March 20, 2023

Effects of the pandemic, from a three-year perspective – An unexpected side effect of COVID, or so it is alleged – Evening statistics

Having devoted the greater part of recent entries to personal matters and to hiking in particular, I turn my attention to the effects of the pandemic at large, now that it seems to be receding.  This is inspired in part by a publication by AARP received recently, which discussed the long-term results of the COVID pandemic.

Not all of them are bad.  Tele-commuting, which increased enormously after the pandemic set in, is here to stay; it is estimated that the number of people physically commuting to offices has been reduced by a third.  This means many workers are spending more time in the communities where they reside and also that they are moving to places whose cost of living is lower.  As a result, small towns, which had been declining in earlier years, are becoming revitalized.  Again, telehealth sessions have become more common, resulting in less need for waiting in an office for a physician appointment. 

Rather curiously, seniors have fared better than middle-aged and young people psychologically.  I myself have recorded how I endeavored to maintain social relationships even while the pandemic was at its height.  Although it is obvious that people in their sixties and seventies could not all hike together dozens of miles each month with like-minded friends, they used other means to stay in touch with their relatives and acquaintances.  Members of later generations have social ties of much shorter duration and in addition have had less leisure time than those who have retired to organize meetings with their friends. 

People have been getting out of doors more often.  I have encountered many younger people on the trails than before, in many cases taking their children and even infants with them.  The divorce rate has decreased and relationships appear to have become more stable.  Families with multiple generations under one roof have done especially well:  nearly 80% of these report have better interactions with their relatives and children. 

Although staffing remains an issue, our traditional leisure activities have returned in full force.  Weddings have jumped up from 2.1 million in 2019 to 2.5 million in 2022, an increase of 19%.  Travel has resumed, including cruise lines.  I have been critical of the sports industries in general, but it must be admitted that the dedication of professional players who quarantined together, tested constantly, and played on many occasions in nearly empty arenas have preserved a valuable source of entertainment that is now bringing pleasure to hundreds of thousands.  And the process of viewing them has improved;  ticketing has become paperless, and refreshments are ordered in advance through various apps and screens, making attendance in a stadium a less chaotic experience.

Of course there are downsides as well.  Children born in 2016 or after appear to be slower to develop.  Infants born during the pandemic speak much less than their pre-pandemic counterparts.  Babies learn in part by watching mouths move, so the practice of wear facemasks is almost certainly affecting their verbal processing.  Then, too, many of them have been isolated in their earliest years by home-schooling.  Even though the older generation has done better than younger ones, not all of its members have weathered the crisis triumphantly:  the amount of substance abuse among older adults has increased, in the cases of alcohol-related and opioid-related deaths.  People of all ages are also deferring routine medical checkups such as colonoscopies and mammograms, leading to delayed discoveries of cancers, at a stage when they are more difficult to treat. 

On a personal level, in some ways I am in line with these social trends and in some cases I am bucking them.  My behavior in attempting to maintain contact with friends and relatives during the time such an attempt required a special effort appears to be typical for someone in my age group.  As travel restrictions lifted, I have taken various airplane flights to numerous locations, including international flights. On the other hand, I have done less online shopping than most of my compatriots, particularly with respect to groceries, which I prefer to select in person.  And I have been so atavistic in my behavior as actually to tender cash for such transactions on occasion.  I am doggedly clinging to facemasks, at any rate during public transit and excursions to stores and other places with crowds.  I certainly have been doing a good deal of physical activity, but it doesn’t seem to me that the pandemic is directly responsible for it; I would have taken to the trails in any case.  I do not see that I am less active now that the pandemic is receding. 

If a certain Department of State employee is to be believed, COVID has one side effect that no one could have predicted.  Dean Cheves, aged 63, has recently been convicted of paying two girls in Manila, aged 15 and 16, about $60 to film him as he engaged in sexual acts with them.  In his defense he pleaded that he contracted COVID in December 2020, becoming so ill that he thought that he was at death’s door, and that as a result his behavior during that time became “uncharacteristic.”  This amazing diagnosis that COVID can transform someone into a sexual predator, however, is unconfirmed by medical science; and prosecutors accordingly took a much harsher view of his offenses, noting that the age of consent in the Philippines is 18 and that moreover Cheves had repeatedly boasted to one of his victims that he had previously abused a 14-year-old in Brazil, taking her to a “sex motel” and recording the rape – a hint, perhaps, that his behavior in such matters was less uncharacteristic than he claimed.  At all events, they requested that the judge deliver a “significant sentence” along with a lifetime of supervised release.  The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, the mandatory minimum, and moreover ordered him to pay thousands of dollars to his victims.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 682,578,816; # of deaths worldwide: 6,820,145; # of cases U.S.: 105, 977,097; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,151,732.