Life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness in a post-Covid 19 era

WITHOUT a proven therapy or vaccine, re-opening businesses is a deliberate decision. Prolonged nation-wide lockdowns could decimate small businesses affecting youth, women and marginalised communities inordinately. However, re-opening prematurely could lead to a surge of infections, or subsequent waves overwhelming healthcare facilities.

The oft-repeated phrase "Life or Livelihood?" is a false choice; one without the other is unimaginable. Nevertheless, from a University of Pennsylvania simulation study, fully re-opening the US economy might have saved 15 million jobs at an unbearable cost of an additional 80,000 lives in two months.

Unsurprisingly, from a DBS-SKBI SInDEx survey, 80 per cent of Singaporeans preferred saving lives at short-term economic costs; only 8.6 per cent preferred protecting health at all costs. Strategically, policy-makers should mitigate loss of life by containing leading indicators like test positivity rate to below 5 per cent or lagging indicators like Reproduction Factor (R) to below one. Thereafter, minimise psychosocial trauma and cautiously reopen the economy.