Life After Corona

[christina]

My husband and I were talking about this today... What is life going to look like once the virus is gone? Are we going back to normal or will there be a "new normal" and what will that look like?

 

[ckelly78z]

Possibly more attention to cleanliness, and longer TP isles in the stores.

 

[Pellice]

Christina, welcome! I too am interested in long-term shifts. I think the move to digital payments will accelerate. I finally got off my rear and set up my Google Pay. I have yet to use it, but I will soon.

I think there will be consequences for education. Online instruction is being forced upon every discipline right now, and that will probably propel shifts in how education is done in the future.

I think restaurants *per se* will go into decline, but I think prepared food will continue to take up a larger share of food consumption, with more of it delivered directly to the home.

I am hopeful that this situation will lead to the US's joining the rest of the world in providing healthcare to all citizens in one way or another.

 

[christina]

Christina, welcome! I too am interested in long-term shifts. I think the move to digital payments will accelerate. I finally got off my rear and set up my Google Pay. I have yet to use it, but I will soon.

I think there will be consequences for education. Online instruction is being forced upon every discipline right now, and that will probably propel shifts in how education is done in the future.

I think restaurants *per se* will go into decline, but I think prepared food will continue to take up a larger share of food consumption, with more of it delivered directly to the home.

I am hopeful that this situation will lead to the US's joining the rest of the world in providing healthcare to all citizens in one way or another.

Yes - some people may think that paper money and coins holds bacterial and viruses and may move towards a cash-less society

 

[Fermion]

We are already pretty much in a cashless society with credit cards. I think the last time I went to the bank was in December.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I think it will mostly return to normal. Not a new normal.

Although, I do hope people will stop eating bats, monkeys, and anteaters.

 

[christina]

We are already pretty much in a cashless society with credit cards. I think the last time I went to the bank was in December.

I've noticed quite a few banks in our area have closed within the past year or two. I wonder what this will look like in the coming year once the virus is gone.

 

[christina]

MuirWannabe - That's funny!

 

[Silver]

I think it will mostly return to normal. Not a new normal.

Although, I do hope people will stop eating bats, monkeys, and anteaters.

And dogs and cats....frequent items on the menu in some areas of the world.

 

[jollystomper]

What is life going to look like once the virus is gone?

At this point, I would not assume the virus will ever be "gone", like the flu will never be "gone". Being contained and managed like the flu might be the best one can hope for.

I think activities that require a large number of strangers in relatively close quarters (think cruises and movie theaters) will suffer irreparable harm, while those that do not require direct contact (like ordering stuff online) are used more.

I do hope that companies learn that having manufacturing concentrated in any one country might be "cheap", but is not a good idea, and act accordingly.

 

[easysurfer]

My thought is that after is not until there's an effective vaccine developed.

Then we'd probably be all crammed into public transportation again. But at least hopefully then we can freely shake hands and hug again.

 

[Independent]

I think the great majority of Americans will get the virus, have flu-like symptoms (from very mild to in bed with serious fever), recover, and go back to their lives. They will feel good that they handled the scary coronavirus. We'll have a vaccine in 18 months.

The virus will kill some people, mostly older people. The survivors will mourn them.

I expect no permanent changes, other than some heightened awareness about passing germs around. 2020-21 and 2021-22 will probably be lighter flu seasons.

 

[TrvlBug]

... ...

I do hope that companies learn that having manufacturing concentrated in any one country might be "cheap", but is not a good idea, and act accordingly.

DH, a friend, and I were having this conversation a couple of days ago. Our conclusion....

 

[Go-NoGo]

Some critical manufacturing will become less "free enterprise" and more regulated. Think pharma companies being required to setup manufacturing plants in the country they want to do business in.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

We are already pretty much in a cashless society with credit cards. I think the last time I went to the bank was in December.

Yeah, but with the US clinging desperately to swipe cards while the rest of the world has moved on to chip and PIN (which requires using the PIN pad, but does not require handing your card to someone else, so maybe a wash) or the contactless tap and pay (much safer, contagion-wise), I'm not sure that it makes much of a difference. I wish more of them accepted NFC payments, those are contactless.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I don't know what will happen but surely statistically we will be losing some senior people in government / politics. There may also be less seniors voting, due to well, less seniors.

 

[walkinwood]

I agree, the "after" will start either when cases die out (like SARs did) or a vaccine is generally available.

I think we'll go back to living the life we did a month ago with a bit more attention to personal hygene in public (mainly hand washing). We are social animals and I don't think this pandemic will change that.

But governments & healthcare institutions will have better processes in place to quickly do what needs to be done to stop the spread. They've been warned before, but I think this time they'll internalize the issue.

Businesses may change a lot on the inside (supply chains, capabilities for off-site work, policies for contagious events etc.), but my guess is that the customer interface will remain much the same.


Let's see how right I turn out to be.

 

[NameTaken2]

Awareness that with continuing globalization, this is not a one-off. Who knows how long before the next "coronavirus"?



Hope what's being learned now can be applied in the future to prevent or minimize pandemic impact, both from the health and economic perspectives.

 

[Masquernom]

I've been wondering if this corona virus will become a seasonal illness, like the current flu we have. Will it just keep coming back every season? I assume this virus is similar to the cold and flu viruses we have now. They haven't developed a vaccine to stop those, so I wouldn't bet on one to stop this one either. I guess time will tell.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I've been wondering if this corona virus will become a seasonal illness, like the current flu we have. Will it just keep coming back every season? I assume this virus is similar to the cold and flu viruses we have now. They haven't developed a vaccine to stop those, so I wouldn't bet on one to stop this one either. I guess time will tell.

There is a vaccine for the seasonal flu, but because of the variation from year to year and the production lead time required to have doses ready for flu season, it has had an effectiveness of between 10-60%. Having had the flu last year, I'll take it even if it was 10% every year.

 

[aja8888]

Since both of us are in our late 70's, and have many friends and family that age or older, we may be minus some of these folks, or even us, for that matter.

Otherwise, everything will go back to normal as old habits are hard to change.

There will be another virus that will threaten old people again. It's life, and old people will die sooner or later, taking a load off Social Security and the medical profession.

 

[W2R]

Maybe the CCRC's will become less popular, due to some of them being centers of coronavirus infections/deaths.

We have been tentatively planning to age in place, but I had also been thinking of a CCRC as a Plan B under some circumstances. Right now they don't look any safer to me than aging in place.

 

[Hamlet]

I've been wondering if this corona virus will become a seasonal illness, like the current flu we have. Will it just keep coming back every season? I assume this virus is similar to the cold and flu viruses we have now. They haven't developed a vaccine to stop those, so I wouldn't bet on one to stop this one either. I guess time will tell.

Yeah, unless they develop a vaccine, this will likely become a normal part of our flu-like sicknesses. However, it will hit fewer people each year as the community will have built up some immunity from previous years. That is one of the nasty things about any new virus. Our bodies have never seen it before, so it will hit us brutally hard initially. Next year it will hit hard, but people who already had it will probably not get it again. They will also serve as control rods in its spread. So it will be much better than the first time around. Each year should be better than the last.

Of course, it may mutate, but let’s stay positive.

 

[ERD50]

Maybe the CCRC's will become less popular, due to some of them being centers of coronavirus infections/deaths.

We have been tentatively planning to age in place, but I had also been thinking of a CCRC as a Plan B under some circumstances. Right now they don't look any safer to me than aging in place.

I've been thinking about this too. My MIL and FIL were in a CRCC, and it worked out well for them. FIL passed a few years ago, and MIL passed last year, but I'm now thinking about the people still living there (we pass by fairly often). The virus is really affecting the old/compromised more than the normal flu. So these people, in close proximity, really seem to be at risk.

I mentioned in another thread I think, that IL has primary elections next week. They said that some polling places are in nursing homes and assisted living places (probably because they often have a large lobby or meeting space, and/or to make it convenient for the elderly). They are working to find alternate places, so we don't have so many people coming into those places from the outside, potentially spreading the infection. Seems prudent, and not really all that disruptive.

-ERD50

 

[Sunset]

We will hear a lot less "OK Boomer" as old folks become a rare thing.