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Cardiology

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Case Overview

There’s nothing like a crisis to make the impossible possible. In a matter of weeks, life as we knew it came to a screeching halt. The unthinkable happened. In March 2020, schools, shops, restaurants, cafes and museums around the world closed. Public gatherings were forbidden. Millions of people were out of work. Cities became so deserted that wild animals started roaming usually busy streets. Governments were doling out some of the most generous economic stimulus packages ever, skirting along the edges of a common basic income – unthinkable among Western liberal democracies.

The things we took for granted suddenly became extremely valuable. Our reflexes, such as “let’s meet for a coffee”, became meaningless. And we all learned, without any rehearsal, to be confined at home, where all facets of life would carry on in a small space. From there, we learnt to work, go to school, take care of the kids, cook meals, entertain, play, and primarily live indoors, socially cut off. People were faced with a steep learning curve around the use of technology.

Breakthrough Sections

And then I noticed something new. I noticed that people were started using the internet in a very different manner than before the crisis. People were actually talking on their phones. For anyone over 30, this might seem obvious, but the advent of the smartphone reduced voice communication to an ancillary function of the phone, replaced with texting, instant messaging, and emojis. Videoconferencing boomed, leaving the professional environment and entering homes in no time. “You’re on mute” became one of the most often spoken phrases, and “Zooming” became a verb (as indeed did “Zoom bombing”, a variation on “photo bombing”, where people “gate-crash” video conferences, often with malicious intent).