The Paradox of Preparation
If the arrival date for SARS-Cov-2 had been as certain as that of the Millenium Bug (read The Deadline Dilemma), I have no doubt that we would have been ready. Mobile phones would have sent early alerts to at-risk travellers across the world; flights would have been immediately grounded; every hospital would have had enough protective equipment to handle an influx of patients with a mystery illness; simple home tests could have been rolled out in their billions; a global chain of command would have seen people step into roles with no hesitation and they would have galvanised united action across the globe.
The irony is that we probably would have stopped this coronavirus in its tracks, just like we did with SARS in 2003. Many of us would have been barely distracted from our Christmas plans or our New Year goals. We would still be travelling, still working, still aspiring and still accumulating. And the debates would rage, much as they continue to do for Y2K: was so much time and money invested in Pandemic prevention really worth it?
It’s the paradox of preparation. Being ready for the worst often means avoiding the worst. Without a parallel universe where we can watch the devastation unfold and be grateful for our foresight, instead it is common to criticise the effort directed toward “something that never happened”. We never know for sure whether the warnings were right. We never know for sure that we were saved. We never know for sure whether “the unthinkable” would ever really have happened.
It’s a trap of the brain. We create our picture of reality from what we can see, hear and sense with certainty. As we wander now through increasingly uncertain times, we must learn to tame this response and become comfortable with ambiguity.
If you live in a country that has been lucky enough to be spared the numbers of dead that others face daily, there is gratitude owed. Whether it was the response of your government, your fellow country-folk, healthworkers or the silent ones spending sleepless nights thinking, planning, testing and advising, you are not lucky by accident.
