Five years ago, we predicted how COVID-19 would change our world. Heres what we got right and wrong [Video]

A couple of months after COVID-19 was officially recognized as a pandemic – five years ago today – Canada had recorded close to 60,000 confirmed cases, and more than 3,500 deaths. But by May of 2020, after weeks of lockdown isolation, disinfectant wipe hoarding, mute-button bloopers and home-schooling meltdowns, parts of the country were beginning to loosen some public-health restrictions.

At that cautiously optimistic moment, The Globe and Mail asked several reporters and contributors to forecast how COVID-19 would reshape society.

Today, we revisit their predictions to find out what they got right, what they got wrong – and what they never could have imagined.

Virtual health care would be here to stay

by Kelly Grant

When COVID-19 hit and lockdowns descended, Canada’s usually hidebound health bureaucracy made a lickety-split pivot to virtual care. Provincial health ministries opened fee codes so that, in many cases, doctors were paid the same amount for seeing patients by phone or video as they were for seeing them in person.

…