The 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic will prove to be a massive make-or-break moment for the United States. In the past, Pandemics have changed human history and reshaped societies and cultures. A pandemic wiped out a majority of the Native American population in the late 1500’s to the early 1600’s, and from 1918 through 1920 America suffered from Spanish Flu that killed thousands.
When handled properly, a pandemic can have minimal effects on its population, but handled improperly it can lead to massive devastation.
In trying to predict what I think will happen during the COVID-19 Pandemic in America, I broke everything down to Five Phases.
Phase 1: Initial Infection
Phase 2: Initial Remission and Societal Decay
Phase 3: Second Wave of Disease
Phase 4: Mitigation of Second Wave and Societal Decay
Phase 5: Aftermath
Each phase represents 3 months.
Phase 1: Initial Infection (March through May)
Phase 1 in America saw people get sick with COVID-19 at alarming rates. By locking down nearly the entire nation, we saw the disease eventually start to scale back in most of the epicenters. This led to less pollution, but also massive job loss and increases in prices for food and medicine, as well as disruptions in the supply chain related to deliveries of items to consumers.
My initial predictions were:
The first month would be mostly fine. People would find the adjustment to quarantine startling, but would consider it a nice break from the overall riggers of daily life they had. The first 2 weeks would be a mild “vacation” period, with the first month turning into a sort of malaise.
The second month would start to see some cracks. You can only see the same people so many times before you get sick of them. Supply lines will start to crack and things will become harder to get.
By the third month there will be protests and riots. It’ll be mostly people fed up with the restrictions, and about the lack of certain foods and other items.
Schools will not reopen, although if they try in May I wouldn’t be shocked, but no, the school year is over.
Overall, I was right: People did adjust to the quarantine well at first, supply lines were disrupted for consumers, and protests did erupt against the quarantine. In the later case, I thought it would be liberals protesting against Trump locking people in, but it turns out it was the reverse.