As many countries around the world take tentative steps to reduce restrictions put in place to stem the Covid-19 pandemic, there is understandably some hesitation that this could lead to a second wave of infections. The prospect of losing control of the outbreak is a legitimate concern. Yet populations cannot continue to tolerate lockdowns with little respite.
We are as a result sitting somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea, the former being the uncertainty of what an extension of the strictest measures will mean for our mental well-being and livelihoods, while the latter is the equal uncertainty of what removing them will mean in terms of the risks to our physical health from the virus. No government wants to create a scenario where healthcare systems are potentially overwhelmed as cases spike again.
The first phase of the pandemic is nonetheless drawing to a close. My thoughts these past days keep returning to the middle of January when we were in its embryonic stage. During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, concerns about an epidemic unfolding in the Chinese city of Wuhan were being discussed.
City workers use stencils to mark a bicycle and bus traffic line on a road in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France. AFP
At a briefing on January 23, experts explained the threat we were facing and if the novel coronavirus, as it was referred to, would become more than just a problem for China. At that point, there were about 800 known infections in China and some two dozen fatalities. It really was the beginning.
Still, the perspective offered from 17 weeks ago is important for us today precisely because there was still a sense of detachment. The understandable noise and hysteria that we have been living with for too many months had not yet had a chance to build up.
In Davos, Jeremy Farrar of the health charity Wellcome Trust, and a senior UK government health adviser, discussed actions that should be taken quickly such as travel restrictions while also cautioning that such policies only “buy you time” and will not stop the epidemic “moving”.
Dr Farrar said that there was compelling evidence that this outbreak should be taken very seriously indeed and it is what he had been “frightened of for the last decade”.
“You don’t often get an animal virus coming into humans passing between humans and being spread by the respiratory route,” he said.
Gertrud Schop lights candles dedicated to Covid-19 victims in Germany. She plans to continue the project until a vaccine is available. AFP
During the same briefing, Richard Hatchett, an expert on pandemic planning and response, warned that “we will have to make decisions under ambiguity and uncertainty”.
There would be a significant cost to these decisions, he said.
We are all familiar now with non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as physical distancing, isolation and curfews. Only now do we understand what the experts meant by the enormous strain they would put on us.
The potential catch-all solution of a vaccine was also part of the conversation in Davos. The steps needed to make one available had to be taken straight away, Dr Hatchett said.
The chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations, or Cepi, also announced in Davos three international partnerships to develop vaccines against the coronavirus. The hope, he said, was to move them rapidly into human clinical trials by the summer.
A security official checks the temperature of a man at the entrance to the Viejas Casino and Resort as it reopens in Alpine, California, US. AP Photo
An employee cleans a shopping cart outside a store in Berkeley, California, US. Bloomberg
A social distancing sign is displayed at the entrance to a supermarket in Paramus, New Jersey, US. Bloomberg
A lift operator works at a drive-through desk in a partially closed shopping mall that is preparing to fully re-open. AFP
Biologists of the Synlab laboratory work at a coronavirus testing centre. AFP
An employee installs plexiglass shields on check-in counters at Sarajevo International Airport in Bosnia. AFP
A worker takes a call at the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, US. AP Photo
A technician prepares to walk into a decontamination unit in Brighton, Colorado, US. AFP
Just this week, news broke that one of Cepi's collaborations – with US biotech company Moderna – had yielded positive results in its early-stage human trials.
Despite this hopeful development, we can never change that there has been a devastating cost to the world from the pandemic. Statistics such as more than 4.9 million infected, over 320,000 dead and tens of millions of jobs lost do not tell the whole story of human suffering. But more than 1.9 million have also recovered from the illness. Countless examples of selflessness and bravery have been seen in every country afflicted by the disease as our healthcare systems and social cohesion have been put to the sternest test. We are meeting that test.
When I think of what these experts said all those weeks ago in Davos, when it literally was a different world we lived in, I take the lesson that we have known all along that this is not a battle that mankind is going to lose as long as we take it as seriously as we can. For a time perhaps many nations did not. We are past that now.
Our cartoonist Shadi Ghanim's take on a world preparing to gradually emerge from the pandemic-enforced lockdown
This second phase of the pandemic – as we try to open up – may ultimately prove more frightening than the first phase. But compared to January, we do have a better grip on our limitations and capabilities. We now know we can come through this crisis and perhaps sooner than the worst-case scenarios suggest.
It takes a cold rationale to be able to confidently say that we can ease restrictions safely and without mistakes. No one can be 100 per cent certain of what the next few weeks and months will look like. We will have some setbacks. There is no doubt, however, that we have the ability right now to shape the future precisely because everything is being upended, redrawn and repurposed. That is an opportunity as much as a threat.
As Dr Farrar put it in Davos, to move forward, we must “live with that degree of uncertainty and not be intimidated by it”.
Mustafa Alrawi is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
Ministry of Interior Ministry of Defence General Intelligence Directorate Air Force Intelligence Agency Political Security Directorate Syrian National Security Bureau Military Intelligence Directorate Army Supply Bureau General Organisation of Radio and TV Al Watan newspaper Cham Press TV Sama TV
As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017 Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand Sector: FinTech, wealth management Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021 Current staff: more than 160 employees Stage: series D Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
