After coronavirus lockdown ends, it's an opportunity for a better normal
As we return to work and life, this is the perfect opportunity to carefully rethink priorities and how to conduct ourselves, both on a personal level and on a national one.
By JPOST EDITORIALPeople at the Malha Mall in Jerusalem after it reopened according to the new government orders, May 7, 2020(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
It is hard to estimate just how disruptive the novel coronavirus has been to society and the economy in Israel and around the world. The repercussions are ongoing, and it will take time for the full impact to be clear. This week, however, there was a definite feeling of a return to business. It won’t be business as usual. It will be the new normal.Gradually, children from prekindergarten daycare age and above are returning to their frameworks. Hospitals are opening up and reminding people that they should not neglect medical problems and necessary tests that got pushed to the side during the coronavirus panic. Elective surgeries are coming back, as are essential tests for early detection of cancer.Over the last two months, almost every aspect of life has been affected by the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Thankfully, from a health point of view, these measures seem to have worked. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Israel on Sunday was 248 at last count, and 74 were seriously ill. But the number of people who had recovered from the disease was more than double number of those currently infected, 4,826 active cases compared with 11,376 who have recovered.As we return to work and life, this is the perfect opportunity to carefully rethink priorities and how to conduct ourselves, both on a personal level and on a national one. Some good can also come out of the crisis.Two protests that took place on Saturday night illustrate the extent of the need to adapt to the new situation. Parents of children in government-supervised daycare protested outside the home of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Minister Ofir Akunis. They complained that due to the reduced size of the groups, there was not enough space for all the children to attend, which left many parents unable to return to work. This should give pause for thought. Instead of returning to the previous large groups of toddlers, it would be better to find and train more staff to maintain the new, smaller groupings.Similarly, children are going back to school in smaller classes. This requires a new way of organizing the educational system, but it could be beneficial. Israeli classrooms have in many cases been too large to reasonably handle. Finding out a way to deal with the new restrictions and using this to form a better way for the future could be positive. Integrating lessons by Zoom and other remote platforms could be one way. So could studying in shifts, particularly for the older grades.Also on Saturday night, some 3,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, calling for improved work conditions for medical interns who are concerned about a return to the 26-hour-long shifts they had to endure in the past. During the pandemic, the interns worked 12-hour shifts, which are already long and demanding. They fear a return to “normal” means a return to working literally day and night, which takes an obvious toll on the young doctors and also poses a threat to the patients they treat.Furthermore, the mass move to working from home during the coronavirus crisis demonstrates opportunities that had been underutilized, for instance, enabling housebound disabled persons to work and offering employment possibilities to those who live in peripheral areas who can work from home for companies in the center of the country.Unemployment soared from under 4% pre-corona to some 25%, dropping to 20% by this week. Although some of those on unpaid leave went back to work this week, thousands of Israelis have lost their jobs. As part of the new budget, funding should be found for retraining to ease the load on teachers, medical teams, carers for the elderly and other jobs.Now is the time to think out of the box – a characteristic at which Start-up Nation excels. The novel coronavirus should present opportunities for a fresh approach. It won’t be possible to make the shift in one swift move. But there should be a paradigm change that allows for improvements rather than an automatic return to the pre-corona routine.
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