Last week, I reflected on five years since the world began to shut down in response to the outbreak of Covid-19. Jeff, Haley, and Michael now have as well. One conclusion of my reflections was that the social effects of the disease and public reaction to it linger: “The experience itself, as a totality, may prove its own most enduring legacy.”

In Reason, J. D. Tuccille makes the case for one particular lingering effect: social rudeness. An extended period when schools, businesses, and other institutions closed, when real-world physical interactions diminished or disappeared, and when governments encouraged us to view other people with suspicion unsurprisingly had negative consequences for how we relate to one another: in person, on the road, and elsewhere. “It’s clear that the behavior of a good many people changed for the worse, maybe permanently, during the pandemic.” He’s right that there were changes for the worse, though some of them have abated. It’s up to us to decide whether other aspects must be permanent.

There’s another effect that can appear harder to tie directly to Covid-19: the increased willingness of institutions to conduct previously in-person events virtually, or to abandon them outright. I don’t have the numbers to prove it, but my anecdotal experience is that such occasions have a permanently lowered threshold for cancellation. Recall California Governor Gavin Newsom’s cowardly 2023 decision to conduct a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the state virtually out of fear of “protesters.” Five years since the shutdowns began, we should keep insisting on the real world as our default, not something that’s just nice to have.