Coronavirus changing the World

I've been monitoring this virus for over a month now, since we had only 2 here in Australia, and the majority of those affected were still just in Wuhan and China. It's been a surreal month, with drastic changes to everyone's lives and has thoroughly revealed the best and worst parts of humanity.

First off, intially, everyone's attitude towards the virus was of that of complete dismissal and total lack of concern. When reports came out of the lockdown of Wuhan, and the dangers of the virus at hand, those like us in more fortunate positions stayed relaxed and had no reason to do anything different. After all, reports of horrible things happening on the other side of the world happens all the time, and usually it never comes close to our borders, let alone in our own homes. So it was a huge hit of reality for everyone, when things starting getting closer to us and people started panicking.

People seriously didn't start taking things seriously until the numbers went into the hundreds, unless there were cases near your area. When it was at 10 and there were cases around the asian communities, I found those areas to be deserted immediately. However, that initial fallback did eventually wear off, as with slow development in the early stages of exponential growth, people once again lowered their guards and quickly went back to old habits - going out casually, being close contact with others without any consideration.

It's this mentality that has really shaken the world up, especially with first world areas such as America and Italy being largely affected that has pushed other countries to act. Without others being hurt first, I doubt we would have moved this quickly and done much.

In regards to human hygiene, the World has seriously taken a turn for the better in that regard. We rapidly adopted the notion of 'best practice', educating one another on the proper way to wash hands, avoid spreading germs, and to avoid touching your face. Although this advice existed for many years prior, it goes to show that an astronomical event of this scale can really force the World to change and adhere to new standards and practices, which would have been thought to be impossible before.