Has the pandemic truly prevented us from going about our ordinary lives or has it produced a paradoxical aftermath?

Like Morpheus’s red pill, has a mere virus acted as perhaps one of the greatest agents of ideological disillusionment yet? Only, unlike Neo, the developed world had no blissfully ignorant alternative.

Malta faces a variety of crises, all of which have been accentuated by this additional stressor and have made the true extent of our vulnerability abundantly clear.

1) The labour shortage crisis ­− Times of Malta has recently reported that the entirety of the private sector faces labour shortages due to non-EU workers being thrown out of the country if they fail to find work within 10 days of becoming unemployed.

Unsurprisingly, Nationalist MP Adrian Delia promptly noted that foreign workers are the first to jump ship during the storm and leave us to fend for ourselves. Is Delia here not returning to and relying dogmatically on the anti-immigrant rhetoric that was pervasive even in pre-COVID normality?

Instead of regulating employers and doing its best to treat taxpaying residents benevolently, government policy adopts the mantra of normality by burdening foreign workers (that form the very foundation of our economy) with this additional weight.

The incessant exploitation and indictment of these key workers is just one example of a fundamental component of the pre-COVID normality that has been unveiled and exacerbated by the pandemic.

2) The European migrant crisis: The ongoing plight affects our role in the migrant crisis in a distinctly unique manner. The pandemic has not only deteriorated the state of this crisis but it has also presented the nation with an ideal justification to wash its hands of any moral ambiguity. In this context, we have morphed the virus into a perverted utilitarian agent that absolves us of all moral responsibility to prevent death and suffering. As Delia aptly puts it: “If need be, we can keep them on the boat for a month, feed them and give them food, as long as they don’t die.”

Artwork: Amy Spiteri

As noted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), novel stressors disproportionately affect the lower-class and irregular immigrants fleeing from countries largely destabilised by the West. When complemented with the rising chauvinistic attitude, it is clear that a return to pre-COVID normality would also have crippling effects on this second crisis.

COVID-19 has sharpened our senses to the uniformity produced by global neoliberalism and Maltese partisanship

To these crisis-ridden victims, a pandemic is an issue only the privileged many afford to worry about and a return to pre-COVID normality simply means a return to a lesser extent of exploitation.

3) The abortion crisis: lockdowns and travel restrictions have had particularly ruinous repercussions on women’s reproductive health, with Doctors for Choice and Women on Web reporting upwards of 227 abortion kits being shipped to Malta.

In a country with one of the most draconian abortion laws in the world and ectopic pregnancies (intensely painful and potentially fatal acute conditions) being dealt with on a case-by-case basis with all the delays that entails, gender equality is, quite frankly, a myth.

While cases of rape, incest and congenital malformations are swept under the rug, legal experts with no medical insight seek to make the 1800s abortion ban even more stringent while members of the local medical community ignore evidence-based guidelines produced by the same international medical organisations they themselves form a part of.

Anew, the contemporary state of affairs produced by the virus and its variants have only highlighted an imperative constituent of what cultivates Maltese normality. The Maltese take pride in being the paragons of virtue (an easily discarded sentiment when accosted by the immigration crisis) and the last standing EU nation that upholds the blanket abortion ban. With the Nationalist Party’s last glimmer of hope, MEP Roberta Metsola voting against a report declaring abortion a human right in the European Parliament, this crisis is perhaps the most disheartening of the bunch.

Remarkably, there are still issues that surpass the outlined normalcy and still swarm the symbolic order despite the current existing conditions. Construction and manufacturing ­− the island’s most dangerous industries − alongside corruption make up the bulk of these issues, characterised by their immutable nature and ability to transcend any socio-economic conditions brought about by the virus.

COVID-19 has sharpened our senses to the uniformity produced by global neoliberalism and Maltese partisanship. When forced to abandon the trivial facade of overindulgent consumerism, we are left with the authentic state of normality. The Fukuyamist matrix-esque simulation comes to a nonconsensual end, only for us to be woken up to the abominable processes responsible for producing our exuberant reality. The pandemic has not only disillusioned us but has also underscored the absurdity of our normality, the very same state of normality that society currently yearns to return to.

The pandemic and its ramifications ought to be meticulously appraised in order to identify a more suitable status quo to return to, not as an idealistic silver lining but as a tragic necessity. The Maltese have an obligation to demand humane treatment of irregular migrants, its essential workers and all those who have been disproportionately affected in the past months.

Furthermore, we should not repeat Ireland’s misstep in waiting until a woman’s life is needlessly lost before demanding reproductive equality.

Neil Muscat, doctor based in Glasgow