Commentary

After eighteen months of the pandemic’s new normal, I often hear people complain about the restrictions of their freedom and violation of their human rights. Road rage shooting and increased murder rates are common in parts of the USA. Sexual assaults and teenage pregnancies in countries like Uganda are rising astronomically. Such complaints and talks  got me thinking about the good old days. Were the old days as good as people say they were? This note and the other articles will address this question.

Our last issue was dedicated to change which comes with happiness, uncertainty, and sadness. This issue is dedicated to learning lessons from history. The just concluded Tokyo Olympics was fairly successful despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no massive infection of athletes and no boycotts and no massive doping scandals. Thanks to lesson learned from past experiences. However, it is regrettable that there is still some doping among athletes as well  as corruption within the International Olympic Organization (IOC).

The July issue is dedicated to change. In the May issue, I thought that with the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines, happy days were almost here again. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking because the pandemic is still wreaking havoc in many places; India had not yet seen its worst case in May and June. 

It has been almost 18 months since the coronavirus pandemic struck. Many people in the developing countries and disadvantaged people in the developed countries celebrated the mistaken notion that the virus spares nobody. However, the celebration was short lived because it soon became obvious that not everyone was equally vulnerable.

The last four months were pregnant with hope for an end to the Coronavirus pandemic. Several COVID-19 vaccines became available. Millions of people, mainly in the developed world, were vaccinated. Herd immunity was on the horizon, granted still far in an unpredictable future. 

The March 2021 issue is devoted to the significance of paying attention to evidence. Though the selected articles cover different areas of human endeavors, they do complement each other to illustrate the point regardless of whether it concerns diseases, social relationship or physical matter.

Writing in 1751 Voltaire described Europe as “a kind of great republic, divided into several states, some monarchical, the others mixed but all corresponding with one another. They all have the same religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have the same principles of public law and politics unknown in other parts of the world.”

First, we hope our readers survived 2020 in as good a shape as possible despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish to express our most sincere condolences to those who lost loved ones and empathy to those who suffered from COVID-19 symptoms or other problems associated with the pandemic. We hope that 2021 will be a better year than 2020.