Life After the COVID-19 Pandemic
While we are busy grappling with life during the novel coronavirus pandemic, you have to wonder, what will life be like after the pandemic subsides, with adequate testing, vaccine and some level of herd immunity?
Every major event brings consequences that affect our lives. Security after 9/11 is much tighter than before the notorious terrorist attacks; the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, our first hatless president, led to men everywhere ditching their hats. We all know how Elvis and then the Beatles changed popular music, bringing rock ’n’ roll to the masses.
What will be the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?
On a cultural level, we are going to be much more germ-conscious. Sales of Purell and other hand sanitizers will continue to grow, with dispensers commonplace practically everywhere, including gasoline pumps.
The handshake, which I have always considered an antiquated greeting, will fade away — just like hats under Kennedy. Handshakes have been part of our culture for thousands of years; archaeological ruins show the practice was in use in ancient Greece as far back as the fifth century BC, as a gesture of peace showing the hands held no weapon. Like a handful of other old, and odd, customs, handshaking has lingered on — until the coronavirus pandemic has made it clear shaking hands is one of the top ways we pass germs, and viruses, on to one another.
Accordingly, Catholic churches will no longer have a “sign of peace,” nor will the blood of Christ be served from a communal chalice. Think trays of tiny cups, like kombucha samples at a farmer’s market.
Germophobia will have an impact on businesses. Gyms will suffer. Long before COVID-19, I remember shying away from the guy with the hacking cough on the treadmill, and wiping down all equipment before I use it due to my aversion to other people’s sweat. When the gyms were shut down in mid-March I bought an elliptical machine and recumbent bike for my garage; even though both were budget-priced, they do the job.
The cruise ship industry will never fully recover. The specter of cruise ships filled with infected passengers sailing around the globe, searching in vain for a port that will accept them, will forever haunt us. This isn’t the first time the close, confined quarters of a cruise ship have led to disease outbreaks. Cruise ships have fostered outbreaks of Legionnaires’ diseases, bacterial meningitis, and various gastrointestinal ailments generally brought on by the norovirus.
Even before COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on its website, “Cruise ship travel presents a unique combination of health concerns. Travelers from diverse regions brought together in the often crowded, semi-enclosed environments onboard ships can facilitate the spread of person-to-person, foodborne, or waterborne diseases. Outbreaks on ships can be sustained for multiple voyages by transmission among crew members who remain onboard or by persistent environmental contamination. Port visits can expose travelers to local vectorborne diseases. The remote location of the travelers at sea means that they may need to rely on the medical capabilities and supplies available onboard the ship for extended periods of time, and cruise travelers and their physicians should be aware of ships’ medical limitations and prepare accordingly. Certain groups, such as pregnant women, the elderly, or those with chronic health conditions or who are immunocompromised, require special consideration when considering cruise travel.
In hotels, in-room carpeting will be replaced with hard flooring and bedspreads will disappear.
At retail, we are going to see a surge in contactless transactions. No more pens to sign credit or debit card receipts; no touch screens for finger after finger to press “OK” or enter.
And gas stations — hopefully the electronic card readers will stop asking us 20 questions — what’s your ZIP code, would you like a receipt, would you like a car wash — so we don’t have to keep pressing those grimy buttons. Again, contactless transactions are the way to go, and I suspect we will see a massive changeover in the months following the pandemic’s peak.
As for cash, forget it. Just look at the dirty looks people already are giving customers in supermarkets who pull out a wad of filthy greenbacks to pay for their groceries. My hunch is retailers will gradually implement “no cash” policies until currency diehards find it next to impossible to use their paper money and coins.
Just before the coronavirus hit, the big issue in many urban areas, particularly along the California coast, was the homeless — the growing throngs of unsheltered, many of them living on the streets by choice and suffering from mental illness, addiction or both. Authorities shuttled thousands of street people into cheap motels to prevent them from catching, and spreading, COVID-19. My hunch is this was the tipping point — and we as a society will no longer tolerate people camping in our parks, along our trails, and — in the case of cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, San Diego and even Eureka, up in very northern California — on our streets.
The tide will turn from looking the other way to forced incarceration and treatment — and, who knows, maybe these same motels that are now sheltering the homeless will be turned into transitional housing, on the government’s dime.
Another big cultural shift will be how we conduct business. From everything I’ve heard, having people work at home has been a real eye opener. It works. And it’s a lot cheaper than maintaining expensive office space. Companies are finding they don’t need nearly as much physical space as they have become accustomed to. My prediction: the commercial real estate market will take a dive, as more companies reduce office space and unload real estate. As for shared office space, upstarts like We Work who for a time were the darlings of the business world will find their customer bases dry up. In this environment, who wants to share desk space that’s been used by dozens of others in the prior week?
With more people working remotely, traffic will improve. Again, just before the pandemic hit, congestion on our freeways had never been worse; in Los Angeles, traditional rush-hour congestion along such major freeways as Interstates 5, 405 and 10 had become almost a 24/7 scourge.
The restaurant and bar business has certainly taken a hit with shelter-in-place mandates. Restaurants that have chosen to remain open, for takeout and delivery, report business is down by 50% or more; anecdotally, I’ve seen several restaurants that, in mid-March, decided to stay open and offer takeout, no longer offer that service.
Many restaurants and bars won’t survive, even with government aid and rent forgiveness. But the restaurant business has always been fluid, and I have no doubt that once the stay-at-home orders are lifted the restaurant and bar business, as a whole, will rise back up — with certain changes.
Salad and salsa bars will be a thing of the past. Already, we’ve seen the San Diego-based Souplantation chain of buffet-style restaurants announce the permanent closure of all 97 of its locations, with the CEO telling a reporter that new regulations against self-service make it impossible to stay in business.
Those lavish all-you-can eat buffets in Las Vegas? Cherish the memories — they’re gone, and they’re not coming back. The same goes for breakfast bars at hotels — while ordering off the menu has always been an option, now it’s going to be the only option.
Reusable condiment containers, from mustard and ketchup bottles to salt and pepper shakers, also will be gone. I’m still not sure how higher-end restaurants will handle the flatware situation — I only know that I, for one, will be reluctant to pick up a fork, knife, or spoon that’s been used by someone else, unless it’s in my own home.
Seating at restaurants will be a lot more spread out; diners with booths will only utilize every other one until they rip them out and devise a new seating plan.
Restaurant waiting times will be little longer.
But people will adjust. They always do.
