COVID-19: Winners and Losers

Now that a lot of states are thinking of reopening, what will the new normal look like?

I feel like these past two months have given most people a feel of how effectively they can or cannot work from home. Depending on the type of job, some people will be more suitable for work from home as opposed to others eg. people working in IT, programmers, HR people, people working in software companies, computer scientists, newsreaders, podcast speakers, gamers, bloggers, writers, artists. For this group, I believe the new normal will continue to include work from home for a major portion of their work hours. It’s possible these companies may think of restructuring.

Similarly several groups cannot effectively work from home and I think we have already seen a lot of memes about that. Bored Panda did a great job of covering this: https://www.boredpanda.com/work-from-home-jokes-quarantine-coronavirus/. For this group, I believe the new normal will be the old normal.

But a large portion of the workforce may fall in between where they can do parts of their work from home such as teachers, researchers, some healthcare workers such as radiologists, therapists, cardiologists but they absolutely have to be on site for a large portion of their work. What will the new normal be for these people?

So who were the winners and losers in this situation?

Winners:

1. Online shopping: we have seen and will continue to see see a surge in online shopping. No wonder Amazon has continued hiring even during these morbid times.
2. Companies such as Zoom, Google meet: they have seen an exponential increase in subscribers with more people moving towards virtual meetings whenever possible.
3. Healthcare workers: Needless to say healthcare workers who have been at the frontline of this and are working round the clock have definitely been given Godly positions.
4. News media: The one thing that people have been doing no matter where you are from is listening to the news as the situation unfolds each day.
5. Telemedicine: Telemedicine has seen a upsurge as more health care workers are figuring out how to provide care while social distancing.
6. Pharmaceutical companies: A lot of pharmaceutical companies have been very busy in COVID-19 research as the rush to the vaccine continues.
7. Data driven companies: With more companies doing work from home, a lot of companies have had to figure out networking, connectivity and infrastructure to enable their employees to work from home seamlessly. This has kept the IT departments in most companies very busy and we have seen more people and companies investing in computers, server solutions and VPN connectivity solutions.
8. Social Media: Needless to say some of the main winners with people being quarantined at home are social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter as more people are using these platforms to interact virtually, stay amused, maintain contact, challenge each other while social distancing.
9. Online learning: Online learning platforms such as Coursera, LinkedIn Learning and others have seen an increase in subscribers as people take this time to learn new skills.

Losers:

1. Airline industry: Airlines have seen a reduction in the number of travelers with several companies banning travel for employees.
2. Cruise industry: Cruise industry has been the most hit with COVID-19 outbreaks happening on several cruises which has left many of the travelers stranded.
3. Tourism: Tourism has definitely taken a hit as travel has been banned and people will be more cautious of traveling to places for pleasure in the nearby future.
4. Restaurants, bars: With most states closing down restaurants and bars to implement social distancing, they have definitely lost some business in the last two months but we should probably see this being restored to normalcy once the social distancing measures are relaxed.
5. Cinemas, fitness centers: Cinemas, theaters and fitness centers have been shut down to implement social distancing possibly causing some loss of revenue.
6. Political campaigns for next presidential elections: While the next election is coming soon, a lot of political campaigns have lost momentum in order to implement social distancing.
7. Event management companies: They have probably been the worst hit as several concerts, shows, conferences, graduations, proms have been cancelled worldwide to implement social distancing.
8. Sports: The community of sports has taken a hit with most sporting events have been cancelled to implement social distancing.
9. Privacy: Seems like mass surveillance has increased due to measures being taken for contact tracing, plus we have already seen a surge in online security lapses with Zoom and other platforms being hacked. So online privacy is definitely a loser.