Living through the pandemic has had a major impact on the way we live. In addition to the tragedy of lost lives and health, adjusting our behavior has also had its challenges. If social distancing and mask-wearing hasn’t been hard enough, restrictions on travel, school, and visiting loved ones have been downright heartbreaking. While these health protocols–along with vaccinations–have been largely responsible for squashing transmission of Covid-19, they have also caused emotional trauma that has driven the rates of depression, drug use, and deaths due to opioid overdose to new peaks. But there is a flip side to these limitations. Some of them have actually made our lives better. As case numbers drop and restrictions ease up, we should carefully consider which changes we want to keep before scurrying back to life as we used to know it. If we don’t, things could become worse than before the pandemic.
Improved indoor ventilation is an obvious keeper. When I was treating Broadway performers, I used to say that if the ventilation systems in theaters weren’t so disgusting, I wouldn’t have a job. Much of that disgustingness was/is due to recycled air and an overgrowth of mold and bacteria in old ductwork. These conditions were made even worse by sets filled with sand, smoke, dust, and water. And that was just the performance spaces. Dressing rooms were often in dark corners or basements, full of mold, with no air filters or windows in sight. Performers often showed up to work healthy but left with allergies and sinus infections. Even as an audience member, I felt the threat of bronchitis every time I was seated under a vent, pathogens filling my lungs with each breath. The same kind of workplace ventilation horror was common for subway conductors, office workers, restaurant chefs, schools, and construction sites, just to name a few. Now that MERV13 filters and 3 to 4 air exchanges per hour are being instituted, the indoor air we breathe is much cleaner, but not in every space. We need to be aware of what we are being made to breathe in.
Another change for the better is being allowed to stay home from work or school if you are sick. Until the pandemic, workers were discouraged from staying home, even to care for sick children. Going to work sick and sending sick children to school was the norm, resulting in infections spreading to coworkers, teachers, and other children. When I was practicing, my sick patients were barely able to get time off for a doctor’s visit, and when they did, it was mainly to get medications so they could go right back to work. I used to prescribe work excuses along with medications so my patients would go home and rest. In my Broadway patients, illnesses spread like wildfire among performers. The expectations for working while sick were outrageous, but the show had to go on. For me, that meant being on call 24/7 for eight shows a week, pumping performers full of medications and vitamins so they could get back on stage. Now that we have paid sick leave and time off for Covid, illness rates have plummeted. Many common viruses, like influenza A and B, parainfluenza respiratory syncytial Virus, and norovirus, are less prevalent than ever before. Rates of sinus infections, allergies, and strep are at an all-time low. Those rates could skyrocket if we go back to sharing our illnesses at work.
Now we come to the most controversial behavioral change, and that is mask-wearing. It may be that the mandates are more upsetting than the actual wearing of the mask, but there are so many benefits to wearing masks, everyone should feel free to continue using them far into the future. First, they prevent you from touching your face. While handwashing has always been encouraged, we still touch surfaces, people, other parts of our bodies, etc., and then our faces more than we can imagine. And while SARS Cov-2 isn’t commonly transmitted through surfaces, many other pathogens, like norovirus, which causes stomach flu, and HPV, which causes warts and certain cancers, are. Masks reduce aerosol transmission, especially if you sneeze or cough into your mask. They also provide a filter for bigger irritants, like dust and pollen, to help lower your allergy symptoms. Even though most people will choose to shed masks when mandates are lifted, those who want to wear them for certain circumstances should be encouraged to do so.
Limiting huge, overcrowded, indoor gatherings and having the option of working remotely may also be better, not only for our immune systems but also our sense of connectedness and intimacy. Cramming too many people into a small space has never been healthy, but before the pandemic, it had become the norm. And while avoiding all human contact is also detrimental, having the luxury of time and space and choice in who we surround ourselves with is a blessing. Although we may be tired of relying on Zoom, having the option of videoconferencing instead of in-person meetings has also allowed us to connect in different ways, at a lower cost, and with less commuting.
Some may worry that exposure to fewer microorganisms may be weakening our immune systems. I would argue that, in densely populated places like NYC, these precautions have actually given our immune systems a much-needed break. Now that I’m not treating sick patients five days a week, I haven’t been sick or taken antibiotics in over a year. Many of you can say the same. It is quite likely, however, that if we go right back to the way we were living before, our immune systems could get so overloaded, we could see a massive resurgence of illnesses. This is especially worrisome because we didn’t have much influenza, so there may not be an effective vaccine next fall.
As we head into the summer, well past the one-year mark of the pandemic, I hope we can take something good away from all the heartache. By holding onto these accidental blessings, we can make our new normal even better than our old one. If we let them go, who knows what will happen.