Collateral Damage?

A follow up from my post “When will we be able to travel (freely) again with Covid-19?“, I wonder what would the unintended collateral damage of certain measures taken by the governments with the situation of Covid-19. I understand that we all must take caution and health is of utmost priority.

Thoughts, in broad strokes (as each country has it’s own requirements & rules) and in no specific order.

• Home based learning, or no schooling (or exams) at all? Potential impact on a generation of children and our future work force?
• What about the mask wearing? Especially for younger children or the elderly? Will there be any psychological or health issues?
• Lockdowns / stay at home notices, especially for those in less desirable home circumstances (for example, physically abusive relationships or poverty)?
• Social Distancing and individual human psychology / emotional well being? As a whole, we are social creatures by design.
• Masks, hand sanitizers, extra focus on staying ‘clean’, the potential effect on one’s immune system?
• “Work from home”, and the consequences of remote working on property pricing and urbanisation (/where we choose to live).
• What about the birth rates of countries? I’ve seen people label their new born baby in this time “covid babies”, due to the isolation (safe distancing) etc.

I have not brought up the potential economic implications, as I feel that’s been covered. It will be interesting to see how we as a collective look back at 2020 and well, the current state of 2021, in let’s say 5 or 10 years time. There were undercurrents of change pre Covid-19, I feel that Covid-19 was an accelerant to certain changes, such as digitization etc.

For now, stay well, stay healthy and stay calm.

A side note: “When will we be able to travel (freely) again with Covid-19?” We are still in a state of travel restrictions and requirements of quarantines in certain countries. There is no clear answer to when we will be able to travel ‘freely’ yet. I have personally not seen my family for almost a year, that’s the longest ever. Normally in the past, at least one member of our family would meet each other once a month. It’s weird not seeing them for so long, and a reminder of the importance of family.