Life Post?COVID-19

• Pages: 26-29

26 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | June 2020

ART: ISTOC K / DRAF TER123; PH OTO: SU KI DHA NDA

Six prominent thinkers ref‌lect on how the pandemic

has changed the world

How will the

world be

different after

COVID-19?

Daniel Susskind

In March 2020, Rabbi

Jonathan Sacks, an inu-

ential figu re in British

intellectual li fe, described

the COVID-19 catastro-

phe as “the nearest we have

to a revelation for atheists.”

At the time I thought the compar ison was apt. It

captured the biblical sens e of shock that many of

us felt in the face of such a sudden, extreme, a nd

swiftly ac celerating crisis. We “have been coasting

along for more than half a c entury,” he remarked,

and all at once “we are facing t he fragility and

vulnerability of the human situation.”

Now, a few months on, Rabbi Sacks’ comparison

with revelation still se ems tting, but for a dierent

reason, and one that matters for thi nking about a

world after COVID-19.

is crisis is ala rming, in part, becaus e it has sev-

eral new and unfa miliar features. A globa l medical

emergency caused by a viru s we still do not fully

understa nd. A self-inicte d economic catast rophe

as a necessar y policy response to contain its spread.