In the post COVID-19 world, there are some things that we are going to expect.  For example, you are not going to have as much time to take as much advantage of the Intertops casino no deposit bonus as you did during lockdowns (and the government paying us not to work).  But other things may become a permanent part of our society.

People wearing facemasks

When Fauci talks about people continuing to wear face masks seasonally, some people consider it just “politics talks”, but there is actually some truth to it.  Although facemask never protected people 100% from catching COVID-19, they did not help some who suffered from allergies.

Yes, some people who suffered from allergies had a worse reaction when wearing face mask, especially when they had no control of put on and talk off their mask when needed.  It actually made the situation worse.

But for other allergy sufferers, wearing a face mask helped their allergies, but the face mask helped to keep out the allergens.  But having control of when they put on their face mask and took off their face mask, helped a lot.

Also, not all viruses are the same.  Even though the COVID-19 virus was small and could get through face masks, not all viruses (or bacterial) are that small.  So colds and flues that had larger molecule sizes and less time from exposure to sickness, the facemasks did help reduce exposure.

Homeschooling, online schooling, and other non-standard schooling options (technology perspective)

Although there were groups of students where online schooling was a complete flop (children below middle school, ages 10 and below), for other groups of students, online schooling had its advantages.

Less distraction, more direct learning, so the students were able to progress through the curriculum quicker.  But that probably had to do with the group of students doing to learning, as opposed to specific method of learning.

There is also the advantage that since the foundation of doing online classes is already in place, schooling can quicklying move from online learning and in class learning very quickly without having to get up to speed.  This was most seen in Israel, with the violence that happened over the last week.  I have sons both in high school and college, where some of the students had to travel long distances to get to school.  The school administrators decided that it was in the best interest of the safety of the students to move to online classes until the hostilities calmed down.  So the schools were able to change from in person learning to online learning without missing a beat.

Think about snow days or tornado days or even the days right before and after holidays.  Schools may change those days to online learning days instead of just doing late opening or canceling school for that day all together.  But as I said above, the success or failure of such an option would depend on if the group of students is capable to handling the online learning format.  For some groups of students, moving from one format to another format would befine, but for others, it would be a disaster.

As with pre-COVID-19, some communities and some families still do not have the technical capabilities to handle online learning.  Biden, Harris, and congress are trying to address this issue with the current infostructure bill that is going through congress.  Although some people do not consider connection to the internet to be part of infostructure, technically in 2020+ it is.  As for the economics of low income people not have access to technology, that has more do with website having too much advertising that slows down the websites.  In other words, old computers that were fine for access the internet in the 1990s do not seem to be able to handle the web in 2020.  And then there is the cost of access the internet in general, either through wifi or cellular data plans.

Homeschooling, online schooling, and other non-standard schooling options (theory perspective)

By listening in on the lessons being taught to our children during COVID-19, parents began to realize what exactly their children were being taught.  For some parents, it made them even more confident in the education their children were receiving.  For others, it was the opposite.

Some of it was realizing that the teacher was not meeting the needs of the student.  For others, it was realizing that the lessons were becoming less and less about education, and more and more about indoctrination.

So instead of homeschooling becoming a temporary situation until society returned to normal, homeschooling has become permanent.  How many families will continue to keep in permanent even through the next school is yet to be known.

Teleworking

Companies allowing workers to work from home used to be rare.  It was a luxury item.  But many companies have realized with many jobs, that workers were just as productive working from home as they were working from the office, so it is an option they are willing to continue even after COVID-19 is done.

On top of that, many companies have realized that they no longer need expensive office buildings located in central business locations.

Finally, for better or for worse, they have realized that their employees can be located even in other states or even in other countries.  Sometimes this works out, and sometimes it does not.

But what percentage of workers will continue to telecommute even after COVID-19 is done is yet to be determined.  But one thing is for sure, telecommuting is here to stay.

Teledoctor visits

It used to be that whenever you wanted to visit the doctor, you had to physically go to the doctor’s office.  Now, for some simple (or routine) exams, they can be done through a telephone office visit or a video office visit.  On top of that, the handling of day to day activities in the medical field (making appointments, renewing prescriptions, simple questions and answers) can now be handled through websites.  As with anything, some companies have better websites and apps than others.

Disaster recover plans for hospitals

Specifically for Israel, hospitals had to do changes due to COVID-19.  Underground parking garages were made into extra hospitals wings that could handle even ICU patients in an emergency.  These underground areas were not only parking garages, they were also built strong enough to be bomb shelters.  So when the recent fighting happened in Israel, some of these hospitals reactivated these emergency areas, and these area become emergency bomb shelters capable of handling several hundered patients.  Luckily the fighting only got bad enough that only neonatal units had to be moved to these areas (hardest patients to move in an emergency), but they were able to do it quickly and easily.

Country wide readiness plans (government has not learned from past mistakes)

I would like to write that with COVID-19 that the US (and other countries) have learned their lessons about making sure emergency medical supplies were restocked after the emergency that depleted the supplies was over, but as Biden has proven during the last couple of weeks, even the US, the worse hit country in terms of COVID-19 has not learned its lesson.   During the last COVID-19 emergency bill, money was allocated to restock these important medical supplies, but as the border crises has gotten worse and worse, Biden redirected the money from this critical areas and redirected it to deal with the border crisis.

So what happens when the next medical crisis happens and the again the medical supplies are not be found?  If the Republican is President, the Democrats will blame the Republicans.  If a Democrat is President, they will just say that there was no way they could have foreseen the disaster.

Although schools are learning to prepare for the future, companies are learning to prepare for the future, hospitals are learning to prepare for the future, and even families are learning to prepare for the future, the US government still has not learned from past mistakes to prepare for the future.  Go figure.

Open food markets

Before COVID-19, many communities had open markets were food was out in the open.  When COVID-19 hit, many of these stores closed down these open areas and began selling the food in stored packages set amounts, if the food, like vegetables and fruit, could not be cleaned or peeled.

This is something that a lot of merchants are going to keep.  And if they do still bulk items, they are now located in closeable bulk containers.

But some merchants still have not learned.  Recently I went to a bakery, and the merchant had a cigarette (not lit) in one hand, and was touching with her hands each pastry item.  Yuck.  (Some people will never learn.)

Better awareness of hygiene and how germs spread

Is this better or is this worse?  That is a hard one to determine.  Some people have gotten into the habit of when they are in public places to put on hand sanitizer when they leave.  Or when they get home or to their work location, to wash their hands.  Some companies and businesses are permanently putting up hand sanitizer locations, and wipes for washing down shopping carts.

But on the other hand, people still crowd together in public places, and have no semblance of crowd control.

People overcrowd to a level where literally bleachers are falling to the ground.  For COVID-19, we are talking about ignoring maximum capacity fire safety and plain old weight safety.

And as for open markets, some merchants will never learn.  They still do not wear gloves, and touch things with their hands.  “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.”

Summary

What parts of our society will stay beyond COVID-19 and what parts will become history over the next year?  We will not truly know until next year comes.

But we should definitely “not through the baby out with the bathwater.”  Some changes in society are worth keeping, and some parts (riots and people destroying their own cities, because they are bored — due to everything else being closed) should definitely become history.

2020 will be a year that we are going to be talking about for generations to come.  Parents will tell their children, and their children, and even their great grandchildren.  And as with all things, we will remember the good, and try to forget the bad (and hopefully not repeat the really bad).  But one thing is for sure, life will definitely not return to exactly how it was pre-COVID-19.