The COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis that followed have transformed 2020 into a year of change, unrest, and anxiety. Like most of the world, U.S. experienced protests, police brutality, elections, demands for change, and hope for a brighter future. While 2020 may have been a challenging year that forced many to adapt to new realities, it also came with important lessons that can help us build that brighter future. Good leadership became vital during the pandemic, while the cost of inefficiency and bad governance is still being paid in human lives.
With Joe Biden now president-elect, and Inauguration Day closing in, change also seems to be a keyword for the first months of 2021. This is precisely why we should question recent actions and decisions, while we try to define the lessons 2020 has taught us the hard way, and make sure they serve us well in a post-pandemic future.
Good Governance Is Vital
The democratic processes of consultation and decision-making are something we, citizens of the United States, take pride in, not to mention a tradition that we share with most of the Western world. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has managed to show just how fragile our current system of government is. While we should and will fight to prevent future epidemics, we should also fight for better leadership across the world.
In “The Wake-Up Call“, journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge explain just how important a good administration is during a crisis. “The Coronavirus has made government important again. Not just powerful again (…), but also vital again. It matters enormously whether your country has a good health service and competent bureaucrats. The arrival of the virus was like an examination of state capacity,” they argue.
Foreign Policy – More Important than Ever
Although this is not the first epidemic to grow into a pandemic and affect most of the world, the current outbreak is the first to hit our globalized and ever more interconnected world. This has put a serious strain on not only the global economy but also international policy.
In a recent interview, Zheng Yongnian, Presidential Chair Professor, Director of The Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), expressed his hope that China and the U.S. will revive their relationship during Joe Biden’s tenure. But even the world’s two largest economies working together may not be enough to tackle the problem. After all, when talking about ending a global pandemic, a global effort is certainly required.
Recognizing What Really Matters
Policy makers around the world focused their efforts on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. With the crisis getting worse and worse and affecting every single aspect of our daily lives, this was by no means an easy task. However, that shouldn’t mean policy makers can ignore other issues. The Black Lives Matter movement proved that Americans want an end to police brutality and fair treatment of the Black community.
The movement and the subsequent protests ultimately prompted American officials to address important issues that were previously ignored. While some local officials voted for diminished police budgets, others revised their first responder policies. New reforms are to be expected in 2021.
Climate Change Can Disrupt Our World
The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a force of nature that threatens not only our health and wellbeing but also the way we live, work, and learn on a daily basis. However, when it comes to nature, the pandemic is not alone in changing the world.
According to Cal Fire, 9,639 wildfires swept through California in 2020, causing damage to 10,488 structures and killing 31 Americans. 4,177,856 acres of land burned in what is now considered to be a record-breaking year in terms of natural disasters. As climate change is an important factor that increases the risks of wildfires in California and throughout the U.S., it should also be an important part of our political agenda.
The Importance of Working Together
Companies around the world have always stressed the importance of working together, as a team. However, when it comes to administration, the COVID-19 pandemic has managed to teach us the same lesson, the hard way. It takes scientists, healthcare workers, policy makers, and ultimately people everywhere to fight this pandemic.
In response to an outbreak, we need both science and governance to find the correct answers and communicate them very clearly at an international level. We also need to develop trust in these solutions, and that can only be earned through good governance.
Maybe one of the most important lessons of 2020 is that we need to be better prepared for the post-pandemic future. While vaccines, treatments, and better healthcare systems are vital in fighting the current pandemic and returning to the new normal, we also need other solutions for problems that have already started to emerge.
