What has worked in your COVID-19 response and how will the pandemic affect the profession overall?

Abstract

While pandemic plans were brought into the spotlight during the avian flu scare and H1N1 pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic has been far more severe, with many new challenges to manage. As this pandemic will likely continue to have a major impact on lives and organisations at least until the beginning of 2022, organisations need to stop and take stock of their response and make any necessary adjustments now. This paper explores what has worked well in the initial six months and what needs improvement going forward. It also discusses how the pandemic will affect the profession over the long term. The paper concludes that the pandemic could prove to be a boon for the industry, but only if professionals are proactive in making it happen.