Welcome to the post-pandemic future

by Elizabeth Morse Read

As we now approach the end of the Covid-19 tunnel that we entered fifteen months ago, we’re eager to get back to our pre-pandemic lives. But a funny thing happened on the way to recovery. Just as security measures at airports and government buildings were forever transformed after 9/11, so, too, have our daily lives after surviving the deadliest pandemic in over a century.

After months of being cooped up with other family members in either a city apartment or a suburban home, we’ve all become acutely aware of how our open-plan “home-sweet-home” was not designed for homeschooling plus adults working remotely plus everyone exercising indoors plus, plus, plus. As our home address morphs into our work/study/play address, we need better definition of our interior spaces – we need sound-proofed walls, doors and flexible walls for privacy, and multi-purpose spaces, such as a garage subdivided into a workshop and gym, or schoolrooms/offices that convert into entertainment areas at night.

Also, we will expect improved HVAC climate control indoors, and sanitation features like mudroom/laundry/delivery rooms providing a transition from the germ-filled outdoor world to the clean interior. Houses will include smart home features like voice/motion-activated appliances, lighting, home entry, toilets and faucets, even germ-resistant flooring and countertops, as well as more storage space for food, water, and energy generation/storage.

Post-pandemic home design will bring the outdoors in as much as possible – balconies, roof gardens, winterized porches with sliding glass walls, roof windows and atriums to provide light and natural ventilation and to create private “outdoor” space.

Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg may expect his employees to return to the workplace once they’ve been vaccinated, but after a year of working from home (WFH), many Americans (especially women) aren’t looking forward to returning to the pre-pandemic commuter rat-race.

Half of the world’s white-collar workers (vs. only 11% pre-pandemic) are now working from home. A whopping 42% of the US workforce – white-collar office workers – have been working from home full-time since the pandemic began. Sixty percent of them want to work remotely indefinitely, and according to an online survey of more than 1,000 WFH professionals, almost 30% said they’d quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue to work from home remotely.

Employers who don’t provide this work-life flexibility are going to have trouble recruiting and retaining talented employees in the future. Human resource managers are already considering schedules that allow employees to work remotely at least part time, even after vaccines have been widely adopted. For instance, Twitter offers permanent WFH options for its employees. Ford Motor Co. has already notified its 30,000 WFH employees that they can continue to work from home after the pandemic is over. They will only need to come into the office for meetings and team-building events.

The shift from working-in-the-office to working-from-home will have both profound and subtle effects on just about every aspect of our lives for decades to come.

For instance, if any change has been apparent during the Covid-19 crisis, it’s that health care has had to move towards decentralized delivery. Health care systems need to provide care outside the hospital and doctor’s office and bring it into the homes and neighborhoods.

Approximately 150 million Americans live with a chronic condition like heart disease or diabetes, for whom regularly scheduled care is critical to their overall health. But during the pandemic, people avoided doctors’ offices and hospitals, putting off critical tests, preventive screenings, and doctor visits for fear of catching the Covid-19 virus.

At the start of the pandemic, insurance companies finally agreed to pay for telehealth services as they do for in-person services. Although telehealth technology existed before the pandemic, less than 10% of patient care was conducted remotely – and this ballooned to 95% overnight.

A virtual visit with the doctor has become the new version of many face-to-face appointments. Virtual visits will never replace in-person visits when a physical exam or in-depth conversations are necessary, but they will take more of a role in coordinating a patient’s health care, along with home-based diagnostic technology and remote access to psychotherapists, personal trainers, and other health-related personnel. We’re already accustomed to home-test kits for colon cancer screening – now you can even have DoorDash deliver same-day Covid-19 test kits.

But “going virtual” doesn’t work for everyone, such as seniors who aren’t comfortable with digital technology, underserved communities that lack reliable internet, or patients who are homebound or have no access to transportation. We will see community health mobile units staffed with medical personnel equipped with testing equipment and supplies making house calls [see sidebar].

We can’t go back again to pre-pandemic life – many of the lifestyle and societal changes that emerged while we adapted to “the new normal” during lockdowns and daily interactions are here to stay.

Now that you’re addicted to shopping online and getting home delivery for everything, you shouldn’t be surprised that Amazon owns Whole Foods, PillPack, Zappos, Ring video doorbell and is now moving into the telemedicine business, too. Amazon Care is an app that connects users virtually with doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses who can provide treatment over the phone 24 hours a day, supplemented with in-person services like pharmacy delivery and house calls from nurses who can take blood work and provide similar services. Amazon Care is designed to be a supplement or additional benefit to existing health care coverage offered by an employer. By this summer, Amazon Care will be available to all Amazon workers nationwide and to private employers across the country who want to join.