This year is definitely going to go down as one of those “what were you doing when…?” moments. “What were you doing when man first landed on the moon?” “What were you doing when the Baguio earthquake happened?”
Obviously, those were events, whereas this pandemic and the global lockdowns are not events in their truest meaning. While I will not buy into the argument that we are fighting a “war” against Covid-19, our current situation is more like being part of a war as civilians in the cross fire.
Yet even World War II, which might bear close similarity to current times, did not suddenly happen. It was almost inevitable when an agreement was signed that allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia. World War II was a case of one thing following another.
The point is that no one saw this pandemic coming, including me, even though I am so closely related to Nostradamus that I get three US cents every time someone mentions my dear Tito’s name.
The other thing is that even World War II did not directly affect so many people at the same time. Part of it is due to instant global communication, and that every place on Earth is now connected by air travel. French Polynesia, which includes Tahiti, had a total of 60 cases with 54 recovered and no death. All of its resorts and hotels are shuttered.
Further, on March 20, a mandatory lockdown was announced and later a liquor ban. By the way, “the first casualty of war against Covid-19 is beer.”
Many people out there think that in a few weeks or months, life will go back to the way it was on New Year’s Eve 2019. That is not going to happen for a much longer time.
Epidemics change short-term behavior that becomes longer-term habits. The US had a polio epidemic in 1916. Movie theaters were closed, meetings were canceled, public gatherings were nonexistent, and children were warned not to drink from water fountains. Another one occurred in 1949, but the 1952 polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation’s history with 3,145 dead and 21,269 left with
paralysis.
The first Lysol Disinfectant was introduced in 1889 and was used as the preferred immediate protection against every viral epidemic from 1918 until now. Actually, hydrogen peroxide is probably just as effective in killing viruses. Even after a polio vaccine was found, mothers immediately rushed a child to the doctor if he or she had a fever after swimming in a public pool.
Barbers and beauticians that did not wear face masks before will do so once the lockdown is lifted. And we will expect that behavior long into the future. Restaurants in Hong Kong are bringing in “hygiene ambassadors” and installing table partitions. A time might come when we will not patronize a restaurant without table partitions.
Up to 80 percent of employees at the Bank of Montreal may shift to flexible arrangements once the pandemic subsides, blending working from home with office time. The company discovered that 95 percent of its “office towers” staff could partially work from home.
Where were you during the Covid-19 pandemic? Trying to prepare for what the world will be afterwards.
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