By Dr Lesley Morrison

RARELY have the words of Robert Burns been so appropriate:

“Then let us pray that come it may

As come it will for a-that,

That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth

Shall bear the gree and a’ that.

For a’ that an’ a’ that,

It’s coming yet for a’ that,

That man tae man the world o’er

Shall brithers be for a’ that.”

The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing health and social services to the limit. Resources are stretched, health and care professionals are exhausted and we are all looking for ways of responding to a new and demanding situation.

We have to believe that out of this will come some new thinking,and new action, about how we want to live our lives and what our priorities are. The world is a small place; we are all interconnected and we are all affected by the policy and funding decisions that our governments make.

Our Government has made some very bad ones. Just as the coronavirus was gaining hold in the UK, it boasted that it had raised military spending by £2 billion to £41.5bn. Among other weapons, it is acquiring 138 new F-35 aircraft which Lockheed, the manufacturer says “has the range and flexibility to win, again and again”. Against coronavirus? Against climate change? While labs are strugging to produce the tests and equipment required to keep people safe and track the epidemic, between £2bn and £3bn per year (actual government figures are hard to trace) are being spent sustaining a nuclear weapons system, Trident, which is completely useless against any military or terrorist threat we might face and whose main function is to preserve our seat at the “top table” of nuclear nations.

Being at this top table does nothing to protect us from pandemics or from the ravages of climate change.

The covid and climate crises may or may not be connected but it is certain that changing climate patterns will cause vectors and pathogens to migrate and adapt with resulting human exposure to infections against which we have no immunity. Our security, in terms of health and social stability, requires our govenrments to recognise that climate change, militarism, international conflict and the potential for new epidemics are interlinked. A system which prioritises profit over people cannot be sustained. What the covid pandemic has again confirmed is that, as with the climate crisis, the poor suffer most. Health and social inequalities are played out with covid as with climate. Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change wrote recently about lessons which could be drawn from the response to the covid crisis for the climate crisis. Covid and climate change do not recognise national boundaries. Global challenges require systemic change. Prevention is better than cure.We are only as safe as our most vulnerable. And we need to value the role of science and experts.

It has been heartening to see the depth of compassion and reslience in our communities’ response to this panepidemic. We need to see the same level of response by the international community to this and the other major international threats. Only by working together in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration can these be addressed and the world made a safer place.

This will not be the last pandemic but, before the next one, we need to impress on our governments that we want them to divert resources from weapons of mass destruction to solutions for climate change and disease.

Dr Lesley Morrison is a retired GP and a member of Medact