The Coronavirus Pandemic Won’t Change Anything Forever

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I keep seeing articles about how the coronavirus pandemic is going to change things forever. Dating will be changed forever. Book publishing will be changed forever. Comic books will be changed forever. Bars and restaurants will be changed forever. Hollywood will be changed forever. Conventions will be changed forever. Remote work will be changed forever. Journalism will be changed forever. Vacations will be changed forever.

I’m going to go out on a limb here: I don’t think much of anything will be changed forever and I wish people would stop saying so based on two whole weeks of practicing isolation and social distancing.¹ All it does is scare people even more just for the sake of being able to write a provocative op-ed. If this is the best you can do, maybe you should just stop writing for the duration.

¹Actually, one week, and that’s only in California, which started on March 21. For most of the rest of you, it’s only been four or five days.

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