BLUF
Covid-19 was a severe problem that affected health across the world; however, 2020 also saw many inventions that should contribute to the long-term trend of worldwide improvement in people’s health and wellbeing.Summary
Rob Picheta notes that people tend to be unduly pessimistic about the problems facing the world. Further, without denigrating the seriousness of Covid-19—generally over the long-term—health and wellbeing worldwide continues to improve. Rob includes a couple of quotes from Rosling who in his book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think states that:
- 'In our worldview, any huge catastrophe immediately becomes the worst catastrophe ever.'
- 'The trends that really form and shape the lives of the future generation are things that never show up in the news.'
Rob observes that people in the west take for granted the contribution of electricity and clean water, to health and wellbeing. He also notes that a response to Covid-19, 'prompted a historically speedy vaccine that rewrote all the rules about how quickly such a shot could be produced'. Think about how education contributes to health and wellbeing.
References
APR 2010 Bill Gates Book Review Factfulness is one of the most educational books I’ve ever read.
DEC 2020 Popular Science The 9 top health and medicine breakthroughs of 2020
