Over the past few days, we are slowly seeing positive signals. The RIVM reports a small decrease in the number of infections, there is a reduction in the number of patients in intensive care, and the daily death toll is also decreasing. Still, very little is known about how long this virus will still grip our daily lives.
Nevertheless, there is already ample speculation about various exit strategies. The scenarios range from Big Brother scenes, where everyone is constantly monitored, to door policy on beaches and in parks, quarantine after every trip, young people can walk the streets and the elderly cannot, and the one-half-meter company, including basic income.
That this is going to have major consequences in the time ahead is certain. But what should life look like for you?
Currently, my team and I are working on a large healthcare project. Our conversations with healthcare providers are primarily about their work and how we can make it easier. A recurring topic here continues to be the striking number of corona patients overweight. Incidentally, it is not news that the virus is particularly elderly affects and people with weaker health.
You can't change much about your age. Your own health can. If you don't meet your health works, you run additional risks. This is common knowledge, but so now you are probably also at greater risk of (more severe effects of) corona. Whether this is a causal relationship or just a correlation remains to be seen, but would you **that risk**take?
Although more than half of the Netherlands chronically ill is and although we have wanted to live healthier lives for ages, we are still too tired to do so, don't have the time or are too stressed to do something about it. Could corona then be a wake-up call?
Mentally, we face a different challenge. The uncertainty is agonizing, not to mention the financial stress for many. We miss our colleagues, friends and family en masse, and sitting at home too long can cause loneliness and depression cause. Working from home also requires discipline, and with the kids around, it is quite a challenge.
I have a 2.5-year-old son myself. He really doesn't wait until my Zoom meeting is over to do his pee or tug on another game (and we only have one). Still, I'm also grateful because I get to spend so much time with him now. That gives food for thought. Will he have to go back to daycare for four days soon, or is time with your family actually more important?
Working from home also results in much less travel and traffic time. That extra time alone is equivalent to one less day of daycare per week. Moreover, it brings back some balance to the much-discussed work-life balance. For the employer, too, the savings in travel and office expenses are huge. This is not to say that we no longer need to meet at all, but it does make one think.
170 Dutch scientists last week via a manifesto advocated to make the Netherlands more radically sustainable and fair. In doing so, they appeal to politicians, but also to us as consumers, to curb our luxurious and wasteful consumption.
Even if before the end of the year a vaccine is found, we are still in this situation long enough to radically transform or at least adjust life as we knew it.
While no one is willing to be locked up, there are things that are positive during this lockdown. How can you take those with you when we come out of here later? How do you want to spend the next few months and the time after? Perhaps it is indeed time to think about an exit strategy. Your exit strategy.
