Staying Fit
COVID-19 will change everything, from how we greet each other to what's on our bucket list. “It's the single greatest disruption of our lifetime,” says Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. “The kind of change that's occurred over a few months will change how we do things for years.” Here's what's coming, what's on the ropes and — sigh — what we may lose forever in this crisis.

No more handshakes
The very personal greeting of clasped hands that dates back to ancient Greece is “out the window for the foreseeable future,” says Harvard epidemiologist William Hanage, M.D., who recommends a sanitary Star Trek salute and a hearty, “Live long and prosper."
Sanitizers are here to stay
Americans will be increasingly fixated on washing away deadly germs. If sneezing into your elbow took some adjustment, brace for what's on the hygiene horizon. “Especially for older people, hand scrubbing, mask wearing and hyper attention to surface disinfection will be the norm at every turn,” says Eric Toner, M.D., a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

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You won't enter a supermarket or office building without a sanitizing wipe or blast of Purell (or another gel-based hand cleanser, products that saw a 73 percent spike in U.S. sales in March). But that's just a gateway to a sparkling new realm of electrostatic sprays and ultraviolet-light wands aimed at sterilizing a nation where some 1 in 3 of us now identify as germophobes.
That government order for hundreds of millions of N95 masks won't just make it harder to hear each other on socially distant walks. “Masks could soon draw lines, both personal and political, and between young and old,” says Rob Kahn, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota who studies mask ordinances. “If you wear one or don't wear one, it sends a message about how seriously you take public health warnings, about your views on personal liberties, even about generational differences” at a time in which adults 70 and older rate the threat of COVID-19 as more serious than younger people do, according to a survey published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"Clean” is the new “green” as businesses begin to “make a show of elevated hygiene,” says Boston architect Rami el Samahy. Expect lots of public mopping and swabbing; plexiglass walls between you and your cashier or barista, maybe even temperature-check stations. “These cues bring comfort as more infectious diseases emerge,” Toner says.
With that vigilance comes an entire “touchless” or “distance” economy, as online ordering becomes the norm for millions and a true lifeline for vulnerable older adults. If you've Zoomed, or ordered DIY meals from Blue Apron, bistroMD or HelloFresh — or dinner itself via an app like Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub or DoorDash — you're a contributor.
Additionally, downloads of shopping apps like Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Peapod as much as quadrupled in one month, according to one survey. “It's using online sources for things people never considered before — everything from buying shoes, steaks and bourbon, to exercise classes, and it's here to stay,” says Tim Wu, a New York Times opinion columnist and author of The Curse of Bigness.