Why the “silver lining” will become Covid’s lasting legacy
It was February 2020, and I was in Orlando for an offsite company retreat. We typically have these kinds of offsite bonding trips twice a year. At the time, we had heard rumblings of the novel coronavirus spreading in China, but all of us seemed pretty confident that it wouldn’t spread to the United States. After all, SARS and Ebola never really impacted us here, so how was Covid-19 any different?
We had our meetings, shared meals at restaurants, and drank craft beer at several breweries. During breaks, I would spend my time studying for my Managerial Finance course at the University of Hawaii, since I had to take a week off for the retreat, and would miss several lectures (remote learning was not yet an option). Yes, we spent a full day at the theme parks. All things considered, I still must say that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is just as magical as it looks.
The parks were packed. I had a small panic attack when someone coughed in my direction. We put globs of hand sanitizer on our hands every chance we got, thinking that was probably enough to keep us safe. At the time, the CDC had still not recommended universal mask wearing, so there were literally tens of thousands of people mulling about the parks with their faces bare. I was the only one wearing a mask on the flight home.
After I landed back home in Hawaii, I was exhausted from the jet-lag and only had a few hours to recover before my daily routine started up again. I would wake up early, work all day, and in the evenings I would need to commute to University for school, where exams and classwork were backlogged from my trip. I would commute for a few hours on public transportation to save money on parking. I was typically making the journey during peak rush hour, so the busses were packed and I often arrived late to class even when I had left work early.
Yeah it was nuts…and a week later, the country went into lockdown.
Toilet paper quickly vanished. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find hand sanitizer anywhere, even if my life depended on it. The CDC suddenly reversed its position on mask wearing, even though there was a shortage. So, we put dishtowels on our faces in order to be allowed to enter into the grocery store to buy food. The stock market crashed. Gyms and pools closed. We over-washed our hands. The University was severely underprepared to transition to remote learning, and fumbled with creating an official policy for the remainder of the semester. Politicians weren’t helping, per usual.
It was a mess.
The feeling was like living in a dystopian sci-fi novel. Nobody talked with each other, or even really made eye contact. People began to get laid off and unemployment sky-rocketed. Hospitals were overflowing, and thousands were dying on a daily basis.
I was fortunate however, to work for a remote-first software consultancy, so the disruption to our daily routines was relatively low, even if the worked slowed down some. After the initial shock, we actually started to fall into a routine. We would only shop for groceries once a week, and would only buy what we needed. We would waste less. The University set up remote policies, so that we could all attend class from the comfort of our homes, without needing to make pointless daily commutes. One of my classmates even received a work promotion that required relocation to DC, and he was still able to continue pursuing his degree remotely without any issues. The stock market quickly began to recover as we realized that many of our industries could still function in a remote setting, and stimulus packages were released.
Now, I don’t want to rationalize away how terrible Covid-19 was. At the time of this writing, over 2 million people worldwide have died, with millions more infected by the virus. Unemployment reached all-time highs. Extended periods of isolation often led our inner demons get the better of us, contributing to high levels of social unrest across the political spectrum. Even as things started to get better, it felt like we would often take two steps back.
On the other hand, we also had the lowest amount of net annual carbon emissions in 30 years. The “warp-speed” development of mRNA medical research that led to the development of a vaccine, also promises advancements in other medical fields like cancer research. We also saw more high school graduates applied to medical school than ever before. Universal basic income, went from being a pipe-dream to a logical response to hardship as stimulus checks were mailed to American citizens.
So, in 50 years, how will the history books remember 2020? Will it be a story of how our fragile society fell apart, or will we reflect on this past year with a more optimistic attitude? I personally think it will be the latter, and that 2020 will be a story of how we collectively looked ourselves in the mirror, slowed down our excessive behavior, and finally began to realize what was truly important to our humanity.
