We’re in the midst of the most serious healthcare crisis in a century. Alongside the devastating loss of life and the stress imposed on medical personnel and other essential workers, we will inevitably endure a tidal wave of unpredictable long-term effects from the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
We talk and hear a lot about “the new normal.” I made reference to it recently in my editorial for our April issue last month, which feels much longer than that. But none of this is “normal,” per se. I’m starting to think that “normal” isn’t a thing anymore, at least not right now. There are just circumstances and reactions, causes and effects. 
 
Day after day it feels like this pandemic will forever color how we perceive the world around us, like a prism that filters everything through itself, revealing a new reality. Eventually, we may demarcate time as pre- and post-COVID-19. 
 
Standards and expectations of normalcy are constantly evolving. But this is not “normal,” not when tens of thousands of people die around us, and not when 22 million U.S. workers file for unemployment in a 4-week span. 
 
Where does business and industry go from here? How do you make sense of chaos and begin to adapt? Data-driven analysis like the one Liz Sloan and Catherine Adams Hutt provide offers a window into how the pandemic has already affected the way consumers prioritize their health. 
 
Apart from just marketing to consumers in a new way given how their reality has been so dramatically altered, this crisis presents opportunities to reevaluate standards and expectations—to reshape circumstances. 
 
For example, at some point, it became commonplace for companies to rely heavily on China as a source for various dietary supplement ingredients. That may have serious implications for many businesses now. Meanwhile, is it typical for marketing to outpace science, or for opportunistic criminals to hijack an industry’s credibility?  
 
In the midst of this pandemic, as we see institutions and standards crumble and melt away, now feels like a good time to consider how your business and this industry can galvanize and better deliver health products to consumers who are focused on wellness more than ever. 
 
Now is a time to lead by example. Moving forward, businesses can help reshape what’s normal and change what will eventually be seen as relics of the bygone pre-COVID-19 era.