What Will Happen if the Pandemic Never Ends?
The Coronavirus is a contagious disease that started to spread across the globe since November in 2019, and has caused over four hundred million confirmed cases till present. The pandemic of COVID-19 has lasted for over two years now, and it has caused people to change their lives in significant ways. We are all expecting for the pandemic to eventually come to an end with the power of herd immunity. However, what will happen if the pandemic never ends? The following paragraphs will discuss possible effects from four different perspectives: the virus itself, the shipping industry, human lifestyles, and business shutdowns.
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Firstly, various mutants of the virus might cause some effects on our lives. As new variants keep coming out, the old vaccines might become useless. As a result, people will have to get booster shots from time to time in order to strengthen our immune system and lower the risk of being infected. Also, the coronavirus disease might turn into a common flu, because the symptoms have become way less deadly and people could easily recover after infection. It is possible that the virus itself would change and it might not disappear from our society.
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Second, the shipping industry would face significant changes. Overseas shipping services might become a major business due to the increasing need of transporting medical supplies, food and energy power all over the world. According to Clarkson Research Services Ltd (2021), “The shipping industry is posting its strongest daily earnings since 2008.” However, there are several obstacles that shipping companies have to overcome. The health and safety of the crews on board must be protected, travel restrictions would need the crews to get enough vaccines, and some companies would not be able to meet the strong demands. It is critical for the shipping company to be adaptable and try to change under these challenges.
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Third, human lifestyles and interactions would change in several ways. Take greeting each other for instance. Because of the need to reduce physical interactions, so hugs, cheek kissing and handshakes might be replaced with bowing or other ways. Furthermore, people have to keep wearing masks every day, so we might not even know what others look like even knowing each other for a long time. These changes in human interactions might have an impact on our relationships, people would feel less intimate and become harder to develop stronger relationships with each other.
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Last, some businesses might shut down due to the changes of human lifestyles. People would avoid taking public transportations and airplanes in order to lower the risk of infection. Thus, it would cause serious impact on the income of those businesses. Airlines are forced to lay off their employees or declare bankruptcy, “In 2020, industry revenues totaled $328 billion, around 40 percent of the previous year’s. In nominal terms, that’s the same as in 2000” Bouwer, Saxon, and Wittkamp, (2021). Also, businesses that need to face their customers without masks such as facial shops could face the possibility of shutting down, because they could not afford testing their employees frequently. It is clear that the pandemic has and will cause a serious impact on some businesses that might not come to a halt in anytime soon.
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In conclusion, if the pandemic never ends, it would result in various effects from four different perspectives. The coronavirus would become a common flu, and the shipping industry is going to become a major business and grow tremendously but also face several challenges. Moreover, human interactions will change and make impacts on our relationships with each other and several businesses will shut down. The world could be so fast-changing under the pandemic and no one could foresee the coming of a pandemic, so the only thing I would suggest is to be adaptable and overcome whatever difficulties that might come.
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References
Clarksons Research (2021) - Clarks Index Laying Down A First Quarter Marker. Retrieved from: https://clarksonsresearch.wordpress.com/2021/04/09/clarksea-index-laying-down-a-first-quarter-marker/
Bouwer, J. , Saxon, S. , and Wittkamp, N. (2021) McKinsey& Company - Back to the future? Airline sector poised for change post COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/back-to-the-future-airline-sector-poised-for-change-post-covid-19