Source: Pixabay

With the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, somewhere around the month of December 2019, people’s outlook and perception of the world have changed. They have now released how precious life is, how fragile life can be, the fact that a virus that is naked to the human eyes can cause so much havoc and it can drive the most sophisticated of the living beings, the humans, indoors. The movement of this spine-chilling virus that began then now has moved countries leaving its trail and a variant almost wherever it goes.

Because of this, the world has now turned topsy turvy. And this has definitely impacted a lot of lives. The quest for the vaccine started early and it is still ongoing as none of the ones invented provide the accuracy of a hundred percent. Unlike the smallpox, which simply perished as it could not withstand the immunity of the people when vaccinated against it, it looks like coronavirus might be here to stay for a while. It has shown that it comes in various variants, can deceive people by making them asymptomatic, can fight the vaccine, and take over people’s immunity. Whenever an appropriate vaccine is designed to battle covid-19 out, it just keeps coming back with a stronger mutant and an intent to create damage. Basically, it is trying to prove that it might be here to stay. So, what happens if the pandemic stretches till 2050? Here is what might happen.

The pursuit for the vaccine will continue because if found, the pandemic would definitely not stretch till then. No, we do not give up so easily. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), whose transmission is known to have started in the 1920s still does not have vaccination and the hunt for it is still going on. Each attempt to get to the right contents of the vaccination will be better than the previous one. Either we will eventually find it or adapt to live with the virus.

It has been noticed that with lesser human intervention, the environment has bettered itself. With many lockdowns and restrictions being imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which might continue to be imposed in the future as well, the emission of greenhouse gases has gone low, the air pollution levels have dropped, noise pollution has lessened, the beaches have turned cleaner and there is improvement seen in the water quality. It almost seems like mother Earth has made the choice of nourishing them again, though we are at stake at the moment so that our future is brighter. The earth will seem greener and greener and we would be living a better quality of natural life if the pandemic stretches that far.

Source: Pixabay

The need of the hour required people to change gears and turn technologically smarter. With much of the working and education systems opting to move to online platforms, people will make themselves adapt to the new mode. And this will not only help the employees and the students spend more time with family and let them bond but this will also benefit the companies as the employees will become productive. At the same time, the company will save a lot of expenses. People will turn happier as this will give them the opportunity and the time to get back to pursuing their hobbies. This will add value to their lives and they will become more talented and knowledgeable. It just does not stop at upskilling. They will evolve into better human beings socially. They will teach them empathy, compassion, helpfulness, and gratefulness, us holding on to tiniest hope for better survival, to support one another in difficult times, connecting to loved ones creatively, to strive for a better livelihood, to be flexible to new ideas, plans and shortcomings, to be independent, to do better research and discovery and will teach us how to be happy with just all that we already have.

Along with all the positive sides of the covid’s effect, will come some heart-wrenching consequences too. If the pandemic stretches till 2050, it will hardly let people socialise and this will definitely have some serious effects on the mental state of people. It has already been noticed that the pandemic has taken a toll on their minds and it will simply continue to do so. It will almost turn into an all-work-no-play-makes-Jack-a-dull-boy situation. It will kill friendships and relationships as people will tend to put lesser efforts into them online. Economy will turn unpredictable with each hitting wave, daily wage workers will keep losing jobs and their migration back to their places will seem nightmarish, shocks and trauma due to grief of deaths will worsen and continue to pursue, stock market will fluctuate and the poor will turn poorer with fall in their standards of life due to unemployment.

While all these are impacts of coronavirus stretching till the 5th decade post-2000s, it is very likely that by then, we humans will have started to achieve herd immunity. It simply takes a mutation in the DNA of the baby being born to be born with antibodies against covid-19. We will have won half the battle if it happens and we will have achieved victory the day the antibodies to covid-19 turn out to be a normal thing all the babies will be born with. If this does not happen, then the virus will just become a normal part of all our lives just like we live with some other common diseases. It will take time but eventually, humans might just adapt to this lifestyle where the masks become a significant yet very normal part of their daily lives.

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