10 ways the pandemic will change our lives forever

Helen Keller famously said, “A bend in the road is not the end of the road … Unless you fail to make the turn.” Faced with the crisis of the century, we have made many turns, modifying our lifestyle in unimaginable ways. Some of these changes are here to stay. Work from home or, more correctly, work from anywhere, will become a much more accepted norm. While organisations had often balked at the thought of their staff working remotely before the pandemic, the last two years have confirmed that this does not necessarily reduce productivity. Various studies have shown that a hybrid approach that combines work from anywhere with traditional office-based work will become the preferred approach with both employees as well as employers. A significant proportion of major meetings, seminars and conferences will be held online or in hybrid mode, facilitating greater participation of well-known national and international speakers, drawing larger audiences and democratising access to global discussions, reducing costs and carbon footprints. In response to needs, digital platforms have evolved to make participation very close to the real experience, facilitate multiple-track interactions and support recording and archiving. Given that meetings and conferences also have the objective of networking, which lends itself less well to online formats, a hybrid approach will be adopted, with most participants and some prominent speakers joining virtually. The pandemic increased the demand for online delivery of goods and services, the market responded and now, seduced by the ease of home-delivery and the savings in time and money, people will continue to rely on e-commerce. Demand will further expand. The adoption of digital payment will accelerate. The pandemic did more to promote online payment than any government policy including demonetisation. Payment through UPI increased by more than five times from Rs 1.5 lakh crore in April 2020 to Rs 7.7 lakh crore in November 2021, according to the National Payments Corporation of India. This was partly driven by the expansion of e-commerce, but also by the breaking down of mental barriers as households looked for no-contact payment options. Education at all levels, but particularly at secondary and tertiary levels, and training programmes will rely more and more on virtual and hybrid formats. While such formats were necessary during the pandemic, the benefits of optimally using good and popular teachers and trainers and the greater flexibility for students and trainees as they are freed from the bounds of place of stay and their work schedules, will combine to mainstream the approach. IT systems will continue to further evolve to make education and training more interactive. Telemedicine will become more ubiquitous. The pandemic shook the public policy inertia, prompting Niti Aayog and the ministry of health and family welfare to issue the necessary guidelines. The government also developed an IT platform, e-Sanjivini, which has mediated millions of telemedicine consultations during the pandemic. Some private sector groups and all the major hospitals have also developed their own apps which seamlessly make appointments, facilitate sharing of medical records, virtual consultations, transmission of prescriptions and delivery of medicines. Given the ease of use and saving of time and resources, this genie is not going back to the bottle! OTT services will become a major source of entertainment. As these become sleeker, garner greater content, offer much cheaper viewing pleasure and provide greater options and flexibility, traditional movie theatres face a tough battle ahead. Public health will become a more exciting and rewarding career instead of ranking near the bottom of choices among health professionals. For example, admission applications to the Master of Public Health programme at the Johns Hopkins University went up by 74% last year. More strict and appropriate infection prevention and control measures in hospitals and public places will become a way of life. During the pandemic, hospitals and healthcare providers have started following stricter protocols for infection prevention and control, including insistence on masks, hand sanitisation, physical barriers between patients and doctors, and testing for Covid-19 before admissions or for medical procedures. Finally, I expect that the general public will adhere to greater personal hygiene and take precautions in public places. After the 2003 SARS epidemic in Southeast Asia, a change in public behaviour was noted: Many people, particularly older people, started using masks in crowded or closed public places and avoided touching frequently used surfaces. These new habits might have significantly reduced the transmission of not only Covid-19 but also other communicable diseases. With time, many people are likely to go back to their earlier habits, but a significant proportion will still follow these norms. This storm will hopefully pass soon, but it will leave behind some lasting changes in its wake. As famous Japanese writer Haruki Murakami said, “When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” The challenge for public policy will be to recognise these new trends and ensure that no one is left behind. The writer is Senior Associate, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and former CEO of Ayushman Bharat