Technology - often portrayed as an industry that the benefits only the privileged - is actually helping with the fight against the coronavirus. And we don’t mean Medtech.
As the world is heading towards the peak of the outbreak, more and more people are actually talking about the lasting effects that this novel coronavirus will have on the economy. And while the death toll will leave a huge mark on all communities, the economic damages could completely change our lives for the years to come.
The whole world is basically in lockdown, to varying degrees, but still, The economies in all countries are experiencing the type of shock that we haven’t felt probably in decades. The recession, uncertain future and the huge amount of resources needed to sustain healthcare systems is actually defining our future as we speak.
Economic side of the Pandemic
Economies will take a lot more time to recover than the COVID-19 patients and we are seeing more and more government focus on that.
But the silver lining here is actually the technology, which is single handedly holding up white-collar jobs and making at least some parts of the world working population still making money and still holding up the economy, at least to some degree. Either you or someone you know is currently using Zoom or other online-meeting services to keep their jobs or school projects in check and it is becoming more and more widespread every week.
The technology that makes coworking possible even while social distancing is currently used for a very limited amount of jobs, and it is also keeping the schools and universities going and helping companies to keep their coworkers. Technology, and quite the mainstream wing of it, is keeping our economies from completely crashing down. If there ever was any doubt about the importance of modern tech inventions from anyone, they should be completely annihilated now
As the world is moving into new reality, it is highly likely that the current intake of technology, internet, and just overall web services will stay largely the same for the months to come and possibly even a couple of years.
Uncertain Future
We currently have no clear idea when the vaccine will be available, and completely stopping and neglecting our economy with those unreliable predictions in mind would be irresponsible and plain cruel, because on the matter the current approach of any government, after the virus is over the regular people will feel the burden of the economic hardships the hardest, they will be the ones that will have to deal with the consequences with very limited aid from the governments and this is not a baseless prediction, these are just facts. This is why so many companies are taking their very first steps to becoming more present in the digital spaces.
So the many uses of technology that are helping to keep the economies going are actually crucial and should be applied even more widely to ensure that we increase the number of jobs that can be sustained even amidst such crises.
Everyone largely agrees that we will emerge out of this challenge into a new reality, just like the world completely changed after 9/11, the same can be said about the COVID-19. And it will take some time to adjust to it, but luckily because of technology this new reality does not have to be all grim.
As you’ve probably seen, a lot of restaurants have actually continued to operate, working only through delivering or drive-throughs, as the food business adjust probably more restaurant will reopen, focusing on the take out services
Meanwhile, those who are working blue-collar jobs could also return to their routines but with new safety measures in place. While exactly a century ago the world was going through a great depression, this could be our opportunity to turn this into a great adaptation, and try to maintain as much normalcy as possible and technology will actually make this a lot easier for us than it would have been otherwise. As more companies include tech and remote-working into their daily rituals the faster we will manage to get back to what normal actually looks for us.