“The beginning is always today,” said Mary Shelley two centuries ago

She was quite optimistic, which comes as a surprise from a leading Romantic era exponent. Of course, she was talking about the excitement of an interesting adventure, a fresh day, a brand-new start.

In the trying times of Coronavirus, I keep my right to be realistic. There’s growing talk about the post-corona era, about how everything will come back to what it once was, how society will restart and pick-up from where it was left a few months ago, how economies will put all crisis behind and rise from the ashes. I’m confident that what we’re going through right now is just the beginning of a new epoch, the epoch in which nothing will be the same anymore.

The new normal

I’ve come to this conclusion by observing behaviors around me. From the muted cry of small entrepreneurs who try to find comfort in insufficient government stimulus programs to central banks that gave their all and then some, printing money out of nothing and throwing it in the face of the virus in the hope that this, the last weapon in their arsenal, will start making things right, economies rejoice, and people enthusiastically consume once again.

The underlining note in all of this is one thing: FEAR. Manifested in different forms and with various influences and vectors, but all in all, the same feeling: pure, unadulterated fear.

Business-wise, fear makes or breaks actions and thoughts, dismisses investment plans, smashes development budgets, fires employees, cuts innovation, research, development, affects investor sentiments, turns economic tigers into tame pussycats. Mind you; this is not a presumptuous forecast; this is the reality we’re living in now. This is the new world.

The Wuhan precedent

Let’s not kid ourselves; this is not an exercise of imagination; this is what some already tried. The best example is the lockdown relaxation and economic restart measures in what was, not long ago, the epicenter of this new world: Wuhan, China.

For them, after a 76-day total lockdown, with draconic measures taken to keep them inside at all times, the April 8 announcement of travel bans being lifted came as a literal breath of fresh air.

One month later, and shops are still closed, restaurants are turned into takeaway booths, businesses generate close to zero profits, production is still in shambles, bankruptcy is the new status quo. Already, the local economy contracted by at least 40% and prospects are grim.

Regardless of state-backed stimulus programs, zero-rent programs, employee cost covers, and many more, the economy does not seem to pick up.

The once-thriving 11 million people city is still in mental lockdown. Anxiety is the name of the new game.

Employees that had the luxury of being able to work from home don’t want to return to the office. People no longer frequent gyms, restaurants, cinemas, spas, salons, arcades, shopping malls, travel agencies, beauty parlors, neither the personal nor the professional life of most Wuhanese is now what it was a few months ago.

Authorities, even despotic, autocratic ones as the Chinese are, have no idea what’s going to happen, how to prepare for it, how to tackle it, and what to do if all else fails. It’s a trial and error process for Wuhan, for China, and pretty soon, for the rest of the world.

A mixed bag of information

So far, the pros and cons list contains most, if not all, measures and steps you hear about all day long, every time you turn on your TV or web browser:

Lockdown

1. It surely works!
2. It might not, it’s too soon to tell, look at the USA, see the protestors!

Ventilators

1. Essential for life support during these trying times!
2. Actually, studies are showing they don’t make much of a difference!

Remdesivir

1. The magic drug that’s going to cure us all!
2. Trial test after trial test showed that it has no positive effects and might, in some cases, even make matters worse!

Hydroxychloroquine

1. Some guy says it cured him!
2. Intensive medical studies find no relevant connection between it and Corona evolution!

Smokers are better protected

1. Their lungs are more accustomed to harsh breathing conditions!
2. How could that be, smoking kills, it says so on the pack!

Flattening the curve is the way to go

1. Sounds smart and might work!
2. There’s no proof yet this is the way to go for acquiring mass immunization!

For each contradictory affirmation, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles, pseudo-studies, reports, analysis… And with each of those, the general uncertainty about the future grows a little bit stronger.

For the average Joe and for Billion and Trillion-Dollar businesses:

• revenues and incomes plummet
• earnings are reaching new lows
• tens, if not hundreds of millions have already or are very close to losing their jobs
• productivity is sinking
• motivation becomes a scarce commodity
• people invent reasons for staying inside, in the comfort and safety of their homes
• entire market sectors close up
• the business world is transforming and all of us together with it

Until the Holy Grail, the vaccine, will be on the market, I see the anxiety described above as an ever-growing sentiment for all of us.

What does the future look like?

Covid-19 is here to stay, even the most optimistic medical scenarios don’t approximate a delivery data for the vaccine closer than 18 months.

Bracing for the second wave is easier said than done, because, in the end, in this new world, nobody knows what the future holds.

Caution is the word of the year, and it should be displayed both in a personal and a professional sense.

Not all people react the same way, and not everybody can work from home, cultures differ, lockdown measures affect each of us differently, central banks intervene in various ways in the markets, government policies that work in Wuhan might not be appropriate for Milan. We’re different, all of us, and now we find each other united by a common enemy and a common goal: survive, adapt, thrive.

Stay safe; stay healthy!

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