Jeremiah McKinney
Staff Reporter
It has been said that the COVID-19 epidemic will have vast effects on society, but just how much will it effect? Will it only be remembered through jokes and hazy recollection, or will it cause permanent, ever-present changes?
Now, most people seem to focus on the negatives. This is understandable, as COVID-19 has proven itself to be pretty terrible and has resulted in a death toll unheard of for almost a century. However, people all over the world will hopefully take many lessons from this; many people would not be eager to go back into a quarantine situation.
The largest takeaway is also what one would generally think common sense: wash your hands. Children all over the world are taught to wash their hands whenever their hands are dirtied. Using the bathroom, eating, handling shopping carts, and many other daily activities should be immediately followed up with a thorough handwashing. According to a 2015 HuffPost article by Eleanor Goldberg, “while 92 percent of Americans say they believe it’s important to wash their hands after using the restroom, only 66 percent actually do, according to a survey conducted by the Bradley Corporation.” Of course, many developing nations do not have the means to make sure everyone is able to wash their hands, and the article also states that one in five newborn deaths in the developing world were due to poor hygiene. However, if everyone who were able to wash their hands did so, many diseases (including the ever-present COVID-19) would have their spread severely mitigated. “Common sense is not so common,” a quote by French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher, has never rang more true.
Another lesson is that, with support, people will prevail over near anything. As news of COVID-19 spread from ear to ear across nations, many people freaked out (leading to panic buying and other similar overreactions) whilst many others ignored the actual threat (possibly in-part causing the original spread of the pandemic to be as rapid as it was). However, now it seems that most of the world is reaching or already has reached their peaks. This is likely due to people finally listening to government and CDC guidelines, such as standing 6 feet apart, not panic buying, and many hygiene tips. Now that people have seen that governments knew what they were talking about, there may be a bit more trust for officials (so long as they earn it in hopefully less stressful ways than a pandemic).
There are likely many lessons that society will learn due to these months of quarantine and fear. Hopefully the lessons are remembered, so that future generations do not repeat our mistakes.
Image Credit: John Cameron on Unsplash
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