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Comment by mdoms | Hacker News Reader

This is very strange to read from here in New Zealand, where life is fairly close to getting back to normal. I don't see any reason why our basic lifestyles should be permanently changed by this virus. As bad as things feel now, we will eventually get on top of the epidemic and in a few short years this period will be a distant memory.

I'm not saying there won't be permanent changes - I believe this is a catalyst that will make remote working the norm for many industries, including my own. But I have been hearing, for example, American podcast hosts saying they may never step inside a restaurant again (this was on The Argument, and all three hosts agreed) or people claiming that the tourism industry is permanently neutered. I just don't see human behaviours changing so dramatically, and I don't see any reason why we should be more afraid of Coronavirus in 10 years than we are of Polio today.

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People tend to forget that we experience pandemics every now and then. In-between life is “normal”. Just remember the famous picture of police men having all a mask on from 1918 or so. I am sure they were gone by 1920 or so

exactly, as far as the previous pandemics go this one is fairly mild, have you heard of the Hong Kong flu of 1968? Killed over a million people, we haven't even heard of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_flu

we won't forget this virus for long time, but not because of the damage it does, but because of the damage we did to ourselves

They had a vaccine for that 4 months after the outbreak.

From the WSJ article that fact is sourced from: "A vaccine was developed relatively quickly—researchers had learned from the other two 20th-century influenza pandemics, the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the Asian flu of 1957—but wasn’t widely available before the disease had reached its second peak in most countries." So basically, there was a vaccine much faster than we could expect one for this coronavirus, but it was still too late to help much. (See https://archive.is/5pYqk for the full text of the article, which is quite interesting.)

Last I heard, New Zealand and Australia were planning on closing their borders for a long time except maybe to each other, because they seem to reckon that's the only way to preserve relative normality within the country: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52540733

Yes, the borders are the big (yes, very big) exception to "normality". But even that will pass when there are effective treatments or a vaccine. This won't go on forever.

I think the largest change will be that we, as a global society, have discovered that there is a lot of things that are easier and better done remote, and that we will keep doing those things remote once we're done with the pandemic (whenever that will be). Working remote, as you mention, is one of those things.

Other things are clearly more efficient face-to-face, and in those cases things will probably go back to normal when it's possible.

Tourism will be... changed. At least here in Europe, the authorities are already talking about less international flights, focus on the train network, and so on, in order to see a more environmentally friendly post-COVID world. People aren't going to stop vacationing or something like that, but there's a chance that things like two-day train rides to Italy will become a thing again. My personal anecdote is that people seem to be restoring their old caravans and going camping this year. The main roads here have been with filled with caravans and RV's the last couple of weekends.

The article is about this: "a catalyst that will make remote working the norm", not this: "human behaviours changing so dramatically".

> people claiming that the tourism industry is permanently neutered

Everyone I know is itching to go on holiday! I have two long road trips that were planned before COVID which are now indefinitely delayed but absolutely not cancelled.

yes I have no doubt that as soon as there is immunity, a vaccine, or a reliable cheap treatment (all of which is probably a matter of months or 1-2 years) people will fully go back to normal.

We're social animals and we're not going to ditch physical interaction. (not to mention that research by people like Alex Pentland suggests that physical contact in a common workplace has benefits that can't be replicated remotely).

Companies like Yahoo and IBM already tried out remote working and rolled their efforts back, this is simply an overraction. With the exception of telemedicine for underserved regions maybe, where it fills a genuine gap and suffered from regulation up until now.

> I don't see any reason why we should be more afraid of Coronavirus in 10 years than we are of Polio today

Perhaps not this same Coronavirus, but make no mistake, our pre-lockdown lifestyle is fragile. Giving billions of people unfettered access to move between any two points on the planet in under 24 hours is a recipe for another swift pandemic.

Sit home masked, medicated, monitored and vaccinated, never go for a walk, never travel, avoid physical contact, work remotely, report hourly, wash your hands every 15 minutes with hard antiseptics, following the prescribed pattern. Wear protective gloves. Obey. Self-censor and suppress any thought of dissent. Vane into the wind without a squeak. Never ask questions. Automate. Get automated. Be more effective. Be more tolerant. Be happier. Let the planet breathe freely. Let the universal love and unity flow through your self-isolated mind. Seal your windows and doors and install military-grade filters, as viruses and pandemics are here to stay forever. Dedicate your CPU cycles to transhumanism@home, mine tokens of Eternal Digital Life and you'll transcend this miserable human body! But once at the Network, don't forget to self-isolate again at your personal memory block, as unfettered propagation of pure thought between corporate servers in under a few milliseconds is a recipe for another swift pandemic. Be responsible, don't make the Network fragile.

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