Surprisingly - 20 Good Things That Have Happened So Far in 2020

Grandma Can Zoom

Digital skills for nearly all have exploded — Granda now knows how to Zoom.

The lockdowns forced businesses and personal relationships to transform. This forced many to learn a new set of skills quickly.

Zoom has grown 10 million daily meeting participants to 300 million.

Better Treatment of Workers

Walmart and Target have canceled in-store shopping on Thanksgiving allowing their workers the day to spend with their families.

"We know this has been a trying year, and our associates have stepped up. We hope they will enjoy a special Thanksgiving Day at home with their loved ones," John Furner, the president and CEO of Walmart US, said in a statement. "We are certainly thankful to our people for all of their efforts."

Could this be a new era? Stay tuned.

Humility

Humility is being forced on politicians, as the coronavirus is undefeated and constantly proves politicians wrong.

Both Democrats and Republicans are realizing that bravado, bluster and edicts won’t beat the virus.

Closing the Digital Divide

The digital divide between rich and poor is finally being addressed. 

While online learning for children in Rhode Island and across the country has had mixed reviews with some identifying it as a failure, at least some poorer kids are finally getting better access to computers and the internet.

In Rhode Island, free computers and internet access were provided to some children. At least the technology side of the issue is beginning to be faced.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is now real and is providing real value to many patients who might not see a doctor or mental health expert in the office.

Urologist Dr. Mark Sigman with the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University appeared on “Smart Health” on GoLocal LIVE during Men’s Health Month, to talk about the importance of regular doctor’s visits — and how telemedicine could help men seek out medical advice more moving forward. 

And, Brown Alpert Medical School Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine Wilfredo Giordano-Perez spoke to challenges facing LGBTQ+ healthcare in Rhode Island — and opportunities. 

“A lot of the access issues to LGBTQ+ individuals have been around being comfortable, being safe in clinical settings — whether there are signs that show that this is a safe zone, or a safe place to be yourself that there’s no discrimination regardless of your sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity — whatever it may be — that’s a barrier that’s kind of been lifted in a sense with this whole movement towards telehealth,” he said. 

Appreciation of Science

There is a greater appreciation of science by many, but sadly, not by all.

There is more discussion about science than ever before.

More Americans are reading about research and development and scientific studies than ever before.

Facing the Issue of Racism

Facing the reality of our nation’s racism — it has been a raw and painful few months since the death of George Floyd.

Since Memorial Day Americans have taken to the streets in protests -- Providence saw one of its largest protests with more than 10,000.

It is a long-overdue discussion in America.

PHOTO: Olga Enger, Studio Newport

Improved Policing

Policing will be better - more focused on the community and more accountable.

The 'defund the police' movement across the country and in Providence has mostly stalled, but reform is taking place.

Focus on Local

The importance of local companies has been growing — and farmers, the fishing industry and more are working to remake their business models to be able to deliver 

“We’ve been doing home delivery for about a year where we’re taking orders through a special website — we work with a company that allows us to do variable weigh pricing, which is really important when you sell meat,” said Pat McNiff of Pat's Pastured in Rhode Island. “We deliver all around the state and Massachusetts as well.”

“When this all happened, we were like alright, we’re just going to ramp it up,” he said. “Our markets hadn’t decided if they were going to open yet, restaurants all closed and overnight we lost about 20 percent of our business, so we had to pivot quick.”

“We had a few farmer friends who are majority wholesale — restaurants — and we said would you like to sell to our platform too and we created a whole system that brought in other farmers until the wholesale market opened back up,” said McNiff. 

Reforming Big Tech

The monopolistic behavior of Big Tech could be muted -- emphasis on “could.”

Hearings held by the House Subcommittee on Anti-trust issues unveiled a range of violations and a culture of crushing, acquiring, and blocking competitors for these major corporations' benefit versus the consumer's.

Empowerment of Athletes

Athletes at the college and pro level are now stepping forward and asserting themselves.

A group of PAC-12 football players from multiple schools has issued a letter threatening to opt-out of fall camp and playing in games unless their "demands for fair treatment, safety regulations and concerns over racial justice for college athletes are met by the conference."

The letter is signed by Players of the PAC-12 and uses the hashtag #WeAreUnited to explain the group's concerns, saying, "Because NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college athletes, #WeAreUnited."

Real Heroes

Nurses, doctors, police, emergency response personnel, and other frontline workers have received greater appreciation for their sacrifice.

Backyards

There has been a revived focus on home and especially backyards.

With the need to socially distance, families are focused on improving their homes and their outdoor spaces.

Less Commuting

Commuting is a tremendous waste of time. Research from the Urban Mobility report found in 2018 that commuting costs America $90 billion dollars per year in lost productivity 

Researchers at the Texas A&M found the average American commuter wastes 54 extra hours a year in traffic delays. By "extra hours" they mean the extra time spent traveling at congested speeds rather than free-flow speeds. 

Less commuting means more productivity and more home time.

Handwashing and Long-term Health Benefits

One of the outcomes of the pandemic has been a massive focus on handwashing.

This is an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, but will also have long-term benefits over the long-term to limit the spread of colds and the flu in the long-term.

New Family Focus

Distance learning is a work in progress. Tens of millions are now working from home.

The impact has been a far greater focus on family.

Innovation

The coronavirus is a major disruptor that has led to unprecedented levels of innovation.

Due to the lockdown, so many businesses have had to reinvent themselves.

This includes cafes turning into takeaway venues and gin distilleries now making hand sanitizers. These are examples of the obvious. Every business is rethinking its business model.

Environmental Impacts (short-term)

In the short-term, there have been some positive impacts to the environment as a result of the lockdowns.

Less commuting and less energy usage have improved air quality in many cities.

"If we can think about how to prepare for climate change like a pandemic, maybe there will be a positive outcome to all of this," said Christopher Jones, lead developer of the CoolClimate Network, an applied research consortium at the University of California, Berkeley. "We can help prevent crises in the future if we are prepared. I think there are some big-picture lessons here that could be very useful."

Many companies are extending work from home. Siemens has told 140,000 of its workers they can work from where ever they choose. 

A wide array of companies, including Shopify, Coinbase, Upwork, Box, Google, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Capital One, Zillow, Slack, Amazon, PayPal, Salesforce, and others extended their work-from-home options.

Medical Research

There is a massive focus on finding a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Tens of billions are being invested.

The new super focus on research is sparking a new focus on science and research that may have a significant impact on combatting other diseases. 

Sense of Shared Experience

While the political divide in America seems sometimes overwhelming, the coronavirus is creating a shared experience and Americans have the potential to join together to combat the disease.

We will see if these early failures can be overcome.