Are There Any Positives To The Covid-19 Pandemic?

By Dr. Robert Kornfeld

    The past 8 months or so has created a grand change in everyone’s lifestyle and experience. For many it has been terribly tragic. For others it has been challenging. And yet, for others, it seems to have been nothing more than a tremendous hassle to abide by any of the CDC recommendations for social distancing and mask wearing. It has also left some people politicizing the pandemic and feeling anger toward politicians who have created too many restrictions or those that have done too little to curb the outbreak. In all of these cases, this is an event that will be remembered forever.

    Personally, I take exception to victim mentality. There is a lot each one of us can do to be as proactive as possible to protect each other from the pandemic. And we owe it to each other and our loved ones to do it. But more than that, we must remember that nature works in ways we often cannot comprehend. For me, contemplating its ecological impact has filled my mind with many thoughts. And those thoughts opened me to pondering its possible positives. I would like to share those thoughts with you.

    I will not politicize the pandemic. That has already been done and it has done nothing positive for solving the medical emergency we face here. The treatment and prevention I will leave to the medical experts and epidemiologists. I do not hold myself above people whose study and dedication has made them experts in the field of infectious disease. Rather, I apply my own experience of 40 years in medicine to arrive at my own feelings about the mask debacle. There is one thing I believe that is way more important than anyone’s opinion of how we should deal with the pandemic. And that is that you can never do too much to stay healthy. But you can do too little. Until we have more information on this virus, it seems completely sane to socially distance and wear masks when closer than 6 feet or when you enter inside a public place. Remember, we know a lot about the flu, chicken pox, polio, HIV and numerous other viral diseases. We know what we know because they have been here for generations. There has been years of countless studies and clinical trials on vaccines and medications. However, this novel corona virus has no history yet. It’s only been around for about 8 or 9 months. We simply do not know enough about it to lump it into the same category as viral diseases that we already know a lot about. Nor do we know what its long-term effects will be in the human body. So, when people say to me that masks are ridiculous and unnecessary, I believe that they are way out of their league fostering opinion as fact. I spent over 30 years doing foot and ankle surgery and always wore a mask when performing surgery. This is done to ensure the fact that any germs I might be exhaling never reach the operative site. So, what is so bad about wearing a mask? Absolutely nothing. It is just a minor inconvenience. And may just be the best solution to stopping the spread of this illness until we have pharmaceutical approaches in place that are safe, effective and reliable.

    The pandemic has caused much human suffering and nearly a million deaths worldwide. On top of that, almost every country was forced to shut down their economies for fear of unleashing massive rates of infection and death. And this has placed an enormous hardship on so many people who live paycheck to paycheck. Massive unemployment put each government under extraordinary financial stress and many families as well. This, unfortunately, is part of the collateral damage. It has hurt my practice as well. The bigger picture here, however, is having no money is not as terrible as getting sick and dying. We cannot lose site of the fact that without extreme measures, there likely could have been millions of deaths here in the U.S. alone. Economies recover but you cannot come back from the dead. This is a human problem. Nature is not interested in our economies or our bank accounts. Nature does what nature does for reasons we may never understand. Yet, there are reasons for everything.

    From an ecological standpoint, it’s interesting to note that the atmosphere began to quickly improve. With the shutdown of industry, we substantially decreased toxic emissions. I read an article about the improvement in the atmosphere and it discussed the change over India’s skies. This was the first time they were able to see clear blue skies in decades. In some countries, many people began to report improvement in their allergies, asthma, and other breathing disorders. At the same time, the world experienced a shift in wildlife. Some species that depend on human refuse became extremely challenged for lack of food. Rodents in cities were hard hit. So were monkeys in countries where they are fed by humans or steal food from open street markets. Scavengers of all kinds were challenged. Other species began to thrive as they were able to migrate into areas that were previously too dangerous for them to enter. I find it really fascinating how quickly nature responds to changes, good or bad. There are winners and there are losers in every type of natural or man-made disaster. There has been a resurgence in certain types of insects that were fading away. For example, in Long Island where I live, there was a return of the bumble bee population, yellow jackets, dining needles and dragon flies. These insects were hardly evident in past years but returned this Summer in large numbers.

    I may be exaggerating, but foliage looked more vibrant, greener or more colorful than ever. Perhaps with the decrease in emissions, more pure sunlight arrived to nourish and nurture them. Leaves on trees seem thicker and fuller as well. There is no question in my mind that the pandemic allowed for better air quality and that has had an impact on nature.

  But what about its impact on us? Has there been any significant “take-aways” from this global disaster? Can we look at how it has changed society and find anything positive? Most of us have spent a lot of time lamenting the changes. We can’t go out to eat, we can’t go to concerts and shows and professional sports. No movie theatres are open. We couldn’t go to the gym. It has become a joke to say I have gained the Covid-19 (pounds). International travel is all but shut down. We couldn’t use the beaches. We had to sometimes stand on long lines to get our groceries. We couldn’t see our loved ones as easily or at all. Schools were closed and that impacted heavily not just on school-aged children, but on the parents. Many lost their jobs. Medical care and access to it was impaired. The list goes on and on. Many negatives befell us. But positives?

    In my opinion, there have been some positives we can take away from this. The most glaringly obvious is that we were forced to learn how to live more simply. Our expected extravagances were gone. We were forced to live close to home. Our priorities shifted. Time spent with immediate family got a huge increase. We had to share more time together at home and many of us began to realize that spending more time with loved ones had a healing effect on the stresses we became numb to. Quality time was now most of the time. We learned to Zoom and FaceTime with distant relatives and friends who we missed. Sometimes intimately, sometimes in large groups. We felt their absence in our lives. We appreciated their importance to us, perhaps an importance that we weren’t that much in touch with.

    We were now forced to eat at home. Many of us began to take on the challenge of improving our cooking skills. Some took it to the next level and began to cook for improved health. With the pandemic looming all around us, many began to educate themselves on helpful vitamins and herbal supplements to fortify their immune systems. With the closure of the gyms, many began going out every day and walking, running or biking. And that delivered us into the hands of neighbors and friends doing the same thing. That enabled some socializing and conversation on the street. We began talking with total strangers that live near us but whom we never took the time to get to know. And that made us feel more connected to our surroundings.

    Some of us found ourselves more involved with our passions to avoid boredom. We now had the time and the inclination to go deeper. We read more books. Watched more movies. Binge-watched great TV series. Found great joy in gardening, listening to music or fixing things in the house that we didn’t have the time to deal with. People with deeper artistic talents painted more, drew more, wrote more songs, wrote poems or books. Many people went for walks in nature, did gardening, went boating, went for car rides. Many became masters of their barbeque. Above all, this terrible health tragedy has put us more in touch with who we are, our joys, our passions and our world view. If nothing else comes out of this pandemic that can be considered a positive, I believe that these are huge positives and hopefully, once this is over, we can retain these changes that have made us look at what’s really important instead of constantly striving to have more money, own more things and live as deeply in the material world.