Many people think that with the advent of the vaccines, we are now out of the COVID-19 hole. No, not quite yet...
Likely it will be this time next year, if we work hard, where the holidays, air travel and conferences are back to a "new normal." As the rollout of the vaccines has shown, getting people vaccinated will be no easy matter. There will need to be totally different approaches at the national level to eventually have a fully functioning vaccination program in the nation.
Then there is the issue of mega disasters that are still hanging out there waiting to happen in the new year. We could have a true calamity in 2021. Firestorms can be bigger, a huge earthquake, on the West Coast or on the New Madrid Fault, or another seismic event somewhere else in the nation.
The economy is still in a fragile state. If we don't beat the virus down with all our current preventive measures, combined with a broad-based acceptance of vaccinations, we could slip into a real recession that goes beyond the service and hospitality industry. All the small businesses that closed or still may permanently close will not just bounce back. Small businesses are where the majority of people are employed.
I'm still waiting for some significant climate change-based event to happen — perhaps not tied to a disaster. I'm not sure what that will be, but we need to be able to catch it on video so people understand the implications. And yet, even with that there will be conspiracy theorists who say it isn't real and is just a hoax.
We talk about being in an era of "truth decay" and perhaps that is the worst thing that can happen to us. When people, especially governments, start making decisions not based on facts, but on what their political persuasion reflects, then we'll be in real trouble...evidence 2020.
So 2020 is one for the history books, but don't be thinking it can't go downhill from here!
