How COVID-19 Changed the Evolution of the Human Species (Free Essay Sample)

COVID-19 affected many things when it first came around and even now. It changed the whole education system and how students learned. Covid affected trade between countries and even within the countries themselves. The biggest impact was how Covid changed the evolution of the human species. The virus changed the way the world works with death and destruction it brought from 2019.

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that originated in China in 2019. COVID-19 spread from China all the way to America. Before Covid came about, teachers taught students in classrooms with hands-on activities as well as using paper and pencil. This way of teaching has helped students create relationships with other people around them and to maintain their social skills. “There are some school experiences you won’t gain in any other place. Field trips, school activities, and different clubs, part of which you can be, are just some of those experiences. From each of those activities, you’ll take life lessons that will be beneficial in your future” (“Top 6 Advantages of Traditional Education”). Like the quote said, there are experiences that you can not get by sitting behind a screen. Covid changed everything for the way teachers taught their students. But mainly took these teachable experiences away from students and forced them inside with their eyes glued to a screen. “… schools were forced to limit face-to-face teaching and move to the digital world, i.e., online remote learning, at least for a while. This shift was very rapid and in some ways, brutal: most schools and teaching institutions were not ready for this occurrence…”(MacKenize). Covid came out of nowhere and no one was prepared for the massive change. Covid continued to spread and got worse than before. Schools stayed online for the rest of the school year and as summer came around, many people stayed indoors. The next school year, from 2020 to 2021, students were back in school but with many restrictions. Students had to wear masks and stay six feet apart. COVID-19 is the greatest challenge that the national education systems have ever seen. Having students online helped teachers, institutional heads and state officials manage the educational consequences of the effects of Covid (Daniel). Even to this day, the education system will never be the same, just like the trade around the world. 

Everything was normal until Covid hit. It hit hard. Especially the trade around the world. International trade dropped in 2020. In 2020, there were some of the largest reductions in trade since World War II. Time lags in coinciding business cycles between countries are reduced by a lot in the strength of trade relationships (Barbero). Due to many countries closing their borders to keep covid from spreading to them as well as protecting their citizens. “The global pandemic and the economic recovery continued to impact international trade in January 2022…” (“News Release”). This quote shows that Covid causes a worldwide pandemic that affected trade in 2020 and still continues to affect the trade of this current year of 2022. Some examples of trade being affected are the toilet paper shortage. There were many people buying in bulk; especially toilet paper. This is because many families were afraid of running out of supplies and having to go outside to get more. The demand for toilet paper was more than the supply they had. With many nations locking down their borders; service dropped to 83%. For multinational consumer goods companies, the service is usually 99%. With manufacturers not being able to deliver everything that retailers are ordering, causing shortages all around in store for many everyday products. (Robotics). While trading one of the big things affected by Covid. The biggest one yet was human evolution. 

Evolution is defined as the theory that all the kinds of living things that exist developed from earlier types. There are differences between the originals that resulted from changes that happened over many years. It has been close to three years since Covid first showed up. The human species has had to adapt quicker than ever before. Covid sped up the evolution of many people as well as getting in the way of their evolution. For example, many people call young children who have grown up during Covid iPad kids. This is because they were forced to grow up with online learning and that was all they ever knew. An example of Covid stopping evolution is children who had big changes in their lives during Covid. Like when an 8th grader is online learning for two years, then goes to school for the first time when they are sophomores. The child never got to experience high school until now, so this makes their mindset that an 8th grader still because that is all that they know. Covid had also affected the evolution of mating and gender norms. “… the pandemic seems likely to render the behavior of those who, as the paper puts it, “pursue a fast life history strategy,”—i.e., have sex with many different partners—as more far more costly. Yet while longer-term commitments may be more attractive, the pandemic is shrinking this market, and could reduce birth rates and thus affect the global economy for generations to come.” (“10 Ways the Pandemic Could Reshape Our Evolution”). It is causing people to stop randomly getting together with someone which will lead to fewer births and affect the future generations. This is because there will be fewer births than before, meaning less overpopulation. Another thing is that the gender norms are going back backwards. This is because while men are working; woman are giving up their jobs and picking up the duties to be a full time mother to help their children with school and caring properly for them during the pandemic. (“10 Ways the Pandemic Could Reshape Our Evolution”).

COVID-19 affects education, trade and evolution over the course of almost three years. It has changed the way teachers teach and the way students learn. In with technology and out goes the paper and pencil. It has taken experiences and moments away that could have been life changing lessons for students to experience. It took trade down all over the world. It was the lowest low seen since World War II. The most Covid has changed is the evolution of the human race. It slowed it down for some people and for others it sped up. Covid has changed many things in the modern world. To this day, it continues to affect everything it touches.