What’s your place in line?
It’s a question that will be coming up a lot in the next few months as we come to what seems to be the beginning of the end of this pandemic.
It’s looking increasingly likely that vaccines will be rolled out to the general public here in the U.S. before we ring in the new year. Between now and then, there will be a lot of questions about who gets the vaccine when.
Healthcare workers, first responders, and those in nursing homes and with health risks will be among the first. That much makes sense. But then who gets them after that, and in what order?
This is what needs to be figured out so that society can get back to something that resembles normal.
While that’s all being worked out, we still need to take caution. The normal we’ll see in 2021 won’t be anything like the normal we took for granted in 2019.
The Long Road Ahead
While it seemed like the pandemic was going to bring us together in the beginning, old habits die hard. It became apparent fairly early that infighting over whether the virus was even a big deal would be the narrative, never mind what to do about it.
And that behavior permeated society as well. How many times have you heard stories about people being thrown out of stores or arrested for refusing to wear masks? How many social media posts chastised people, telling them to just “put on the damn mask,” while others equated those orders with tyranny?
You would think there might be an end to it with the news of the vaccine rollout, but that’s not likely to be the case. With vaccinations being released in waves and certain segments of the population being prioritized, experts think it will be late spring or early summer before vaccination is widespread. In the meantime, society will have to grapple with a number of issues.
2021 will be marked by a continued wearing of masks, an economy that’s going to take some time to rebuild, and continued political infighting.
Public health is going to take center stage in 2021. People will get used to things like virtual doctor visits and being more vigilant at the first sign of symptoms. We may see governments around the world put more of a focus on public health messaging. It’s not hard to imagine that rolling out in the next few weeks to address the large number of Americans expressing skepticism about the vaccines.
Getting back to a world similar to the one we knew last year will be directly tied to how people perceive COVID treatments. That means the incoming administration will prioritize convincing people that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do.
While talk of vaccines will be at the forefront, it won’t be the only method we have for dealing with public health issues next year.
While We Wait
Think about any crowded places that you visit. Stadiums, concert venues, shopping centers, grocery stores — all of these places are built on the idea of hundreds of people being in close contact.
It goes without saying that those kinds of situations make for easy virus transmission, but that can only happen if someone who is sick gets inside in the first place. While companies and governments work out vaccine distribution, a new technology can help as a stopgap to prevent spreading.
It’s completely invisible, so most people who walk into a building that’s using it won’t even know it’s there. It looks for unseen signs that a person may be infected, so it will flag someone who has the virus but isn’t showing any symptoms.
It can then alert the authorities so they can take action. The technology already exists in places like stadiums and large venues, where it’s used to detect weapons and known criminals. It’s already been reworked for disease detection, so at this point it’s just a matter of getting it into place.
Before you know it, it will be in places like airports, office buildings, government buildings, and pretty much anywhere else thousands of people go every day. It can help deal with COVID and any future epidemics that might appear, so it isn’t a short-term thing.
One small company is behind this technology, and it’ll be the one that reaps the benefit when the tech sees wider adoption.
Investors able to get in on these early stages will see the biggest rewards when that happens.
All of the details are in Jason Simpkins’ newest report.
The end to the COVID-19 pandemic may be in sight, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be completely in the clear. Nor does it mean recovery will happen overnight.
The long-term changes we’re going to see will be with us for years, if not forever. Act now and you can take advantage of the profits those changes will bring.
