Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19 for short, has been with us for less than three months and it has thrown global health and economic systems into chaos – infecting 118,347 118,893 people as of this writing, and killing 4,269. Airports around the world are empty and millions sit at home in mandatory quarantine. International markets are crashing at a scale reminiscent of the 2008 banking crisis, and financial experts warn of worse to come. More immediately, people who work in tourism, international business and travel (among other professions) are losing their income. Global market collapse, unemployment and a lethal virus are nothing to make light of.
Yet, as the mantra goes, “out of crisis comes opportunity.” In the case of COVID-19, the opportunity is to learn a few essentials about life in the 21st century, about the state of humanity, our relationship with one another and with the earth. COVID-19 has led to some unexpected, and even desirable, trends. If we can overcome the disease, yet hold on to these trends, a stronger human society may yet emerge. In the spirit of this crisis-brings-opportunity, here are six interim positive trends (some of them lifesaving) to consider as we continue to collectively face the ongoing threat of COVID-19.
