Health

The effects of a pandemic on life as we know it will be diverse. We will start with the field that is
affected the most in an outbreak, which is medicine. It is obvious that we will find ourselves in an
unknown, scary situation, threatening to take our most precious resource away from us: our health.
How much it will take to contain this crisis or how much the virus can affect our DNA is to be determined
in the following weeks, months or even years. But it is certain that we will, somehow, overcome this.
However, many things will and should change. We decided to divide the discussion about medicine and
health after a pandemic into 2 main topics: what we, as individuals, will have to do or what different
organisations or institutions will have to decide regarding possible scenarios.

1. As individuals, there are several scenarios: it is probable that we will have to wear masks for a
while now, and I believe this will continue beyond the few months after an outbreak ends.
Maybe some of us will choose to wear the mask all the time, just like some people in Asian
countries do, and some of us will also stick to wearing gloves all the time, so high fives will never
quite feel the same. It is certain that wearing protective gear has a lot of benefits, but imagine a
hot summer day, having to wear a mask covering most of your face.
2. Speaking from the point of view of institutions just as hospitals, research centers, schools or
even supermarkets is much more difficult. The best case scenario is that every health institution
will stock up on protective gear, sanitizers and certain medication and that our country will start
producing more of these so we wouldn’t have to rely on import. The worst case scenario,
however, might be that we won’t have time to think about any of that. What if the virus, being
similar to the HIV one as some studies show, will have a greater impact on our health than
previously expected? Although improbable, we don’t know yet if people who recover from the
virus will live their lives normally or if they might face complications later, so people working in
the health field, statisticians and researchers, as well as managers and politicians will have to
take that into account too.

Another big change that can occur and can affect all of us is the necessity of the immunity passport to
travel, showing that you are immune to the virus. As a matter of fact, it’s already happening. In mid-
April, Emirates Airline conducted rapid COVID-19 blood tests on passengers travelling to Tunisia from
Dubai. Some countries even consider the extreme measure of keeping those who don’t have the
immune passport indoors. However, it is pretty delicate as some people would voluntarily go out to
catch the virus in the hopes of gaining immunity to it. Moreover, the accuracy of these immunity tests is
questionable, as a rather big percent of them are false positive – or false negative.

Education
Another domain that will be modified after a pandemic is education. Not necessarily schools or
universities and their teaching manner, but I believe new directions and new disciplines will be available
to study. Furthermore, there is a high chance some activities that are not founded enough nowadays,
like scientific research, will be of greater interest after a pandemic strikes, even in countries that no
longer pay any attention to them. In some ways, a pandemic has a few good sides. It can create a true
revolution in what people consider important when searching for their own purpose in life regarding
their future occupation and technology will surely play an important role in all of this.
As an university student, beyond the negative ways in which the pandemic and the new rules affected
my life and my studies, not being able to see my friends or to physically participate in classes, I suppose
we can all appreciate the fact that we adapted to the situation, and we did it fast enough. Our faculty
clearly had its advantages, but the pandemic created a strong relationship between internet and other
faculties as well because, based on my own experience, faculties that are not IT-related do not normally
have any course support, nor online, nor physical. As this pandemic forced them to find ways to get to
students over the internet, the future might look brighter for those who need online support in their
studies. Moreover, this crisis was a true advertiser for websites that can help teachers and students
communicate online. To be honest, who’s heard about zoom before? Discord was pretty popular among
gamers, but many others didn’t have an account. And google classroom might actually become a pretty
relevant part of the internet that wouldn’t have left the obscurity otherwise.

One scenario that will probably come true is how the government will actually invest in scientific
research, which would have helped a lot in case of a pandemic. Today, only a few countries can hope for
a scientific breakthrough, which obviously slows down the process of finding a vaccine or a treatment. In
the future, more countries and more organizations from each country will have the opportunity to make
a change and understand different phenomena, which will automatically increase not only the general
health of a population, that can lead to a longer lifespan, but also the quality of life, as well as allowing
young people to choose a researcher career, something more of a fairytale nowadays.

Education in the future will go hand-in-hand with technology, and the outbreak will speed up this
process. While robots replacing teachers is something improbable and, in my opinion, not much of a
good idea, virtual reality, for example, might help students in case this situation will occur again in the
future.

However, the way technology can help overcoming and preventing a pandemic has its controversial
aspects. Some countries have developed a way to track everyone based on their location shared via
mobile phones. As much as it can help you avoid an outbreak, it sure makes data protection history and
redefines freedom and personal space. This could lead to certain governments, in particular totalitarian
ones, to abuse of power and act in unwanted ways.

Ending
We all hope to forget about the pandemic as soon as possible, especially as the whole world found ways
to efficiently fight the virus. However, future pandemics, because there will be future pandemics even if
we do not like the idea, might not have happy endings. An outbreak is similar to a war – so what if it
leads to a dystopian society? Some of us already feel relieved, but the truth is we never know what the
future holds. This virus disrupted the normal course of our lives in a span of a few weeks. What if this
situation will give rise to dark ideas, such as biological wars and weapons? Having said that, it’s not the
time to completely ignore the virus and go back to our normal lives. Even so, this does not mean to
isolate ourselves. On the contrary, this should make us realise that we are supposed to make the most
out of any situation and find joy in the little things as we don’t know when they will be taken away from
us. If anything, this time spent isolated should have helped us know and understand ourselves more so
we can leave the quarantine as better individuals – but will we?