It remains to be seen what the impact of COVID-19 will be (although I personally would quite enjoy being able to go out to dinner and hear the people I’m with rather than the conversation at the next table — because we’re all practically on top of each other)

But, yes, there have been subtle and not so subtle changes. The polio epidemics in the US in the 1950s and 1960s were largely responsible for the current model of charity fundraising for particular causes rather than organizations (in particular, the “telethon; Paul Longmore’s Telethons: Spectacle, Disability, and the Business of Charity describes this is some detail).

The cholera epidemics of the 19th century were largely responsible for the implementation of modern sewage treatment and the separation of inflow from outflow — cholera being easily spread through tainted water supplies. Either one has access to clean water at the tap, one gets it from a central source, or one knows how to purify water at home. Cholera in particular was the driver because it spread so quickly, spectacularly, and was so lethal, but these measures also reduced the incidence of other water borne diseases.

The smallpox vaccination campaigns in various places starting in the 19th through the 20th century also normalized the concept of both vaccination and preventative medical care; in many instances it also solidified the idea of the state as the provider or regulator of medical care. The anti-vaccination movement also owes a lot to the same campaigns, wherein the question of the government’s right to mandate what individuals do to their bodies was posed in various forms — resistance to vaccination is as old as the practice itself.

Out of these same public health campaigns you see the development of certain habits like washing of the hands and bathing regularly; once disinfectants hit the market, the idea of cleanliness-as-happiness became a huge part of American and European culture (as does the aversion to people who do not or can not follow suit). This is all part of the thesis laid out in Mary Douglas’s Purity and Danger: an Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. In many ways, the fascination with shows like Hoarders or Intervention stems from this notion that clean, healthy, disease-free living is the ideal, and these provide a glimpse into the lives of those who don’t or can’t live by this norm.

In many cases, an epidemic or pandemic provides the motivation to put through plans that have long been shelved due to concerns over cost or other political wrangling, and they get put into action as part of a desire on the part of the government to be seen as “doing something” in response to the emergency.