Pink Of Health

Preparedness inadequate

Digital Discourse Foundation

With the outbreak of the Novel Corona Virus 19 or NCOVID-19 which was sourced to a Wildlife Market in Wuhan in China in December 2019 being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation of the United Nations Organisation public health care infrastructure is being tested to the limits globally.

The need for out of the box sustainable solutions like Work From Home – to effectively isolate infecting entire populace – or use of native nutrition / herbal remedies, effective use of retroviral drugs, medicinal plants, giving up consumption of Bush Meat reflect rule of the thumb or traditional wisdom.

The surreptitious nature of N-COVID 19 – because the virus is detected only after 14 days of the patient suffering from symptoms like runny nose, cough cold and flu – cheats the health care system manifold as detection is delayed in people who come in contact with potential patients.

When persons with a travel history to the hotbeds of the pandemic hotspots come back to their home town and either evade the test or are not detected properly at the airports have the potential to become time bombs and weapons of biological warfare themselves. This is not just a worst case scenario but the more likely cause for the potentially global epidemic.

Countries with higher population densities and or human development quotient are particularly challenged by the pandemic. Instances of people intentionally evading detection tests or fleeing isolation and quarantine are not just being irresponsible but pose an unparalleled danger to the entire populace of a region / territory / country.

Infected persons’ co-workers work space, the people who travelled with him or her in public transport and airplanes should all be screened for the virus. Not easy at all for the best of health care systems.

Inter-Agency Coordination – part of the standard operating procedure in Disaster Risk Reduction - calls for nearly impossible linking of services: While the Information & Broadcasting Ministries of all countries have to coordinate outreach, awareness, and information, Homeland Security or Interior Ministries have to accelerate security measures to prevent spread of infection through screening.

Health Ministries have to work in tandem with private health care infrastructure to gear up with lab testing and coverage of screening for the entire populace. Aviation regulators don’t have it easy because they are responsible to reach out by tracking all those who have travelled with one suspected or potentially infected person.

All this, while the global economy is in nosedive. Aviation, Tourism Shipping, trade and pharmaceutical sectors are paralysed by the epidemic.

In this scenario work-from-home offers hope of sustenance of livelihood security at the very least. It also provides a safety net to prevent spread of infection from the as yet incurable virus.

Given the vast amount of broadband internet bandwidth available, it is the perfect vehicle no doubt for work from home. But a true brick and click economy rides on all resources of the brick and mortar economy being available at a click of a mouse.

Be it raw materials for pharmaceuticals, textiles, or any of the manufacturing industries itself, the demand and supply of the markets should be co-related to supply chain and marketing. Till such time work from home options can easily be neutralised by the colour and appeal of binging on You Tube or Net-Flix!

Work from Home is only as effective as the efficacy of deadline and a disciplined work force.

However work from home needs a lot of infrastructure that is as yet only theoretically listed in the Smart City Governance and Sustainable Development Goals.