Post-Pandemic Predictions

Although my crystal ball is a bit cloudy these days, one of my pastimes of late has been looking for silver linings and imagining how our future will be changed. 

T.P. and Other Commodities

We’ll never look at toilet paper quite the same way. Now that toilet paper has become a valuable commodity, many of us will no longer take this necessity for granted. 

Although I started practicing conservation with paper products a while ago, I’ve become a militant toilet paper user now. In researching toilet paper usage, I discovered experts who study the best way to wipe.  (Who knew?) I’ve been following the folding method, believing that wadding is wasteful. Half of us in the U.S. folds our T.P. and the other half wads. Turns out, a hybrid of folding and wadding is the best method for efficient wiping.

My mother grew up during the Great Depression.  Her family was better off than some, but her life was forever changed.  One of the ways my mother was changed is that she bought two of all nonperishables and essential toiletries when shopping. Growing up observing this habit, I would chide her about the very behavior I am now emulating. When we were young and innocent (pre-pandemic), I would wait until I was close to running out of something before purchasing a replacement. 

These days, facing empty shelves and delayed or absent delivery services, I try to order things that I believe may be out of stock this week or next. I am not a hoarder, nor do I think hoarding is in any way healthy or helpful, but I do believe my shopping habits have changed forever.

Values Clarification

 A friend recently confided that she’s rather enjoying the restrictions imposed by sheltering-in-place. The imposed restrictions have provided her a respite from the frantic pace she was keeping to build her business. I’m certain she’s not alone.  Many of us have been running like rodents on a wheel, barely taking time to assess the value of our activity.

After the 2008 financial crisis (which hardly seems like a crisis compared to this pandemic), I reassessed how I was spending my money. Like other Americans, I tightened my belt and abandoned frivolous spending.  When the economy bounced back, I did not resume my carefree spending. The bubble had burst and I was changed.

I suspect our behaviors will be altered after this crisis has abated. Perhaps we’ll value the outdoors more, which has been preserving our sanity. Perhaps we’ll reach out more to our loved ones. Perhaps we’ll rethink irresponsible travel.

Technology Fever

In the early 1980’s, I attended a national meeting on teleconferencing. The technology was primitive but the belief was that very soon few of us would travel to attend training sessions or meetings.  

At the time, I was providing training for a hospital association that wanted all their members to have access to skill and knowledge building. Being on the front lines of hospital work restricts one’s mobility; remote training was, therefore, the way to go.  (Mind you, this was years before the Web became a household word.) Needless to say, teleconferencing did not explode as predicted.  Fast forward almost 40 years and videoconferencing has become our new reality.

COVID-19 has pushed us into the future. Those, who have resisted videoconferencing, are now embracing it; people are Zooming into events they never would’ve attended prior to the pandemic. 

I doubt face-to-face meetings will become obsolete but few of us will forget the ease of using different media to get the job done and connect with others. We may rethink traveling distances to meet with people after the virus has been contained. The genie is out of the bottle.

Cleaning for Real

We are entering a new, cleaner normal, I hope. I chuckled when I saw a picture in our local newspaper of the floors of a mass transit station being mopped.  The caption read: new cleaning protocols in place. Wait, does that mean the floors had barely been cleaned before?

We may go back to our slovenly ways but I doubt folks will totally abandon washing their hands after using the toilet. I, for one, will never treat my door knobs, light switches, smart phone and other “high touch areas” the same.  Obliviousness is no longer an option.    

Inequities Exposed

We’re too early into this pandemic to know how our governments will respond to the gross inequities in our system. The fault lines have been exposed: our woefully unprepared health care system, uninsured and under-insured residents, workers without sick leave benefits. We know that past crises have resulted in major changes. 

After the Great Depression, the federal government instituted the New Deal, which was responsible for building the bridges, parks and roads we enjoy today. The foundation of the New Deal was the Social Security Act of 1935. This act changed our assumptions about social responsibility by creating insurance for the elderly, the unemployed and people with disabilities.

I remain hopeful that our federal, state and local government officials will see the fault lines that have been exposed over the past month as an opportunity to address the gross injustices in our system.  I can’t wait.