Beating Covid-19 in 2021: Managing time, risk and ambition

Think bigger: We must reimagine a a new social contract for health, one that protects citizens and non-citizens in fair, sustainable and politically acceptable ways.

VERY often in the pandemic of 2020, we found ourselves in situations with no good choices. That's normal. This is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic with no useful policy textbooks or manuals. Public health experts and scientists raced to understand Covid-19, and we continue to learn more. Political leaders and policymakers struggled to deploy old solutions for a vast new problem.

It's now 11 months since Malaysia's first Covid-19 case. As we forge ahead into 2021, I humbly offer three strategies for Malaysia's national health: to use time wisely; to stabilise our tolerance levels of risk; and to match our solutions to the size of the problem. This will help us in our second year with Covid-19.