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If someone asked you what you would sum 2020 up as, what would you say?

Most of us would say it was scary, horrific, awful, ridiculous and many more negative words. BUT if you actually sat down in your own space with no distractions and time to think, was it all really as bad as you would originally think?…

After all, it was and still is a pandemic that has changed the world forever – meaning millions lost their lives, thousands losing their jobs and everybody losing out on precious time spent with family and friends, just, well… living!

However, enough of the doom and gloom as we wanted to highlight some things that we think are truly great things to come out of the pandemic.

The luxury of precious time with loved ones became ours Before COVID-19 mornings and late afternoons were just a blur to most of us, with the rush of making it into work and fighting for your space on the train and then trying to leave the office to beat the traffic on the way home, but 9/10 this wouldn’t make a difference. Then lockdown happened… What once was a manic world just thinking about their one destination and themselves, turned into a world of silence and fear; but on the other side of that, was home-life was suddenly an every-day thing and you actually got to spend all of that time that was once gone before, now with your loved ones. Don’t get us wrong, being in each others pockets meant the frustration levels and cabin-fever were at an all-time high, but family dinners were finally family dinners which had more meaning and calmness about them – as we all slowly to work out what really does matter and what we do all take for granted.

The world started to mend again According to the Foreign Policy’s article, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by an astonishing 17 percent across Asia, Europe and North America from a few months of lockdown compared to the average daily levels in 2019. In Europe across cities such as Rome, Milan and London experienced declines in traffic of around 72-97% and around 50% reduction in the United States, which all relates to the nitrogen dioxide levels dropping by 50%! These are just a couple of the astounding positive effects that lockdown had on the planet, but as well as the planet, this helped contribute to air pollution which can kill up to 4.2 million deaths every year. This is not an indication that climate change is fixed, at all, but it has given us the opportunity to finally be conscious with our decisions and how they affect the planet before it is too late to turn it around.

Respect was at an all-time high Every Thursday we would come together and clap for those risking and losing their lives to save the rest of us. At first this was aimed towards the NHS, but as time went on we all starting to realise that it was also for the shop attendants, delivery drivers, postmen and those who kept us going that we also were really thankful for.

Understanding the need for funding research and science Senior Editor at Kinder Institute, Andy Olin explains in his blog Amid the pandemic, lessons in what we’ve overlooked about the fact that research into similar viruses SARS and SARS-CoV-2 , similar to COVID-19 were being researched into producing and circulating a new vaccine against these. However, when they were in the position to be progressed into human testing the opportunity was rejected by pharmaceutical companies as the viruses were no longer circulating, therefore all research came to a stop. Since COVID-19 it has started to finally make people aware that research will always be needed and will always require a significant amount of funding – with good cause and reasoning. The pandemic has caused research centres all around the world to put full-focus into the virus and has made it clear that a strategy needs to be put into place to prevent future events from happening.

Resources: https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/04/29/covid-19-pandemic-lessons-silver-linings-day-care