Health in a post-COVID-19 world

Abstract

In the previous article in this issue (S Afr J Sci. 2022;118(11/12), Art. #13165), the emergence and spread of COVID-19 pari passu with climate change and planetary degradation were interpreted as late manifestations in the trend towards gradual decline into disorder (entropy) in an unstable and ecologically threatened planet. In this article, as we contemplate a post-COVID world, the question is whether new insights could generate courageous, prescient leadership towards new paradigms of health, politics, economics, society, and our relationship with nature. A gloomy prognosis is postulated because of the power of many impediments to such changes, both in an increasingly polarised world and in South Africa as a microcosm. Despite many squandered opportunities and a decline in local and global cooperation between all who have a stake in the future, some hope is retained for innovative shifts towards sustainable futures.