Challenges and change: Oxygen for change towards social inclusiveness?

Abstract

2020 has been a defining year. The globe is still grappling with second and third waves of COVID-19, the pink recession and Black Lives Matter show that gender, race and class are still key fault lines where inequality occurs, and we have had a US election like no other. Thank you for still being here! 2020 has had the world's fortitude tested. The coronavirus pandemic and its epic impact has left us reappraising what might be a better new normal. Many people's lives have changed in ways inconceivable before COVID-19. Many changes are temporary, but some, like working remotely, generous redistribution of public funds, and renewed interest in public health, may be here to stay and indicate an acceleration of broader processes (Pimentel, 2020;Dartnell, 2020). Turning to the US election, that witnessed a low point in US politics with an unconceded loss from the outgoing President, but with the highest ever number of voters resulting in the first woman and woman of colour Vice President, change seems imminent.Previous epidemics have led to major changes in social and public life. Foucault (1979) writes of how the plague in medieval Europe birthed the very idea of public health and incubated the link between urban planning and the wellbeing of populations. The cholera epidemic in Europe in the 19 th Century led to public sanitation and clean public water, ending the disposing of sewerage in open drains and regulating the collection of contaminated water 1 (Davenport, 2019). The Spanish flu in 1918 has been accredited with popularising the concept of "socialised medicine -healthcare for all" as many governments realised that the health of the whole is vital for the health of individuals (Spinney, 2020). Through calamity can come great progress. What will be the positive outcomes from our current challenges?