The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant sociocultural, economic, environmental, and technological changes worldwide. Discrimination against Asian communities has surged, prompting some cities, like New York, to establish support hotlines.
Extreme global economic downturn:
- Beginning on February 20th, the DOW Jones and global economy began decreasing
- Due to the end of production, many countries reliant on exports to support their economy have
suffered
- Countries reliant on exports from other places are lacking necessary supplies and essentials (i.e. masks, etc.)
Job Loss:
- Nearly 1,000,000 Canadians applied for EI in the third week of March
- Majority of manual occupations cannot be completed from home
Environmental Impacts
Animals reliant on human interaction are suffering:
- Animals who have become accustomed, and therefore reliant to human support for food, etc. (i.e. pigeons, ducks) aren't quite prepared
Animals returning to once densely populated areas:
- Areas such as cities and outdoor meeting places have seen an increase in animal populations returning to these areas, no longer inhabited daily by humans
Decrease in emissions:
- Closure of factories
- No incentive to use cars/transportation for majority of individuals
Technological Impacts
More chances for companies to get personal information:
- Zoom, an application that has increased significantly in popularity since the beginning of the pandemic, has reportedly been selling information online without the knowledge of its users
Increase in forms of communication:
- Technology is being implemented in fields that typically don't involve it (i.e. classrooms moving online)
- Adaption has become necessary to communicate in big groups or face-to-face (i.e. increase in users of Zoom application)
Sociocultural Impacts
No human-to-human contact:
- Social distancing is something unnatural for human societies, and it took time for people to adhere to adjustments
- Led to increase in technological communication
No Gathering for Religious Holidays:
- Due to health restrictions, people globally won't be able to
gather to celebrate religious holidays
- One of the believed causes of Coronavirus' global spread was people travelling to China to celebrate Lunar New Year
Racism:
- There has been a noticeable increase discrimination against those of Asian descent
- New York City has created a hotline for Asian-Americans to call if facing discrimination
Political Impacts
Citizens trust in the government:
- Many citizens globally have been vocal online
about their perception of their governments and
national leaders handling of the pandemic
- Ex. Citizen trust of President Trump's handling of the pandemic in the U.S. has been unfavourable
International Relations:
- Boris Johnson's government is reportedly furious with China for its spread of disinformation and fabrication of case numbers
- Canadian politicians are upset with
decisions made by U.S. President Trump
(i.e. 3M production)
