It is believed that the fight against the epidemic should cause an increase in trust in scientists and health professionals. Surveys confirm that during an epidemic citizens prefer to trust professionals rather than friends or clergymen. However, even here everything is not so simple. As European economists have found out, despite assurances of full trust in science, the population of many countries has not been able to understand what is true in the descriptions of the virus and the epidemic, and what is not. Thus, in March, when the epidemic reached Europe, half of the citizens polled by sociologists radically (many times) overestimated the danger of the virus – both its contagiousness and lethality. Perhaps they were hampered by an excess of scientific and pseudoscientific information: the beginning of the epidemic caused a real boom in the publication of preprints of scientific articles. Some of them were later refuted.
The same half was prone to panic economic behavior. The panic manifested itself in a variety of ways, including attacks on the toilet paper sections of stores and selling stocks on the stock exchanges. Obviously, it exacerbated the budding crisis.
As a result, many countries stepped up the fight against fake news. And then there is a new danger: the victims of the fight may become scientific data that does not suit the authorities. It is believed that it was because of the fight against doctors who disseminated data about the outbreak in the city of Wuhan that the Chinese authorities failed to realize in time that the virus is transmitted from person to person, and missed the start of the epidemic.
But the major trust issues may still be ahead: it all depends on how quickly authorities and scientists can tackle the epidemic.
Will online business defeat the traditional industry?
It would seem that all the online services that have boomed in recent years are set to profit at a time when their traditional competitors are forced to close or cut back on sales due to quarantines and “lockdowns” around the world. This is the best moment to show their advantages to a wide range of consumers. But it’s not all straightforward: new services – from online sales and delivery to online learning, telemedicine and government services – are being baptized in the face of multiplied demand. Not everyone will be able to cope with this; many online companies have already virtually collapsed under the shaft of orders. It is impossible to predict what the industry will look like when offline competitors return. Perhaps a renaissance awaits the “traditional” business.