How The Virus will Change Our World Going Forward

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Eleven things that may change:

1) Moving away from crowded urban areas. You don't have to be an epidemiologist to understand how high population density provides nearly ideal conditions for pandemics. This is especially true in some large urban areas where people are forced to be close together. Narrow passageways in medieval cities, dependency on crowded public transportation, theaters, crowded restaurants, etc.

Buying a car and moving to the suburbs should start to become a trend. This happened after the Spanish Flu with places like Long Island and New Jersey being converted from farmland to suburbs seemingly overnight.

2) Re-thinking urban mass transit. USA urban mass transit in places like NYC and Chicago has long grappled with the problem of the homeless taking shelter in buses and subways. Up until the corona virus, city leaders lacked the political will to do much about it. This will change. Obviously these soiled and usually ill unfortunates carry all manner of pathogens. Mass transit systems in Europe and Asia generally do not tolerate this public health hazard. City leaders will either have to make strict and perhaps politically unpopular policies to radically reform public transit or see people and companies flee their cities at an even faster pace. Some subways and busses are so crowded at rush hour that people are crammed together like sardines. That has to stop.

3) The number of private cars on the road will skyrocket. It is only logical that with more people fleeing the health risks involved with public transportation combined with an exodus from the cities that more cars will be on the road.

4) Distance learning (attending school on-line) Already growing rapidly prior to the virus, distance learning will become pervasive, comprising the bulk of instruction by middle school. This should lead to interesting, and as of yet, unforeseen changes in what it means to be a teacher as well as student. Teachers’ unions will try to mute this change, but will eventually adapt. Online education has great potential with the very best teacher tutoring thousands of students rather than mediocre teachers turoring 30 or 40 students. School systems can put their funds into great videos and software that holds student's interest rather than large faculty payrolls. This trend has the potential to make education both much better and much less expensive all the way up to, and including, a university education.

5) Many "green" initiatives will get the healthy level of skeptical review they deserve. An example is the "green" reusable grocery/shopping bag. After years of ignoring reports from credible institutions warning of the dangers of these bags spreading pathogens they will become a distant memory as cities and countries outlaw their use. Conventional single-use plastic and paper bags are sterile and easily recyclable - and most importantly, don't present a potentially lethal disease vector to store clerks.

6) Much stricter enforcement of border and immigration laws. Avoiding the importation of diseases has always been an important function for immigration departments world-wide. But again political correctness has muted many of these efforts. Such wrong-headed open borders thinking will no longer be politically acceptable going forward. Here’s what happened after Spanish Flu – on May 19, 1921 a national quota system on the amount of incoming immigrants is established by the United States Congress in the Emergency Quota Act, curbing legal immigration. This was followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 greatly reducing the number of immigrants to the US.

7) A more conservative and capitalist mindset will sweep the millennials. Following the Spanish Flu, the "progressive" movement of Woodrow Wilson was soundly rejected by the once socialist-leaning voter base. The Democrat ticket of James M. Cox and FDR was defeated by the largest popular vote percentage in US history. This resulted in the next three presidents elected to office following the Spanish flu being Republican as well as both the House and Senate enjoying Republicans majorities for the succeeding fourteen years.

8) The virus may well provide the final nail in the coffin of the European Union. The government in Brussels was an anachronism when it was founded in 1992 and has now been shown to be an impediment to just about every member state except Germany, Belgium and to a lesser extent, France.

9) The demands for a government takeover of healthcare in the US will decrease. As of April 2020 Italy, Spain, France, UK, Sweden and Denmark all with government healthcare system have 3-4 times the COVID-19 mortality rate of the US. Of course, there will be much more telling data available over time, but for now, having a government run health system isn’t a distinct advantage.

10) Online shopping was already a very strong trend before the pandemic. Many more people are now getting adjusted to online shopping for everything from their next meal to furniture. Many of them are finding this offers them a much product selection, and is much more convenient. They likely will stick with it after the lockdown.This trend was already changing the face of retail. Service providers like Ebay, Shopify, Etsy, and others are stepping up to boost this trend. They’re coming up with innovative software that helps the buyer order the correct clothing size, visualize that new sofa in their living room, and much much more. The pandemic is giving a major boost to this trend.

11) Working from home. Many won’t want to make that daily commute to the office. This is especially true for those who’ve had to commute an hour or more each way. This pandemic will give them the excuse they’ve needed to lobby for more time working from home whenever possible.

[rebel2020]

Other things that were changing Before the Virus, and will now get Much Bigger; 
1/ Home Entertainment, Instead of Going out to Restaurants more People will Dine with Family & Friends at Home.
With Many Homes now Having Home Cinema (Video Projectors) and Movies on-Line "On Demand" Plus the upsurge In TV Sports [When Sport Restarts] Entertainment will be far More "Home Based" in the future.

2/ Traditional High Streets and Shopping Malls will indeed "Disappearance" to On-Line shopping [ A Boom for us living in Rural areas ]

3/ Many Churches faced with huge old buildings expensive upkeep will switch to permanent On-Line services Via Zoom,
The Cash saving alone could be substantial; 

Yes our Lives are going to change in many Ways.

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Here is a May 30th update on mortality rates in Covid-19 affected countries.

Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Mortality Tracking - Click Here

What I find most interesting is that the European countries like the UK and Sweden like to brag about their wonderful socialized medical systems.

The USA still has a privately owned and operated Capitalist medical system.

Best argument I’ve ever seen against socialized government run medicine

If you come down with Covid-19 in Belgium, home of European Union headquarters, your chances of dying are almost three times as great as if you catch it in the USA.

Dave S

[deyana]

Re: your original post, DAS. I don't think the changes your describe will be permanent.

There might be some adjusting happening, but on the whole things will go back to how they once were.

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Jun 3, 2020 15:26:36 GMT deyana said:

Re: your original post, DAS. I don't think the changes your describe will be permanent.

There might be some adjusting happening, but on the whole things will go back to how they once were.

I think we can all agree that some of these changes are already trending, such as working from home, and online shopping.

The pandemic has focused public attention on some significant problems such as crowded subways in major cities. If you've ever ridden a subway during rush hour in Paris, NYC, London, Istanbul, etc. you know that this is a recipe for spreading a communicable disease such as Covid-19. Take a look at these photos Click Here - Crowded Subways

In Istanbul, for example, the trams are often the fastest way to get around the city. Traffic is often gridlocked so cars are not a great alternative. Both the traffic problem and the crowded trams are very difficult and expensive problems to solve. If you were in charge, how would you solve them? That's a tough question to answer.

The same is true with busses in Rome, Vaporettos in Venice, the Staten Island Ferry, and many more.

[deyana]

Things have changed, but I don't think they will stay the way they are is what I mean, Das. At least I certainly hope not. That would be miserable.

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Jun 15, 2020 2:44:15 GMT deyana said:

Things have changed, but I don't think they will stay the way they are is what I mean, Das. At least I certainly hope not. That would be miserable.

We've had episodes of crazy rioters for as long as I can recall. There were the Berkeley Student revolts and the Oakland riots in the 1960's. The Chicago Seven. The so called Million Man March on Washington, etc. These were always temporary and things did return to normal.

However, this is the first time we've seen government officials condoning aberrant behavior. Washington needs a new Governor, Seattle a new Mayor and Police Chief, Washington DC a new Mayor. We also need to vote out Nancy Pelosi and all the worthless Democrats in the US Congress.

[Scottish Lassie]

Jun 15, 2020 2:44:15 GMT deyana said:

Things have changed, but I don't think they will stay the way they are is what I mean, Das. At least I certainly hope not. That would be miserable.

It is a foregone conclusion that life will be different.life is always changing.

[Scottish Lassie]

Jun 15, 2020 2:44:15 GMT deyana said:

Things have changed, but I don't think they will stay the way they are is what I mean, Das. At least I certainly hope not. That would be miserable.

There isadrug thathasbeen around for 60 years that is being given to those who are very ill.It is not a cure but keeps them alive by preventing the virus from any more damage to the body.Its name is Dexemethasone.