Needless to say, 2020 has got off to a somewhat turbulent start. 3 months in, and most of us are working from home and reducing the number of social interactions we have on a day to day basis. Many have the uncertainty of jobs and it looks like we could be heading in the direction of a worldwide recession.
COVID-19 has affected the world more than I think we all expected, back when we first learned about the outbreak in Wuhan, China. A virus, causing flu like symptoms, at this stage has killed over 9000 people, and is apparent in 176 countries.
Each country has been tackling the virus with a variety of measures, most of which involve social distancing and self isolation. It seems on a consumer level, people are starting to really value their health and strengthening their immune system. Here at Opalbond, we are noticing the huge uplift in demand for vitamin and mineral supplements, in particular Vitamin C and Multivitamin effervescent tablets. This has really played on my mind the last couple of days. Will this continue into the summer, and then into the autumn when cold season comes around again? Or are people wanting to boost their immunity whilst there’s a pandemic, but then won’t bother once it’s all over.
The pandemic might not only change our behaviours towards health either. With a large percentage of people working from home and limiting travel, we may decide to make vast changes to the way we work. If a company can prove they are equally as successful with remote working, will offices become less of an essential item? With more video conferencing happening, will we start to cut out travelling long distances to meetings? The silver lining of COVID-19 is that the environment is benefiting massively with air pollution levels dropping. Maybe with our changes in behaviour, it will continue to drop as we pay more attention to ourselves and our actions.