What’s coming? What’s ahead? “The world after COVID-19” is President magazine’s theme this month. Highly qualified experts speculate — inconclusively, it goes without saying; modestly, to their credit. The future alone can unveil its secrets — in its own time.
What will the coronavirus do to us? We’re still reeling from what it has done. Taking stock has scarcely begun. We’ve barely scratched the surface.
So far, it’s all bad news: a million-plus dead worldwide, the global economy gutted, society in a state best described by now-familiar neologisms such as “corona unemployment,” “corona divorce,” “corona poverty,” “lockdown,” “self-isolation” and so on. The pandemic will sooner or later (presumably) run its course, humanity will rally and rebuild, and life will go on — not, however, quite as we’ve known it. On that point, President’s experts agree.