The coronavirus outbreak has brought the world to its knees. Moreover, the deadly virus is taking over the world and we are still hoping for a cure. Indeed, no matter how much we want this to be just a bad nightmare and nothing more, we just cannot escape reality.
The world is changing due to the most deadly pandemic in recent times. Furthermore, it will never be the same as we once knew.
In this blog, we’ll seek to discover what we can actually learn from this crisis, and how that will help us in our endeavors once everything gets back to normal.
The severe global health crisis showed us no matter how strong the countries can be, we are not even well equipped to face a threat measuring just 120 nm in diameter. To put this into perspective, even a human hair is approximately 80,000- 100,000 nanometers(nm) wide.
Now we know, all this bragging about power is worthless. All the false sense of superiority shown by some countries in the world hold almost little to no value
the coronavirus outbreak has opened our eyes
We say humans are the smartest creatures living on the planet. However, all this time we were just busy making weapons of mass destruction. Whereas, we could have instead invested our resources in vital medical research. In that case, maybe then, we would not have experienced such traumatic times.
Besides, the global coronavirus outbreak also opened our eyes to a lot of other crucial topics. We’re not going to state the obvious. In fact, by now, you already know what needs to be done. You probably have already heard how to keep you and your family safe during this phase.
In addition to that, we can only hope that everyone’s trying their best from their own positions to tackle the common enemy.
With this in mind, in this blog, we will try to rethink our very purpose of existence in the face of this pandemic. Let’s not be too pessimistic and spread unnecessary panic. Instead, let us try to unearth the small little details that we can actually learn from this crisis.
Some key takeaways from the coronavirus outbreak
Science matters
It has always mattered. Only we didn’t value it as much as it deserved. Through the ages of fallacy and disregard, we kept ignoring the importance of scientific research. Somehow, it got lost amidst the ever-growing defense budgets and the delusion of ‘modern development’.
Humans are unpredictable
Without a doubt, humans are to be blamed for not doing enough to stop the spread of the virus. The first reports of the coronavirus outbreak started circulating months ago but the governments around the world preferred to just ignore the threat.
Apart from the governments and businesses, the general public also lost the initiative to address the crisis with adequate safety measures for themselves and the society they live in. Even when lockdowns were imposed, people even in highly educated societies did not pay any heed to the impending danger.
Public health is important
Indeed, this is the worst possible way that the governments got reminded of how important public health really is. Now we know why we should always be prepared with adequate medical information and other resources at all times. Experts warned the world of an upcoming pandemic long ago. But we still did little to prepare ourselves.
Keep an eye on the WHO’s updates for staying safe during the pandemic
We should aLWAYS keep clean
Pandemic or no pandemic, we should always practice cleanliness. For example, everyone should always abide by cough etiquette. Also, whenever we find ourselves in a crowd, type away on our keyboards, or maybe even when we are shaking someone’s hand, we don’t think about the harmful germs that we are adapting ourselves to live with.
Therefore, one of the biggest takeaways from this coronavirus outbreak is how we can effectively build cleanliness habits and spread awareness about it.
The case for ‘work from home’
Many companies had to quickly adapt to ‘work from home’ practices in the wake of the virus pandemic. There are some forms of work that are not possible to conduct from home effectively. But interestingly, for most companies that can, working from home proves to be more productive.
Besides, companies that already had a system in place for remote work, faced fewer difficulties during this transition period. We can see that it is indeed better to promote remote work where it is applicable.
Internet for all
It might be safe to say now that the internet should be regarded as a basic necessity. If the internet was made accessible by everyone around the world, then sharing important information, instructions, and awareness regarding the coronavirus outbreak would have been much easier.
Likewise, the Internet helped people to keep themselves busy and informed at the same time during the lockdown. Through online communication platforms, we were able to keep in touch with the ones we care about.
Furthermore, this connectivity is crucial in maintaining good mental health during extended periods of lockdown.
Need for digital transformation
We are reminded once again why digital transformation should be considered for our businesses. Brick and mortar businesses without any digital presence are hit the hardest.
Progressive companies and businesses which have some or most part of their businesses online easily managed to remodel their service delivery strategy.
For example, most offline retailers are going out of business during this time, whereas, those who have an e-commerce integration, are seeing more revenues coming in.
Heroes on the frontlines
This is no less than a war and the doctors and researchers are the ones who are fighting it on behalf of us. Along with them, law enforcement agencies are also risking their own lives and trying their best to make sure that we are safe. Because of them, we see the hope of light at the end of the tunnel.
We should all know how to cook
The coronavirus outbreak has made us realize how beneficial it is to know how to cook. Cooking is a skill that we all must learn at least as a survival skill. Staying at home and cooking for ourselves, we now know that it is possible to live without the junk food that we always keep craving which is also very bad for our health.
The importance of family
Subsequently, once again we have reminded the importance of close family relations and bonding. The deadly coronavirus outbreak has forced us to stay at home. This has allowed us to bond more closely with our family members, sadly, for whom we don’t keep much time otherwise.
Essential service providers deserve more respect
Most of us are staying at home and practicing social distancing to keep ourselves safe. Our stay at home would not be safe without some people risking their lives for us.
It is high time we give more respect to the cleaners that clean our streets, the guards that guard our houses, the firefighters, the ambulance drivers, the vegetable vendors, the food delivery guys and all other such essential service providers.
They are staying out so that we can stay at home and stay protected. Let us appreciate their efforts. Let us not take their services for granted anymore.
Appreciating nature and re-thinking climate change
One major positive change that we noticed after cities got locked down, is how nature is rightfully claiming back what was it’s own. Pollution came down to an all-time low in recent decades. Animals were happy again and people could breathe fresher air once more.
Climate change is harming us in more ways than we can imagine. It is sad, that we needed a pandemic to make us truly understand the dangers of it. It proved that there is still time to make things right when it comes to ‘climate justice’.
We are All equal
Clearly, viruses don’t discriminate. Regardless of race, religious or political beliefs, geographical location, social status, financial conditions, or power – every single human being is prone to the dangers of the virus. Moreover, this coronavirus outbreak came and reminded us how we all are created equal and thus, should treat each other as such.
We should always waste less
We often forget that the earth has limited resources. Oftentimes, we indulge in excessive spending of money, food, and other important resources where in other parts of the world, people die from the sheer lack of them.
Over-hoarding of essentials also created an artificial scarcity of goods in most places. This has taught us the lesson that we should always spend our resources more wisely and avoid wasting.
Always learning new skills
The world is changing and we are going through a huge paradigm shift due to the coronavirus outbreak. With this in mind, we now understand the need for having a varied set of skills to survive on this planet.
We now know that it is never wise to stop learning. Rather we should always be looking forward to learning new skills.
A new world awaits post the coronavirus outbreak
This unprecedented catastrophe has caused immeasurable harm to our public health and economy. Additionally, it has made it very clear to us that all our earthly fantasies are not worth anything. We as nations, need to rethink and reorganize our priorities towards humankind.
We need to adapt to a changing world. Moreover, in order to sustain our economy and way of living, we should understand where and how the effects of the pandemic will leave a lasting impression. We will definitely see a major change in human characteristics and business strategies in general.
We should note that human behavioral traits largely influence markets and businesses. Hence, it is absolutely critical to grasp the changes beforehand in order to survive in a post-COVID world. So, Let’s explore how you can still ensure the sustainability of business after the crisis is over
Online shopping to grow rapidly
Crowded physical marketplaces will be a thing of the past. Particularly, in a world where shopping online is becoming more and more popular each day, the survival of offline-only retail stores will definitely be questioned. On the other hand, for progressive businesses, this is a perfect opportunity to shift their focus more towards selling and distributing products online.
Digital transaction to reshape how we use money
As previously mentioned, we, as humans will become more conscious about personal hygiene. Numerous reports have shown that banknotes carry a huge amount of germs. For this reason, digital transactions, although already very popular in the western world, will also gain traction elsewhere as well.
Mobile financial services will thrive. Thus, businesses will have to adapt quickly to integrate such technology with their current processes.
Automation will be vital
Businesses will feel the importance of automation now more than before. Studies show that businesses with more automation enabled have fared well in comparison to those without it. The world will have to put up with technology taking the lead role with less physical human involvement.
Remote working will be getting into the mainstream
structure. For instance, we are seeing a lot of companies going out of business without being able to put their employees to work. On the other hand, companies with proper ‘work from home’ mechanisms were able to keep things running.
Putting the lessons to work
The governments around the world, with the help of doctors and scientists, are working hard to find a solution to this massive world problem. We now realize that we need to be more careful about such health hazards in the future and try to prevent future outbreaks from happening again.
As the world keeps fighting the deadly virus with all it got, we know that we can only win this battle by cooperation and mutual understanding. Social distancing does not mean it’s every man for himself, rather it will require great teamwork to get back to normal life again.
When all of this is over, we should not forget about all these lessons that came to light because of the coronavirus outbreak. Let’s all be more compassionate towards each other and try to build a more harmonious world. Let the mighty pen rule over the sword.
For now, let’s all pray and hope that we stay mentally strong and come out of this stronger than before. Because as they say – this too, shall pass.
Further helpful reading: How To Sustain Your Business In Lockdown!
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