Like most people, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what life will look like in a few months, or even a few years down the line. Specifically, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how nice it'll be to return to normal.
But the more I think about it, the more I doubt we'll ever get back to the way things were.
Sure, things will ease up. Cases will eventually drop, but I'm skeptical that social distancing will ever fully be gone. I suspect many people (possibly myself included) will struggle with agoraphobia and being out in public with mass amounts of others after all this. I think the way businesses are run are forever changed. The world as we knew it is gone.
A significant amount of grocery (and other) purchases are done online. A number of businesses are offering curb-side pickup. Of course, these measures came about due to social distancing, but it could be argued that these methods are more convenient. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this becoming the new norm in a post-coronavirus world.
More than that, we need to start having some frank conversations about the state of the affairs domestically. If nothing else, this pandemic has exposed some significant flaws in the status quo. There needs to be manipulations to aspects of the supply chain that were arguably too dependent on other nations (such as the N95 mask debacle with the United States). Increasing domestic production of these supplies, and many other items, only makes sense, that way we don't find ourselves struggling in future. Many have postulated that maybe it's time to start re-thinking having so many products made in China, and instead focus on purchasing made in Canada goods. Sure, it may be more expensive, but it makes more sense to produce items domestically and not be so dependent on other nations for critical items in our supply chain. China is a major manufacturer of goods sold around the world. When they shut down after this whole outbreak started there, it caused a global ripple effect. This could be mitigated somewhat by choosing to buy products made within our own borders.
As Canadians, we also need to reflect on the state of our healthcare system. When I say this, I'm referring specifically to how unprepared we were in many ways. Our healthcare system is designed to operate at about 100% capacity at any given time. Though we've done well for the most part, it makes sense to have a bit of overhead, should we ever find ourselves in this position in the future. We also need to figure out what the heck is happening in Quebec, the hotspot for Canadian COVID. One care home in the province reported having only about a dozen nurses (RNs and LPNs combined) for 130 residents. At one point, only one RN and one LPN weren't sick with COVID-19, meaning some had to come in while ill. More than that, there was no way to separate sick residents from healthy ones. It was a recipe for disaster, and illustrates perfectly the perils of understaffing and lack of proper protocol.
In terms of entertainment (like concerts or sporting events), I have no doubt those will start up again. Same with in-person classes and shopping like it used to be (bunches of people packed into stores). But the world is forever changed. There will always be looming reminders of COVID, and I'm willing to bet that we'll all still find ourselves slightly on edge whenever somebody near us coughs.
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