier way to say this, especially right now when we haven’t made it out of the woods in terms of identifying exactly how many people have been infected in Nigeria. Numbers are trickling in on a daily basis and projection suggests official count for infected cases might be somewhere closer to 500 by the middle of April.
The Good news is that a total of 25 people have been discharged so far, meaning we currently have an above 10% recovery rate. This is in some way encouraging but what is a bother are the asymptomatic cases out there. Ever since the borders were shut and it became clear that contact tracing of some almost 4,000 people was required, as of the morning of the 4th of April, about 4,000 tests have been carried out so far, in truth, more tests need to be done in order to ensure a second wave doesn’t catch us off guard.
For me, as people do their best to observe social distancing and self-isolation while government officials do what they can to get the situation under control my mind has continuously drifted towards what the aftermath of this global pandemic will look like. It is important to put our current situation into perspective; the last time the world experienced some form of shut down was September 11, 2001, and even that wasn’t a complete shutdown.
For a global event to halt physical trade, events pertaining to social, political, sports, entertainment, business and so much more, it is difficult to imagine the world will ever be the same again. I imagine many MBA and Business classes at prestigious universities around the world will have intellectual minds assessing the full extent of the loss collective sectors have incurred while existing business models will be forced to reassess operational protocols and processes which will now present the scenarios of possible global disease outbreaks or similar incidents which might cause shutdowns or overall loss of productivity.
These changes will extend to international diplomacy and general travel between countries and regions. I imagine in the short term measures like mandated isolation for travelers from high risk/exposure countries will be introduced as well as requirements for internationally accepted certified tests. In the long term, regional and bi-lateral relationships will further evolve to meet the demands of a world which has come to terms with what a viral outbreak can do to global productivity and respective national interests.
A concern that lingers is the weaponization of such a virus. The idea of engineering such a devastating virus to be more lethal and efficient is something best not imagined.
I welcome you all into a new world.
