The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Health Crisis Managed or a Panic Response with Disastrous Future Consequences?

ABSTRACT

In 1 year, COVID-19 spread rapidly worldwide affecting all societies and most age-groups. It has taken not only a toll of human lives (approaching 220 million people infected with 4.55 million reported deaths at time of writing) but also decimated every economy as countries struggle to control infection rates by introducing draconian lockdown and social distancing measures, bringing great suffering well beyond medical effects of the disease. A parallel pandemic has resulted in a deluge of information emanating from both scientific as well as international news media including social media platforms. Fact and fiction, reality, and perception have become entangled; the only realistic solution, both medically as well as politically, is concerted global vaccination (which is currently underway) to reduce further infection by introducing universal immunity. However, public controversy rages due to widespread apprehension regarding necessity, immediate risks, and long-term safety of what is perceived as "fast-tracked" medication. While some concerns may be justified, much is due to misconception and misunderstanding. This review highlights some of the issues concerning the handling of the COVID-19 crisis by governments worldwide, the medical and scientific communities, and the media and how this may have laid the foundations for a far greater medical, social, and economic burden in the coming years. We present comparative data to challenge current conceptions of this disease in the more general context of human health to provide a perspective that seems to have been lost in the general panic. We need more rational approaches to the handling of a disease which is unlikely to disappear from our spectrum of afflictions even after the magnifying glass has been removed.