Historically, humanity has survived dozens of epidemics and pandemics against enormous odds. Therefore, the Coronavirus is just another link in this endless chain, right? Well in truth is a lot more complicated than that.
If you look at it in a certain light, the history of humanity is tightly linked to the history of viruses, including the epidemics and pandemics that have resulted from them throughout our time on this earth. It is clear that viruses have been some of the most influential things for humanity. COVID-19 is as a result seen as just another one of these, with many in the future looking back to this time in the same way as we look back at the Black Death and Spanish Flu.
In fact, if you look carefully, you will realise that these two viruses hold quite a lot of similarities to the current one, particularly the Spanish flu. Like COVID-19, it was a respiratory illness which in its first 100 days after being recorded managed to kill 200,000, a statistic similar to COVID-19’s 195,000. But then again, the Spanish flu also killed at least 25,000,000 in its second phase, something which hopefully will not happen in our lifetime.
But it does bear the question: is Coronavirus just another brick in the wall? Well, I think it is, but I also believe that its devastating effect is less about this pandemic in of itself and more about what is to come.
There have long been fears amongst the scientific community of a so-called ‘super virus’, something which is completely incurable, highly contagious and could cause crippling effects for humanity. Something like this could be easily on the horizon and, although COVID-19 clearly isn’t one of these super viruses, there remains the possibility that this virus could easily mutate and lead to one of humanity’s greatest disasters.
The chances of this, though, are slim, and though many have died and many more been affected, this outbreak has much larger effects in other fields, most notable the economy. The economy has already taken a heavy hit from this outbreak, including the stock markets almost collapsing, hundreds if not thousands of businesses filing for bankruptcy and oil prices becoming negative for the first time ever, but the worst of this might still be yet to come.
This is because the fact that, now that businesses are forced to all work at home, it is becoming apparent to many of them that perhaps in the future it would be a lot more pragmatic to ditch the idea of large, expensive office buildings and replace them with the much more efficient method of nothing, as in having people instead work at home. The consequences of this could be vast, with the commercial industry being almost obliterated by these decisions. Furthermore, this is a sign that there is a high possibility that in the future things could be done almost entirely at home, with things such as schools and cinemas and actual shops dying out, being replaced with much easier online alternatives such as online schooling, streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, and delivery services like Amazon and Uber Eats respectively becoming the dominant companies in their fields, replacing what we would consider the traditional methods of commerce and putting our societal norms on their head.
Overall, it is blatant that COVID-19 not only has had a large effect in the number of cases and deaths, but also has a possibly vast effect not only the economy but also the way in which we live and in which society is structured in the far or perhaps near future.
By Oscar Mitchell, Hampton School
