Table 1.

Outcome Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Sociotype Domains.

Domains Side Effects: Negative Fallouts Side Effects: Positive Fallouts
Context
  • Threats to democracy—issues of freedom of movement and privacy
  • Closure of institutions—law courts, government in the interests of “public health”
  • Damage to tourism, hotel, restaurant, and service industries
  • Collapse of performing arts, concerts, theatre, etc.
  • Collapse of Stock Market—shades of 1929 recession
  • DALYs lost due to unemployment and stresses in the long term
  • Civil unrest
  • Benefits to the environment, decreased pollution, especially from less air traffic
  • Decrease in terrorism—less crowds
  • Exercise in preparedness, especially if a really serious disease such as a variant of Ebola emerged
  • Research into the immunity of bats as a reservoir for zoonotic illnesses
  • New organizational solutions, e.g. transformation of hotel rooms as quarantine stations; restaurants to food kitchens
  • Advancing implementation science to find vaccines and new, quicker diagnostic tests
  • Closer international cooperation and sharing data and experiences; use of Big Data analytics
  • Developing new online experiences—museum tours etc.
Relationships
  • Loss of normal work routines
  • Loss of employment—loss of self-respect, financial consequences
  • Caring for the food-insecure—closure of food banks
  • Disruption in work and recreation activities
  • Lovers not being able to meet…
  • Effect on divorce rate?
  • Experiencing family quality time—getting to know family/kids better
  • Getting back to, and appreciating basics—friendships, nature
  • Social empathy
  • Learning how to use technology and to build virtual communities for mutual support, encouragement, and boosting morale
  • Revised educational methods and teaching platforms, leading to internet teaching and reduction in frontal lectures (long overdue) in schools and universities
  • Re-organization of working schedules to allow for remote working from home; encouraging use of virtual meetings—this will directly and indirectly affect transportation and traffic congestion
  • Advances in the use of telemedicine
  • Effect on birth rate—baby boom?
Individual
  • Unavoidable loss of life—especially among the elderly with chronic diseases
  • Time seems to stand still, a feeling of being in limbo
  • Ageism
  • Inability to exercise—weight gain, obesity
  • Living without cultural events and live sports
  • Increased stress and anxiety
  • Inability to be on one’s own, or being confined with someone with whom you do not get on
  • Screen time addiction
  • Learn about time management
  • Time to do all those things we never have any time to do
  • Stress management
  • Existential issues and change in priorities
  • Smoking cessation?
RMMJ Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal Rambam Health Care Campus 2021 January; 12(1): e0005. ISSN: 2076-9172
Published online 2021 January 19. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10425