Much like the measles, COVID-19 is here to stay. Most would protest that we are now ‘done’ with it, but that’s just wishful thinking. COVID-19 was more than just a virus, it was a disruption on the scale of an atom bomb. The sense we now have of COVID-19 not being an issue anymore is the result of the safeguards we have built around ourselves to keep us as safe as possible. Despite the pandemic being ‘over’, we are a lot more conscious about washing our hands, especially after the commute home, sneezing in someone’s face is more than just a social faux pas, and rubbing alcohol has pervaded almost every household and building that may conceivably have access to it. The pandemic is only over in the sense that we are making every effort to keep it at bay, much like we have with contagious diseases before COVID-19.
Post-quarantine, not Post-pandemic
What we experience as the ‘post-pandemic’ is not a life set free from COVID-19, rather, it’s a life vaccinated from the disease. The disease still claims lives, it still affects a growing number of people with symptoms (like Eris, the latest variant spreading in the UK), and the world still sees outbreaks happen across the globe. The mental difference we perceive in the situation is due to the lessening of its intensity, and the mental break in time that we’ve assigned to the pre- and post-quarantine world. The end of the pandemic was for many people, the end of the necessity of having to avoid the plague like well, the plague. Now we go about our daily lives, albeit perhaps with pocket sanitizers and perhaps even donning cheerfully printed masks if not the plain ones, and celebrate the defeat of a global health crisis.
However, along with breathing problems, brain fog, and dizziness, there’s another symptom of long covid that humanity will suffer from for a long time (and for the blissfully unaware, long COVID refers to ongoing COVID symptoms COVID that lasts for longer than three months or longer after first being infected) – a sense of lasting instability in society. In our hubris, humanity has always coasted along with the infinite satisfaction that comes from being at the top of the food chain. Large-scale natural disasters, human atrocities, outbreaks of disease, there was seemingly nothing humanity couldn’t bounce back from. COVID-19 taught us all a much needed lesson in humility.
Pillars of Salt, Pillars of Sand
The COVID-19 crisis also revealed an alarming picture of the fragility of the systems we have built around us. The virus itself was not something we were immediately able to understand, even with all the science we had at our disposal. This had the effect of permanently rupturing the faith some had in science’s ability to save us all. Others felt reinforced in their belief. Some turned to religion, and others foreswore their gods. And yet, even though the situation had seemed so unfamiliar to us at first, the challenges the pandemic brought about (other than those related directly to it) was nothing new.
The economic decline that formed a large part of the pandemic fallout was largely a reflection of the inequalities in the system that had always been there. The income polarization and the worker vulnerability to crisis and business decisions had been in effect for quite a while. One economic inequality that the virus brought into glaring focus for example, was the difference in pay that ‘key workers’ ‘enjoyed’. This exposure of economic disparity is one that has had far reaching consequences, and we see the conversation spilling over from health workers to teachers, to animators, voice actors, and now, to the Writers Guild of America. Nepotism is now examined more closely in various sectors and industries, as people grow more aware of the privileges some individuals enjoy over others.
Off the Beaten Track
The realization of their own economic vulnerability has led many to exploring avenues outside of conventional ‘jobs’ or career paths to make a living. There is a clear increase in gig work, side hustles and increased interest in alternative income methods. People are also paying more attention to the need for a work-life balance and quality work environments. Several years of having worked from home has resulted in a lowered tolerance for toxic work cultures and exploitative management techniques. As much as there is awareness of the need to adapt to occupational transitions, there is also an increasing focus on employee-employer relationship dynamics, and the responsibilities of the employer in sustaining the workers that sustain a business. The post-COVID-19 labor market is still evolving and will likely keep doing so for quite a while yet.
The Virtual Reality, Twenty Years After it was First Promised
Another way in which COVID-19 left its lasting mark is perhaps in the digitalization of the world. This is a topic that has perhaps been beaten to death already, and yet still strangely confronting when encountered in the wild. It is still jarring to meet a medical professional through a screen, still strangely discombobulating to find yourself suddenly disconnected from an online zumba class in the middle of a session and finding yourself looking at a blank screen. And yet, none of these are exactly new phenomena, it was only the speed at which they occurred and became widespread that was new.
The N*w N*rm*l
These two changes that the pandemic manifested alone has wrought significant havoc on the social order. Businesses have been forced to invest in resilience after decades of hyperfocusing on efficiency. Capitalism itself is being put under a microscope, as are international relations and environmental challenges. As the status quo is increasingly found wanting in meeting unforeseen challenges, it is possible that there is a long term shift in how individuals and societies are supported through the institutions they have helped build.
Most analysis of the post-COVID-19 pandemic tends to view these disruptions, and others like it, as a decline in human progress and as stagnation. The narrative however, is how you build it. The disruption that the pandemic caused was undeniably tragic, the suffering humanity had to undergo painfully real. The trauma of having to watch the world fall apart is one that can’t be overstated. It might help to think of it as an opportunity for change as more and more faults in our systems are highlighted. The crisis brought together many communities, industries, professionals, academics, and the like to meet an unforeseen, unforeseeable crisis. This remembrance is one that should be carried forward along with the very natural trepidation we have for the future.
(Theruni Liyanage)