A post-pandemic recovery isn’t guaranteed | WIRED

Lucy Easthope, a Opinion from top UK experts Disaster Planninghas advised the UK Government on major international events such as 9/11, the Grenfell Tower fire, the war in Ukraine and, of course, covid pandemic“If you were planning for a pandemic in 2020, there have been very few surprises in the last few years,” Easthope says. “In those pandemic plans we wrote a reasonable worst-case scenario — and now we’re going to live it out.”

Emergency planners like Easthope know that the aftermath of a disaster can be roughly divided into three phases: the honeymoon (“or, as we call it now, lockdown one”), the recession and the boom. “We are still in recession,” she says of the UK. “We have reached a stage where all the signs of institutional collapse are here. The basic reliance on the healthcare system for the most privileged is now gone. Failure is loudly talked about.”

However, Easthope warns that this stage of rebuilding society is not always guaranteed. “It is very important that no issue is left out of the discussion and [to keep things] “Apolitical,” she says. “One must be fully aware that Titanic One can drown, and one must leave the ego at the door.”

For example, disaster planning research suggests that the mental health crisis following a pandemic will continue for the next 30 to 40 years, increasing the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse in affected communities. “Recovery after events like this is no easy task, but it is the worst kind of resilience,” says Easthope. “The only good thing that comes out of a disaster like a pandemic is that it provides an opportunity to re-examine structures and institutions.”

This article is published in the July/August 2024 issue Wired UK Magazine.