How Would A Post COVID-19 World Look Like?

The world as we know it is changing. The coronavirus pandemic is literally changing the ways we do things as human beings – from the ways we relate and interact, to the ways we do work and do business, to the ways we socialize and relax– everything is changing… and rapidly too.

Established systems of governance are also changing. The healthcare delivery systems in most nations are overwhelmed, stock market indices are crumbling with a global recession looming, CEOs of global brands are resigning their positions, many nations are on lockdown; those not on total lockdowns are experiencing one form of restriction or the other.

A Closed Library

New lingo and terminologies are fast becoming commonplace. Words like:

• -          Social Distancing
• -          Lockdown
• -          COVID-19
• -          Isolation
• -          Self-isolation
• -          Testing kits
• -          Hand Sanitizers
• -          Ventilators

Are becoming mainstream and part of our daily conversations. Now people are being forced to:

• -          Stay at/work from home.
• -          Wash hands as frequently as possible and use hand sanitizers.
• -          Not to shake or hug their families and friends.
• -          Not to move around freely or exercise their rights to travel.
• -          Limit or completely stop receiving visitors.
• -          Stock up food and medical supplies.

The list is endless…. A friend the other day was complaining that he was tired of sitting at home! When will these restrictions end? Can we just have our world as we knew it then back?

The World post COVID-19

I sincerely hope that a vaccine and cure to the coronavirus would be found and made available soon. At least that would lift most of the restrictions and restore our world to the way we used to know it. Or wouldn’t it?

My rational mind, however, is of the opinion that the world might not return to a the normal state as we know it; instead a new normal would begin with adaptations from the experience of COVID-19.

Here are my thoughts on how a post-COVID-19 world would look like:

1) Limitation of human interaction.

As COVID-19 is mainly spread by human to human interactions, I expect measures to be put in place to limit these interactions to curtail another outbreak of the pandemic or a similar one.  Even though the current 2-metre social distancing rule may be lifted, technologies would be deployed to ensure that human to human interactions would be at its barest minimum.

Can you imagine a world without the human touch? A world without the warmth of a mother's hug or goodnight kiss to her children? A world without handshakes after successful business deals?

2) Rise and rise of Artificial Intelligence.

COVID-19 exposed the severe limitations of doctors, medical equipment and infrastructure in the medical field, with regard to quantity. 
The large numbers of  people who have had contact with confirmed coronavirus victims, and needed testing, exposed the grossly inadequate numbers of doctors, medical personnel and equipment that were available to test them.

In Italy where people were on a queue to use ventilators, for example, the story was told of an elderly priest who gave up his ventilator for a younger person to use.
As highly commendable as this gesture was, it cost the priest his life! 
This wouldn't have occurred if they were sufficient ventilators to cater for emergency situations.

To mitigate occurrences such as this, I expect a massive deployment of robots and artificial intelligence to help diagnose and test patients post-COVID-19. This will greatly reduce the exposure of medical personnel to ailments as well as reduce the fatality rates from such exposures.

I also expect driverless cars, trains, ships, planes to rapidly increase. As well as the use of drones and other technologies for transportation and logistics.

Would you fancy a robot knocking on your door to deliver your ordered pizza or a drone delivering your medical prescription?

3) Extermination of Careers and massive loss of jobs.

As a direct consequence of the rise of Artificial Intelligence in various fields of endeavour, the jobs those machines and technologies would take over, would be lost.

I remember as a young boy growing up, my father used to patronize newspaper vendors who used to supply various tabloids to the house at the time.

Today nobody patronises newspaper vendors (except of course for the Free Readers Association,) as news items are read online these days and in electronic forms.  Most print media outfits have since gone digital and electronic.

IN the same vein, human referees have for decades been the umpires of the round-leather game - football. However, with the introduction of the VAR - Virtual Assistant Referee - though still imperfect, the jobs of human referees are suddenly on the line. 

Jobs and occupations that are routine and repetitive face the highest risk of going into extinction 

says the Insider.

According to Forbes.com, the top  20 disappearing jobs include 

• Farmers, 
• Ranchers, 
• Postal and Clerical Officers, 
• Typists and Data Entry personnel
• Street Vendors
• Petroleum pump operators

Accountants, Bank tellers, Mortgage bankers and broker, Taxi and Uber Drivers, Fast-food Chefs, Photographers, IT support staff, Travel agencies and even pilots are some professions that might soon go extinct as a result of artificial intelligence automation.

This is the time to consider a career switch if your job or career is on the brink. This is the time to obtain education and skills which are intuitive in nature and require human reasoning as that is the direction our world is headed.

4) Increased Surveillance and Monitoring as World Governments Collaborate

In a bid to tackling the global coronavirus pandemic, governments the world overtook far-reaching measures in adopting surveillance technologies that helped in speedily tracking, identifying and isolating suspected cases to curtail the spread of the disease.

China, for example, has succeeded in achieving this feat as there are currently no new reported COVID-19 cases there.

South Korea's success in curtailing the spread of the virus is due to cutting edge surveillance technology that accurately pinpoints the location of her citizens and visitors.
The technology tracks suspected carriers of the virus and create a database in the form of a public map that shows other citizens if they have crossed paths with the suspected carrier.
The Government then sends out a text message like the one below alerting people to the possibility of having an infected person in their neighbourhood

A woman in her 60s has just tested positive. Click on the link below for the places she has visited before she was hospitalised.

Singapore, Iran and Taiwan have all developed apps that can trace and monitor people within metres of infected persons.

While such technologies are excellent in combating the spread of the coronavirus, the questions below would be begging for answers 

• Would the government relinquish the use of such technologies after the pandemic? 
• Would continued use after the COVID-19 not infringe on the privacy rights of citizens? 
• Could this be the platform that would give rise to the new one-world government?

In conclusion, these are my perspectives on how our not-too-far future would like post-COVID-19? Do you like what I see?

Back to the present. Please let us stay safe. Lumie Concepts encourages the strict adherence of the rituals of hands washing and social distancing amidst partial or total lockdowns. Together, we will see the end of the coronavirus. This too shall pass.

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