First, I hope we keep our focus on hygiene in public spaces. Regardless of the fact it businesses more, I think it's smart to have them keep hand sanitizers at entrances and exits, to sanitize and/or wipe down carts and shopping baskets as well as common surfaces on a regular basis, and finally for people to get used to carrying hand sanitizers with them at all times. Look, I know people are divided on the use of hand sanitizers and I get that, but unless it is hurting your health due to allergies or irritations, it is really not a bad idea to use it. These changes that we have made both individually and collectively have contributed to decrease in flu cases and so on. Those who are against hand sanitizers say that lack of exposure to diseases will leave our immune systems less effective at fighting them, but I believe you can achieve the same effect by making sure your immune system is at peak efficiency through healthy lifestyle and nutrition as well as supplements.
Second, I hope that the vaccine industry will create a better flu shot with a near 100 percent effectiveness. I know plenty of people who do not take it because it is well known that the vaccine is typically less than 50 percent effective. Sure, many of us know we can fight it off without much trouble, but that is simply not good enough. We do not have to have the flu season. Flu causes downtime, makes people use up precious sick days, lose wages, businesses lose productivity revenue and profit, people infect each other easily and it is truly a real shit show. Oh and no, staying at home when you are sick is often not an option when you need to make money. Maybe, just maybe, it is time to develop either a flu vaccine or a flu antiviral that will get the job done almost every single time.
Third, I really hope that covid ushers a new era of antiviral drugs. Antivirals should be developed for many different viruses and also be capable of killing their variants. For those who do not remember this, the human immune system is capable of fighting cancer, bacteria, venom and viruses; the problem is that with things like cancer, bacteria and venom we realized that relying on our immune systems alone to fight those three means many people will lose their lives in the process. So, we created antivenom, antibiotics and chemotherapy. See the pattern and see what is missing? The proliferation of antivirals. So, I do not want to hear why their proliferation at mass scale and low price is a bad idea. I want to hear what needs to happen for this to be a great idea. I feel many of you agree with me on this one.
Fourth, I hope that people factor in crowd sizes when they plan their schedule and the timing of their errands. Businesses need to be busy we we put busy in businesses haha. However, it was really nice to go shopping for things I needed without having to push through crowds of people. Maybe we can achieve this by shopping later in the evening (whoever has time later in the evening to do so) and by continuing to rely a fair bit on online shopping and order picking services (e.g. PC Express). Now, I know some places like night clubs, restaurants, movie theaters and so on cannot avoid tight crowds. Fair enough. Still, we should try to spread out in other situations.
Fifth and final at least for tonight, I hope that people stick with the realization that spending their day after day planning for the future that may never come sucks if you do not truly seize the day every day. Live in the moment a little more because you never know when things may change. Had I known the pandemic was going to happen, I would have gone out to dinners more, would have gone to the movies more, went out dancing once per week every week, and would have taken more vacations to say the least as well as attended more concerts. Live and learn, I guess. More importantly, though, I would have spent even more time with my elderly family members and relatives.
What lessons do you think we have learned as a society, or what lessons have you learned personally during the pandemic that you are willing to share?