We are arising from two complex and tense years, 2020 and 2021, which will be known as the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its quarantines, isolations, interpersonal distancing, masks and disinfectants. There will be no shortage of future texts and documentaries gathering the stress for finding treatments, the uneasiness about the disruption of global production chains, or the urgency in the face of political dilemmas and economic difficulties. Also notorious will be the records of the bulky compensatory programs or of the fast adaptation to the ‘new normality’ through virtual activities. And finally, we will remember the emergence of a group of vaccines, production reopening, and the re-socialization process in work and in daily life.
We took it for granted that advances in science and technology had left behind biological plagues for humanity. But it has become clear that this is not the case. Moreover, there are voices that warn us that many more will continue to appear. Interconnectivity and high human mobility between all corners of the globe have shown their most negative side, as they have become the highway that accelerated transmission and contagion.
It has definitely not been easy The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 has been enormous, and the medical consequences on those who suffered from it are still being registered. Economic reactivation has not been automatic nor homogeneous, and the negative effects of created policies have just begun to show their impact. Medium and long-term effects and intergenerational externalities will be aspects that the world’s societies need to address now that the emergency has receded.