Trump has gone to ground and hopefully a more levelheaded and educated administration has taken over the government which will help us emerge from the quicksands of partisanship in which we have been struggling. The Arizona Republican Party has gone quiet temporarily. Some representatives doubtless are disappointed their applications for pardon have gone unanswered. Some things haven't changed. Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham on Fox News are still hard at it stirring the political pot. Through the last year, these "news broadcasters" have ignored the pandemic in favor of trashing Democrats. Given the ravages of the pandemic, however, shouldn't we be working on some sort of objective post mortem? What mistakes were made and more importantly how can we prepare ourselves for the next pandemic when it comes, as it surely will.

In those countries where authorities locked down as soon as confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported, the infection and death rates were a fraction of ours. This suggests there is a desperate need to educate the population generally and political leadership particularly about the science of pandemics. In the future we should all understand that if authorities call for a lockdown, we stay at home, restaurants, bars, gyms are closed, there's no travel, no parties, no public holidays, only trips to get food from the supermarket until the danger has passed. This way the virus is stopped in its tracks, there's no chance for it to spread or mutate. The pandemic may last six weeks at most, and everyone then gets back to work.

In Arizona this last year, because Governor Ducey believed or was encouraged to believe, that the economy was more important than the loss of life he dithered, tried to negotiate his way out of the crisis but the coronavirus did not listen. 11,000 deaths and untold suffering have been the result. Our medical system has proved inadequate and underfunded to cope and obviously needs upgrading. Our state medical services providing vaccination need upgrading. We spend more on medical care than any other country in the world so something is seriously wrong.

Initially we didn't test quickly enough. We didn't have the manpower or a plan to isolate and contact trace. Even our vaccination program is now stuttering. Ironically none of this is rocket science. All the knowledge and information about how to cope with a pandemic is there but was never acted on. The virus didn't care that we were late on the scene.

If a director bungles a job in business and people lose their jobs or a general loses a battle, and soldiers die, there are consequences. We expect competence. Whatever our political persuasions, this pandemic has proved we cannot afford leaders whose only motive is to bolster their career by feeding people ideas they think the public wants to hear. If we are to stay safe in the future we must choose leaders who are broadly educated, willing to tell the truth when they see it and take responsibility for mistakes. Nowadays we appear to ask little in terms of credentials or expertise from our politicians. They can of course, be good people but if they don't know their history, do no know their science, are not good at mathematics, have scant knowledge of geography or the biology of the natural world, how on earth do they make decisions ensuring the long term safety of our society in a world getting smaller and smaller and more more interdependent? If someone doesn't understand how the climate of the planet works or the effects of melting glaciers and icecaps or the warming of the oceans, how are they going to defend our lives against climate change? Climate change, like the pandemic is not a red/white issue, it's a fact.

Will some political leaders behave as they have done with this pandemic, ignore the consequences, ignore the evidence, pretend it doesn't exist until too late? We may survive this pandemic but the long term effects of global climate change are going to be far worse and irreversible. We would do well to start panicing now and instituting measures which might help us survive. This last year ought to be an education for us all. We need the rest of the world as much as they need us. We need policies which are rational, sensible. They may be difficult ones and we may have to sacrifice in the short term, but they may enable our grandchildren to survive.