The biggest impact of the Covid epidemic was the loss of trust in our government, the medical community, and the media. So much of what we were told about the virus and the vaccine turned out to be false. However, there are other less obvious consequences of the epidemic and the way it was handled.

The two-week shutdown probably did nothing to ‘flatten the curve.’ It did, however, flatten the economy and end the beginning of an economic boom. It also resulted in one of the largest transfers of wealth in America’s history. That transfer of wealth went from the lower-and-middle-income earners to the wealthy. Unfortunately, I suspect that there may be some people with nefarious intentions that will attempt to repeat that template in the future. However, in my opinion, the economic impact of Covid will not be as lasting as some of its sociological effects.

Before Covid, investing in office space was a relatively safe bet. Workers were in their offices almost every day, and there was a comradery among workers. School children were in their classrooms daily, learning social skills and forming friendships. Kindergarten children and elementary school children especially needed to be in school with their peers. Being out of school for almost a year in some cases impeded their social development and probably their language skills. After Covid, when the children returned to school they were masked, as were their teachers. The masks impeded their ability to read facial expressions and to understand fully what was being said to them. Not only were the preventative properties of the masks questionable, there was also the challenge of keeping a mask clean on a young child for an extended period of time. High School students were denied certain social milestones—class trips, proms, competitive sports, graduation ceremonies, and social interaction. The young adults who were in high school at that time (a generation that was already leaning toward texting rather than actual conversation) grew accustomed to socialization through electronics rather than in person. The comradery in schools and offices was lost.

Can we regain any of our losses? Yes. We have already begun. As office workers return to the office, the team spirit will again emerge. As companies realize the value of having people physically present in the office, socialization will begin again, and commercial real estate will rebound.

Our plans to combat Covid failed on many levels. However, they provide a clear blueprint of what not to do in the case of a future epidemic.