The new normal
How might life change after COVID19…
Rise of germaphobes: Some of the habits that we are learning during the COVID19 period will stick with us and the tribe of germaphobes will grow and flourish. At the very least, we will continue washing our hands like surgeons do.
Remote working will be the norm: Companies will accept remote working as the new way of working. Platforms like Turing and Upwork will help connect employers to their remote employees. Tools like Slack, Teams, Zoom, JIRA, Trello etc. will be used for collaboration. Distributed teams working on projects might meet face to face once or twice a year just to spend time with each other (physically)
WHO will become more accountable and powerful: Second world war, nuclear bombs and policies that ensure mutually assured destruction, made us realise the importance of diplomacy and a powerful global organisation to maintain international peace and security. Similarly, we will need a more powerful and accountable international organisation that can quickly mobilise resources to contain and prevent another global pandemic.
Preparing for supply chain shocks: Some countries and companies with strong and visionary leadership, will start preparing for any future breakdown in the their distributed supply chains. They will prepare for backup suppliers for essential items or build local manufacturing capabilities to at least partially fulfil their needs.
Biological warfare and bio-labs: Due to COVID19, the world has seen economic devastation that is considered unparalleled in recent history. Any terrorist organisation, rogue state, or a powerful rogue AI can repeat this with limited resources. Such technologies will be treated with the same degree of care as nuclear tech, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons and AI.
Making Healthcare Accessible: More and more people will become convinced about affordable healthcare for everyone. Governments or political parties that support affordable or free universal healthcare will get good public support.
Caring for the environment: Since the feedback about global warming is not immediately visible, people will go back to their older ways of life. Reducing our carbon footprint to control global warming will still depend on political will of powerful countries and their leaders.
However, another viral pandemic is very much possible and the memory of COVID19 will remain fresh within people’s minds for a while. Steps to prevent another virus jumping from wild animals to humans will be taken by the now powerful WHO by negotiating to change cultural practices, food habits and hygiene standards of countries across the world.
Investment in medical research and biotechnology: Many countries will start considering medical and biotech as areas for strategic investment, just like nuclear and space tech. Investments will go into fields that a commercial pharmaceutical company will not be interested in — for example to develop vaccines to prevent the outbreak of a new but rare virus.
[Disclaimer: Views, thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own and not that of my current employer or any organisation that I was previously part of.]
