COVID-19: What Does The Future Hold?

The COVID-19 virus is surely something that needs no introduction. With close to 5 million cases worldwide, and around 300,000 deaths over the past 6 months, I think it is safe to say that the virus has successfully infiltrated all of our lives in one way or another.

However, here is some food for thought: will the impacts of the virus ever truly go away? Will it ever leave our lives? Will we ever be free from its fallout and the repercussions of the virus?

The impact of the Coronavirus (Source: Atlantic Council)

Well, in medical terms, the timelines for an effective vaccine (No, Gangajal doesn’t count. Neither do pigeons.) is estimated to be anywhere from 8 months to over 2 years.

But that’s not the bigger question? With the trillions of dollars being poured into the research, and the efforts being made, sooner or later we will have a cure. So, then what is this article about?

This is about the other secondary and unintended consequences that the virus may have on the way people live their lives. There are several aspects to this, and this is what has been discussed below.

The Virus and the World (Source: Economic Times)

So, read on to see how the virus will change the way you go through your life:

Increasing Health Awareness

As per researchers from the John Hopkins University, future pandemics will be deadlier, more likely to occur, and harder to control. Yes, they’re already thinking about future pandemics. As though the current one wasn't already enough trouble.

However, they have also said that there is a very small window that we have, while we are working to avoid the extent of the consequences of this pandemic, to prevent future pandemics. Their solutions include more comprehensive and stronger healthcare facilities with greater monitoring, especially in areas which are more likely to become hotspots.

Growing Health Awareness (Source: RevCycleIntelligence)

Come to think of it, this sounds pretty intuitive right? But, the definition of a hotspot may not always be what you think it is. Generally, probable hotspots for communicable diseases were considered to be poor and developing countries in Asia and Africa, because they were poor, illiterate, and uninformed.

The corona-virus has shown all of us just what is wrong with such an assumption. Considering that the main countries affected by the pandemic are USA, Italy, and Spain, which are more or less among the strongest and most developed countries in the world.

The world has seen Western countries, the pillar and the pinnacle of democracy and development, scramble as they struggled to deal with the virus.

Impact of Coronavirus on Countries (Source: BBC)

Hence, one of the almost guaranteed consequences of the virus will be an increased amount of attention being paid to medical facilities. You can definitely expect to have greater medical budgets and more scrutiny in the future to detect any such pandemics before they arise. More efforts will be made to make healthcare accessible and affordable to everyone.

So, what does this mean for you, on an individual level? Better medical facilities, for starters. Not to mention more jobs, more development, and a higher life expectancy.

Seems some good will come out of the pandemic after all, right?

Work from Home Culture

With the pandemic spreading at exponential levels and social distancing thought to be the only solution, most (if not all) companies had to consider work-from-home options for their employees. At least for those whose physical presence is not required in the workplace.

Work from Home Culture (Source: CNBC)

However, within a few months, most organizations and managements came to the realization that work-from-home wasn’t half bad. More productivity, less holidays, and above all, lower operating expenses on maintaining offices. Not to mention, executives can now work from their pyjamas instead of suits.

And so, many companies decided that even after the virus had been dealt with, they would like to continue the practice of working from home as far as possible. Obviously, this would not be possible for blue-collar jobs, but for management positions, working from home is very likely to become the norm.

Among major international companies that have adopted the work from home culture, EXL is one, followed by Twitter and several other tech giants. This move would also allow companies to be able to hire employees from all over the world, thereby also bolstering the freelance culture.

Twitter employees may work from home permanently (Source: The Quint)

Considering that this is a win-win situation for both employees as well as the employers, this is another very probable change that you can expect to see in the world around you after the lock-down.

Online Education

Another major effect of the virus was seen and felt in the field of education. With schools and colleges shut down, and most exams postponed indefinitely, most institutions were forced to consider alternative solutions, namely online education.

Several exams were conducted online, especially for university and college entrances. Most classes were conducted online through video conferencing apps. And just like with offices, schools and college saw that this was a wonderful way to reduce their overhead costs and increase student productivity at the same time.

Not just conventional schools and universities, even online learning platforms like Coursera and Udemy saw greater traffic during this period, thereby implying that more and more people are now experimenting with online education.

Popular online learning platforms (Source: Medium)

Hence, another possible consequence of the virus and the lock down is an increasing awareness regarding online education, and it is quite probable that most schools would switch over completely to online methods of teaching. This would obviate the need for an expensive building and the maintenance, and also enable these institutions to be able to hire staff from anywhere in the world.

While there have been concerns regarding socializing and physical activity if such a move is taken, ways to work around this are being discussed, and this is definitely something you can expect to see within the next few years.

Growing Popularity of Online Education (Source: Franchise India)

So, while the virus definitely has its cons (rather large ones at that), it also does have some pros. Better healthcare, more convenient and flexible workplaces, and a greater emphasis on online education may very well be the answers the world is looking for, for the betterment of the entire society as a whole.

The glass may not be half full, but it’s definitely not all empty, so let’s try and focus on that.

-NK