The information we are consuming during this pandemic has become very important as well. As people panic and search for more information the spread of false information or “fake news” has become rifer. From President Donald Trump suggesting that bleach’s virus killing powers could be harnessed by injecting it “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” BBC News (24th April 2020) It isn’t difficult to see how information like this can be incredibly dangerous for the general public. There has even been more severe cases of false information spreading, an example being footage of Chinese Vlogger Wang Mengyun eating a bat in Palau, Micronesia in 2017 during a travel segment of one of her vlogs. Due to bats being identified recently as a possible carrier of the virus which was first detected in a Chinese wetmarket in Wuhan, this led to some social media accounts and even newspapers such as the Daily Mail spreading the video to “sponge off the heat and fan out malicious panic” this led to Mengyun receiving multiple death threats resulting in Mengyun releasing a statement condemning the spread of the footage and accusing these multiple newspapers and commentators of using the pandemic to sell newspapers. Bat Soup, dodgy cures and ‘diseasology’: the spread of coronavirus misinformation, Josh Taylor, The Guardian (31st Jan, 2020). Due to this inundation of misinformation social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter are revamping their own policies in relation to harmful content with specific interest in content relating to Coronavirus, this was confirmed by Twitter in a blog post talking about their automated systems used to find and remove harmful content: “our automated systems have challenged more than 1.5 million accounts which were targeting discussions around COVID-19 with spammy or manipulative behaviours” An Update on our continuity strategy during COVID-19, Vijaya Gadde and Matt Derella, Twitter Blogs(16th March 2020). This increase of resources into misinformation and the spread of may have longer lasting consequences after the pandemic, as these social media companies are harnessing their improved algorithms and will continue use after this. The cultural and societal changes attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic may have long lasting conclusions as in recent times this may be an event that we will look back one as one of the more cataclysmic. We aren’t even in the clear and we are beginning to witness huge changes. On a personal note I think there may be positive changes on ground level, people may be more thankful when meeting family or friends or even just thankful of the situation they may find themselves in compared to others.
As I mentioned in my introduction the immediate effects in the future of this catastrophic pandemic are the thousands of casualties, at the time of writing there are estimated to be 42,632 deaths in the United Kingdom (figures from June 22nd, 2020). These figures are individual people. Thousands of people across the country are having to prepare for life without their loved one or close friend. With these losses during a pandemic come a unique set of problems. For example, funerals have completely changed the way they work, with the current UK government regulations stating “Only members of the household, close family members or if any of the above cannot attend close friends” UK Gov Funeral Regulations, UK Government (18 May, 2020) This can bring obvious emotional distress to families as they may not be able to grief the loss of their loved ones in a way they would have wanted, with their even being added complications if the virus has spread throughout the household. There has also been a great financial distress being placed on the nation with official figures suggesting that between March and May the number of workers on UK payrolls has fallen by 600,000, with many employers having to make the use of the government’s furlough scheme or even having to let staff go. The number of people claiming work-related benefits has skyrocketed as well by 128% to 2.8 million. We had an early glimpse into how home-isolation would affect family life, in China one of the bigger changes of figures was that of divorce rates. In the city of Xian in central China and Dazhou, in the Sichaun province, both reported record high divorce filings in early March, so much so the government offices reported a vast number of backlogs at government offices. China’s Divorce spike is a warning to rest of locked-down world, Sheridan Prasso, Bloomberg (31st March 2020). Even closer to home we are experiencing similar effects. Commander Sue Williams of the Metropolitan Police said charges had gone up by 24% since the 9th March, the date people were asked to self-isolate if experiencing symptoms, however many domestic violence charities are experiencing this figure to go up once lockdown is lifted as many people across the country are suffering in silence and this would follow a trend similar to other countries who came out of lockdown. Charges and Cautions for domestic violence rise by 24% in London, Vikram Dodd, The Guardian (24th April 2020). It is worrying to think about the long-lasting effects these figures may have looking into the future, many families are breaking up due to divorce and death, and many more people are suffering at the hand of abusive partners and may seem trapped with them during this lockdown. There may be a number of positive changes that come in the future though. At home one of the bigger and more obvious developments is the amount of respect shown towards our NHS. Whilst may not being new founded many people hope that these trying times and use of our health service, many of whom are on the frontline, will lead to reform for pay increases etc. The environment has seen a noticeable improvement since many countries in the world enforced a period of home-isolation, many beaches around the world are cleaning up as a result of the reduction of litter from tourists, due to restricted air travel many countries are experiencing air quality improvement (with China’s improvement in air quality generating enough benefits that outnumber the amount of deaths) and we are also seeing a remarkable difference in noise pollution due to less public transport and lack of commercial activities. Indirect effects of COVID-19 on the environment, Manuel A.Zambrano-Monserrate, Science Direct (20th April 2020).
In conclusion, to fully investigate the impacts the Coronavirus pandemic will have we will have to wait until we are out of it. However using the Spanish Flu as a very similar example we would predict how a second wave would be and why maintaining lockdown or social distancing like behaviour is important until the disease is eradicated or a vaccine is found. We have been in lockdown in the UK since the 23rd March when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced so. In this period we have already seen a great range of developments and shifts in societal and normal life as a whole, this will only continue. However, we can look to the likes of New Zealand who enforced a strict lockdown for over 7 weeks and recently came out and have gone back to life as normal, as a beacon for the future and can see first-hand the rewards of following competent government advice. I predict that the Scottish government and people will be thankful they stayed at a steady pace when coming out of lockdown (despite feeling very difficult). However, I predict a different affair in England and the subsequent changes may be more catastrophic there.