Covid#16 - Finding causes for hope

Easter is supposed to be a time for hope.  Yesterday, in his traditional but far-from-normal Urbi et Orbi sermon, The Pope called for a contagion of hope and in her first Easter message, The Queen spoke of lit candles, of how light and life are greater than the darkness of death and grief.  ‘May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future,’ she said.

Children’s drawings of rainbows have become the symbol of hope during this pandemic.  So, what causes are there for hope?

First, we can look east to where it all started.  Five days ago in China, seventy-six days after the lockdown began, people were allowed to leave the city of Wuhan for the first time as flights and train services to destinations around China restarted.  The recorded rate of infections has slowed dramatically in recent weeks and nearly a week ago, for the first time since starting to publish daily figures, China reported no new deaths from Covid19.  There have been a handful of deaths since and new cases of infection, but almost all among people arriving in China from abroad.  Restrictions remain too but whilst it’s early days, there is hope that China has turned the corner, that they have the virus under control, that normality will gradually return and that other countries will follow. 

Maybe, just maybe, it’s possible to also look closer to home for a germ of hope.  Yesterday, Italy reported its lowest number of deaths for more than three weeks.  In Spain, the rate of infections has been falling and today the number of deaths reported there was more than one hundred fewer than yesterday.  Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned that Spain is ‘far from victory’; nonetheless, some restrictions there are being lifted with people in some sectors returning to work.  In Italy too, a small number of shops and businesses will re-open tomorrow.

All around the world, the personification of hope is a doctor or a nurse.  In Rio de Janeiro yesterday, the statue of Christ the Reedemer was illuminated as a doctor and emblazoned with messages of hope in different languages.  Echoing the feelings of everyone in the country, the Prime Minister left hospital yesterday declaring, ‘Our NHS is the beating heart of our country, the best of our country … and is powered by love.’  The incredible, ceaseless and brave hard work of doctors, nurses and carers is giving us hope.  It’s thanks to them that 434,455 people around the world have recovered from coronavirus.  Our new-found, deep regard for the medics of our NHS and our wider public services is spawning long-term hope for the post-coronavirus world too – that our priorities will have changed and that our world could be better.

Most of us have also found hope in each other.  The response of the vast majority of people to the emergency and the restrictions that have been placed upon us has been at least responsible; at best, we have given up much of our personal interest and discovered a cause far bigger than ourselves; we’re protecting the lives and interests of people we don’t know and wider society in a way cynics among us might have thought had become impossible.  Many of us are doing this just by staying at home and through social distancing but the lengths to which some are going to protect and care for others are inspiring.  750,000 volunteered to go to the aid of the 2.5 million who are most at risk and every day, there are heart-warming stories of people providing others with meals, delivering medicines and simply making each other smile.  Maybe it’s another glimpse of the post-coronavirus world to come – one with a stronger sense of neighbourhood and community and in which we care more for the vulnerable.

A final source of hope is the remarkable effort of scientists around the world to understand this new virus and develop tests, treatments and vaccines.  At least twenty vaccines are in development around the world with the first human trials of one beginning in the USA in March, and in Australia, tests on two others began at the start of this month.  It would normally take one to two years to reach this stage but thanks to extraordinary international cooperation, it’s taken just a few months.  Researchers have hailed the speed and level of global collaboration as unprecedented.  Gary Kobinger, Director of the Infectious Disease Center at Laval University in Quebec, called it unique, adding, ‘It’s not about my vaccine, your vaccine … So many people are getting more optimistic, believing that they can make things happen faster.  I think it’s very promising.’

While we’re still waiting for the peak of our own emergency, it’s easy and probably natural to focus on the suffering, the sick, the dead and the grieving.  Those colourful rainbows in windows across the country though are a reminder of all the good reasons there are to have hope for the end of this emergency and for a bright future.