The coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19, has brought life as we know it to a screeching halt. Restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs are closed. There are no sports, no concerts, no plays, and no movies.
Basically, no entertainment of any kind that involves crowds of people getting together. In fact, almost any public gathering is pretty much out of the question. Israelis aren't the only people under lockdown. Millions of people around the world are now largely confined to their homes. Terms like social distancing and self-isolation are now on the tips of everyone's tongues.
What began as an outbreak in one city in China has spread to every corner of the globe in a matter of months. Experts have made dire predictions. Some say that this pandemic could drag on for months – well into 2021.
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But it will eventually end. Life will return to normal at some point. People will be able to eat in restaurants again, go to sporting events, take in a movie, or do whatever other social activities that make them happy. When the COVID-19 pandemic is finally over, we should ask ourselves how we can prevent a similar disease outbreak from happening again.
Medical and scientific experts will have better answers to this question than I will, but I think I have a good idea of some things we can do, based on simple logic and common sense.
For example, if we want to prevent the emergence of new diseases like the coronavirus, we should stop exploiting wild animals. The source of the COVID-19 outbreak was a live animal and seafood market in Wuhan, China. A market that traded in non-domesticated animals. It is now believed that the disease originally came from bats and was transmitted to other animals sold at the market and that humans were infected through one of those other animals.
The parts of some wild animals are used to make traditional Chinese medicines. It is very likely that some of the animals sold in the Wuhan market were sold for this purpose. The use of wild animals for traditional medicines is not limited to China, and can be found in other countries throughout the world.
This is a practice that needs to stop. Governments in countries where this practice is common have a duty to stop it, otherwise, we will likely see similar disease outbreaks.
Another way we can prevent future pandemics is to invest in health care. Right now, countries are struggling to halt the spread of the coronavirus because they don't have enough vital medical equipment, like masks, test kits, and ventilators.
Shortages of qualified personnel, like doctors and nurses, are also preventing countries from containing the outbreak.
The situation is even worse for Third World countries where adequate health care is almost non-existent. The situation is also alarming in countries without socialized medicine, such as the United States, where a person's ability to access quality health care depends on their financial resources.
Without new investments in health care systems around the world and greater access to health care for the less fortunate, we will struggle to contain any future pandemics.
We can also prevent future disease outbreaks by doing simple things, like washing our hands, or just keeping good hygiene in general.
It shouldn't take a worldwide pandemic to convince people that washing your hands is a simple, yet effective way of preventing the spread of disease. Unfortunately, good hygiene is something that many people just don't pay attention to, especially people who live in less developed areas of the world. Indeed, millions of people throughout the globe lack the resources or knowledge necessary to ensure good hygienic practices.
In India, for example, the government built millions of latrines in recent years because hundreds of millions of people in the country did not have access to a toilet.
Poverty and ignorance are incubators for disease, which is why multitudes of people all over the world are still dying from preventable diseases, like malaria, cholera, and dysentery. For these people, the coronavirus may be the least of their worries.
As I said before, this pandemic will eventually come to an end. But afterward, it's only a matter of time before the next mass disease outbreak hits us. Unless, we start taking preventative measures, now.
