How will life be different now?

[Womanlywiles]

I should say I am on the West coast of the USA, but it's already clear life is not going to return to what we knew. Many changes and unknowns are still ahead of us. Over here, we are hoping that this is the end of Trump and that we also may get a Democratic majority in the Senate so Congress and the Presidency will all be Democratic and can bring substantial change to the US. In the meantime, November is a long way away, and a new president would not take office until January 2021.

As for right now, what changes have already happened or do you expect to happen since COVID? For us, we live at the edge of a big city as it blends with the countryside and we have a larger garden in a neighborhood of similar homes. Everyone is drawing together, trading, bartering, supporting and helping each other. This was happening before but now everyone is more committed, the neighbors have even divided up the neighborhood and we all have volunteers who we can call if we need any help. So I guess there is an increase in community spirit and connection.

Next few years - everything possibly depending on a vaccine or anti viral.

Limited International travel unless you can prove immunity.

Long term - I believe science will find a way to deal with this - there has never been a more pressing need to do so that will also make money for the drug companies and research fellows.

Long term- there are too many countries dependent on tourism, too many economies who depend on trade that will not allow this to affect us long term

Science will win out

PS I have a chemistry and physics background and I'm not religious,

We have never cured a virus and I doubt we ever will - what we will do is eventually learn to live with this.

and I know this is heresy, especially in the UK - but eventually if you don't take the vaccine for this without medical reasons not to - you will be shunned and a pariah

Of course there is also the possibility - which is still unproven but also unlikely - that once you've had it you get immunity so it will end up being something that children get

Problem is, and I personally don't see this as a problem but I know I'm not normal - people will die first.

*I'm not a sociopath but unless its someone I care about I can a analyse deaths without emotion

First, I love your user name. Next, I am married to a doctor and also have two family members in the UK who are in the NHS so I am very pro-science and also can handle the "darker" conversations or predictions of how this may change our behavior.

Unfortunately one outcome has been the (typical) blaming of a group or nation for the virus. Of course Trump blames the Chinese with a resulting uptick in anti-Asian attacks around the country. In China, I think because stories have come from the USA and other countries that people of color - especially African Americans - have been disproportionately infected with the virus (due to equity issue around healthcare, class and the jobs people hold etc.) that seems to have been translated by the Chinese population as people of African descent being more likely carriers. Africans from Nigeria and Kenya have been scapegoated, thrown out of their accommodation and openly refused entry to shops purely on the basis of their skin in parts of China. That governments are so willing to pass blame (or let people be blamed) for a brand new virus is depressing.

I thought people with darker skin were also higher risk due to their reduced ability to absorb vitamin D?
I know that in many cases inequalities do exist and should not be ignored, but nature may also have a hand in the matter.

As for the viruses origin; it would be interesting to know where it came from and whether it could indeed have been avoided. Although there is no point playing the blame game (particularly when you blame/ stereotype an entire culture/country rather than the few), there should be some accountability and provisions put in place to reduce the likelihood of further pandemics in the future.

I have no problem discussing or examining the reasons why this might be, but discriminating against people and assuming they are immediately infected and then rejecting them due to the color of their skin, is obviously inhumane as well as not backed by science.

I think there is at least one other thread discussing this issue in depth, I would rather keep this thread open for ALL the different ways we see or imagine the future will look like since COVID.

@Womanlywiles

There are also plenty of other threads discussing the ‘apocalyptic‘ future after Covid. So I guess your thread is redundant.