Will the world change after coronavirus has gone? No no no!

There is much talk about how the world will never be the same after the coronavirus has finally left this planet. It will be a defining moment in history. Well I don't agree. I think the world will carry on as before, coronavirus will soon be forgotten, the pubs and restaurants will fill up once again, postponed weddings will be reinstated, holiday travel will boom and politicians will go back to their normal business. Here in UK Brexit will once again be the word on everyone's lips. No one will remember COVID-19, and Dr Chris Whitty, UK chief medical officer, constantly on the TV with his worthy pronouncements, will return to obscurity and become unrecognisable in the street. Coronavirus is bad, it's terrible, it's ruining everything right now but when it's over we will get on with our lives and coronavirus or COVID-19 can go hang. I recall that when 9/11 happened every commentator around the world said it would also be a defining moment in history and that the world would be changed for ever. So many people said this that I believed it too. How could the United States ever truly recover from such a catastrophic terrorist attack? This was certainly Osama bin Laden's belief and hope. He expected that the killing of nearly 3,000 people and the destruction of the iconic Twin Towers in New York would destroy America's economy, fatally undermine the morale of the people and turn the US into a second-rate nation. It wasn't true. It was never going to be true. It was the greatest of shocks to a great nation but just watching the firemen courageously doing their job under the most appallingly dangerous conditions inspired everyone and surely made us all believe eventually that the US would rise up and be as strong as ever and that the terrorists would never ever destroy the country. Bin Laden was just a terrorist. He wasn't an evil prophet capable of bringing a nation to its knees. It's the same with coronavirus. We will get through it, it will get worse and we will be frightened for ourselves and for our families and friends but it will go away and life will return to normal. We may think hard about what normal should be and it just might make some political leaders comprehend the fragility of this planet and that we need to take care of it but I refuse to believe that somehow we will all be different when the virus has slunk away back into wherever it came from. No, we will all be resilient and joyful and happy and get on with life. Climate change we can't get rid of without drastic action, but scientists will find a cure for coronavirus or whatever comes our way in the future. So please, no more of this oh my God the world will never be the same.