Needless to say, there are many theories regarding the pandemic across the world. One thing that doesn’t seem to be in dispute is that this is one of the very few, if ever, in modern times that the entire world is working toward a cure for one illness.
Reports are that vaccines are being developed and tested at record speeds. While there is a race among companies, and perhaps even countries, to come up with the first effective vaccine, it undoubtedly is a singular dedicated effort to cure something that has had a worldwide impact.
What does this mean?
With everyone working together, I think first and foremost it means that we are likely to come to a solution to this virus quicker than we have for other illnesses. Hopefully the researchers are working collaboratively so that they can learn from each other what works. And, also what doesn’t work so that ineffective solutions do not need to be repeated. In short, I hope that it means that this is the start of a collaborative process for curing diseases.
What can we learn from this pandemic?
Let’s face it, there are millions of diseases that affect individuals from across the world. Can we take the learnings and process improvements from this pandemic to similarly put such a focused effort on curing cancer and other diseases? Can we pick away at the most prevalent diseases at the speed that we are focused on with curing Covid-19?
As someone with a chronic illness, I certainly hope this is the case. I would love for my disease to have such strong attention focused on it once this pandemic is over. I think every one of us with a chronic condition has a similar wish.
So, can we make it happen?
I don’t know… Will the gusto for finding a cure for Covid-19 fade away once a vaccine is found? Is there not a way we can similarly incent researchers to focus their attention on other illnesses to the same degree? I don’t know but I sure hope so.
What do you think?
Can we make the world stop turning for other diseases? Can we find a cure for them as hard and quickly as we are working to find a vaccine for Covid-19? What would it take to make that happen?
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