I've ordered takeout a couple times from some local places. Don't feel great about it but also feel like it's important to support local business. Utah is a little behind the country's curve - we're not projected to peak for another 2 weeks so don't think I'll be doing take-out again until after the peak. The wife did a big grocery shop this week so hopefully we don't have to go out to a public place at all until we're past the peak.
On a micro level there will definitely be certain individuals who will changed their behavior but in the macro I don't see this having long-term impacts on social interactions. In fact I think it will fade from memory remarkably fast - probably faster than the economy recovers. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part and I'm completely wrong. Someone brought up 9/11 in another thread and I think that's a fairly apt comparison. People were terrified to fly for a while and many avoided public places but it didn't last. Airlines were back to pre-9/11 levels in less than 2 years. It did permanently change security at the airport so I think you'll see similar type changes. Meaning that people will pay closer attention to potential outbreaks for a while (at least the next 5 years) and you will likely see more governors/mayors enacting measures for local outbreaks to try and make sure they snuff things out before they have a chance to get started. And there's already stories about businesses prioritizing buying "pandemic insurance" - obviously not for the current outbreak but to make sure they're prepared for another one.
Once we are through this there will be a lot of looking back and analyzing exactly what happened. This will, of course, have all kinds of political ramifications but setting that aside I really hope that the whole world is able to look at the countries who did the best and worst jobs at containment and learn from those so that we're better prepared going forward.
On a micro level there will definitely be certain individuals who will changed their behavior but in the macro I don't see this having long-term impacts on social interactions. In fact I think it will fade from memory remarkably fast - probably faster than the economy recovers. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part and I'm completely wrong. Someone brought up 9/11 in another thread and I think that's a fairly apt comparison. People were terrified to fly for a while and many avoided public places but it didn't last. Airlines were back to pre-9/11 levels in less than 2 years. It did permanently change security at the airport so I think you'll see similar type changes. Meaning that people will pay closer attention to potential outbreaks for a while (at least the next 5 years) and you will likely see more governors/mayors enacting measures for local outbreaks to try and make sure they snuff things out before they have a chance to get started. And there's already stories about businesses prioritizing buying "pandemic insurance" - obviously not for the current outbreak but to make sure they're prepared for another one.
Once we are through this there will be a lot of looking back and analyzing exactly what happened. This will, of course, have all kinds of political ramifications but setting that aside I really hope that the whole world is able to look at the countries who did the best and worst jobs at containment and learn from those so that we're better prepared going forward.
