10 Positive Side Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic

It is an incredible time to watch right now and witness how the entire world can turn upside down in just 30 days.

The corona virus has spread to every corner of the world, even to places that you might not even know they existed.

Regardless of all the negative things that happening right now, I always try to look ahead and find the silver-lining in everything that happens.

Here are, what I think, are the positive side effects of the corona virus pandemic:

Reset of the world economy

For years we’ve been experiencing massive growth of the economy. This growth is unsustainable and can’t go on forever. If it wasn’t for a black swan event, it would have been something else.

Recovery of nature

Our planet is out of balance. The economic growth in recent years had a negative impact on our planet and we can see how it slowly recovers when humans forced into home quarantine.

We learn gratitude

Staying at home for a long period will give us the head space to realize the freedom we had before. I believe everyone will start to appreciate the things we took for granted: like going out for dinner with friends, going to the gym, running in the park, breathing fresh air, going out without a mask, traveling the world…

Remote work will become the norm

Currently, remote work is getting a strong push. More industries are forced to rethink the way they work to make remote collaboration work. Out of this need, we will see more innovative ideas emerging to help us cope with the situation.

Increased awareness for hygiene

This outbreak is be a positive reminder for us to be more careful in the future when it comes to public hygiene. Keeping places clean and washing our hands more often.

Our immune system is getting stronger

This is not the first horrible disease that happened to humanity and probably won’t be the last one. But every time, our immune system adapts to new threats and becomes stronger in the process.

People are getting closer

It seems ironic in times when everyone is isolated at home, but I think this whole outbreak teaches us how important friends and family are.

Global health care systems will improve

The current situation reveals many weakness in our health system. I believe better and more efficient systems will be put in place to identify, contain and treat illnesses much quicker before they become a pandemic.

We learn the impact of social media

Many people are already realizing what negative impact social media and fake news can cause. Anxiety and fear create more damage on a psychological level than the virus on a physical.

More innovation is happening

Last but not least, I think that this outbreak can foster a lot of creative ideas for the future. Creativity works at its best, when your back is pushed against the wall.

In the last few weeks, probably more brainpower has been combined to come up with helpful solutions than in recent years. We will see more innovation happening in more areas than just disease prevention. Improvements in remote collaboration tools, digital payments or online grocery shopping will most likely sustain beyond the pandemic. Furthermore, I can’t wait to see what impact this pandemic will have on the travel industry, especially the airport design. Are we going to see more efficient checkin systems with touch free solutions or a security process that doesn’t require people to queue for ages? The future is exciting and I can’t wait to see what comes out of this.