As of 2018, I was neck-deep in an international forensic mission crisscrossing different parts of the world in an assignment that held deep meaning to my heart in the dignified management of the dead, including forensic human identification. Generally, there was some stability in the air. Travelling was normal: arrive at the airports, do regular security screening and check-in, and take off! Then arrive and disembark. And repeat. Crowded terminals were a usual feature of ports of entry and were expected. Life as we knew it was pretty regular, with its thrills and downsides. The dynamics of operations added elements of surprise and unforeseen circumstances.
2019 came by as fast as it could, and towards the end of the year, news about some unusual illness initially limited to a certain part of the world filtered in. Regular folks paid little attention to such a "sectional" event, and it appeared to be of concern mainly to international bodies or agencies that track diseases and their evaluation. In any case, no one was really certain about the significance of such little incidents of "unusual" diseases. However, the talking points grew louder towards the end of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, when the global alarm was sounded about a disease of significance tagged COVID-19. Eventually, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. Then life took a different trajectory, and everything we called "normal" turned upside down.
I was drawn into the deep fight against COVID-19 with my appointment as Chair of the institutional task force against the pandemic. It was a "life and death" assignment. We were fighting a disease that had never existed in humans before. There was no established manual to handle the global outreach, and humanity as a whole was making up protocols as we faced the existential challenges of a ruthless malady. There was confusion about everything, even from high places of advancement. Facemasks work. Facemasks do not work. Drinking bleach is effective! Bleaching agents are harmful. There was a cacophony of voices, and the pandemic caused divisions along political and socioeconomic fault lines. People died in the murkiness of narratives and the lack of coherent leadership. People died from the fear induced by the disease. People died from mismanagement of even ordinary medical conditions because of the shadow of COVID-19. Millions died from the disease and related medical and psychosocial complications brought about by the pandemic. We may never know the exact death toll from COVID-19, but it was a disease of the century that changed everything we regarded as "normal".
2020 to the early part of 2022 was a period of "to be or not to be". I devoted my entire life and career to fighting COVID-19 as the head of the task force at our institution and knew the risk it posed to my life. However, it was a fight that must be fought if we are to survive. We usually prevail when we pull together and confront our common adversary, of which COVID-19 is unmistakably one. Sadly, so many lives were often needlessly lost, families were torn apart, communities were shattered, and our way of life was disrupted for about two years. We woke up every day with the thought and disposition to survive each day. The long-term plan was simply to stay alive. We abandoned the things that brought us together so that we could live. And amid the whole conundrum, we learned to come together by staying away from one another. Online meetings and platforms sprang up, and remote work and relationships became mainstream.
Now, in 2023, my mind is gradually getting back to "factory reset". I still have a nagging question: Is COVID-19 over? There are still echoes of the pandemic and its metamorphoses breaking out from time to time, and we cannot afford to be completely at ease. However, we need to know what risks we have as we gradually return to any semblance of "normal". Should we prepare for further dislocation of our new "steady state"? I don't know, but one commitment I would like to make is to return to my engagement with you on this blog. And I'm optimistic it will be more regular than in past years!
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