Pandemic Convergence

“We hope to finish this pandemic in less than two years, especially if we can pool our efforts,” said World Health Organization boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on August 21. “At the same time, we will not, we cannot go back to the way things were,” said Tedros, the first non-physician to head the WHO. “In particular, the Covid-19 pandemic has given new impetus to the need to accelerate efforts to respond to climate change” and “given us a glimpse of our world as it could be: cleaner skies and rivers.” And as the WHO boss explains, “building back better means building back greener,” which sounds like a political slogan currently making the rounds.

According to Bill Gates, efforts to get the coronavirus pandemic under control will facilitate the fight against climate change. As the software magnate explains, “that idea of innovation and science and the world working together — that is totally common between these two problems, and so I don’t think this has to be a huge setback for climate.” Former National Security Council Official Jason Bordoff believes COVID-19 may long-term benefits “if economic stimulus is linked to climate goals,” which the NSC man did not define.

“For Dr. Tedros and Bill Gates, pandemic and climate change share a very different connection,” notes Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “Both are useful pretexts for mass social control. Both are essentially unsolvable crises they can harness to bypass democracy and force powerless populations to obey their commands.” That is something to ponder, and so is the reality that prophecy is not science.

Sweeping pronouncements about climate change need support from scientific studies that can be verified and replicated. The same goes for pandemic convergence with climate policy, and the notion that “we cannot go back to the way things were.” For those suffering in the pandemic, particularly the millions unemployed, that may sound more like an edict than a matter of science.