As a year that can only be described as cataclysmic draws to a close, and social media is abuzz with collective relief, there is a feeling that 2021 will bring hope for a brighter future. Although the pandemic is far from over, with the second wave of Covid-19 hitting Pakistan particularly hard, the fact that there is now a vaccine signals that we are in the final stretch of a pandemic that shut down most of the global economy for months and resulted in the deaths of nearly 2 million people worldwide (public health experts suspect that the actual death toll has been much higher).

The manufacture and distribution of vaccines in no more than 7-8 months — a process that typically takes upwards of 10 years — is a remarkable achievement of human ingenuity. From suffering comes wisdom and strength. As businesses and academic institutions adapted to online work, and trade to the new limitations, communities with poor infrastructure and a lack of access to wi-fi and healthcare were left behind. Every pandemic in human history has heightened social divides and brought underlying fissures to the fore. In the hopes of a healthier, safer and more equitable future, we must rely on the lessons of the past year and pay attention to the cracks that have been revealed in our institutions.

In many ways, poorer communities in the developing world were left behind in the global fight to end the pandemic. These communities will probably be the last ones to receive the vaccines. The New Year will undoubtedly be dogged by the challenges of the recent past. We must remember that hope must be rooted in reality. Healing begins with acknowledging the deficiencies that we face as people and as communities. Actionable hope must be based in remembering the lessons of the past and a commitment to solving the institutional inadequacies and social inequities that have made this pandemic far more lethal than it had to be. In tribute to the self-reflection that the quarantine months forced us all to engage in, this week, let us ponder the challenges faced by various sectors and the potential solutions.