#AlternateHistory Challenge - What if the COVID-19 Pandemic Hadn't Happened?

I recently won the @daltono #PredictTheFuture Challenge and received a 30 HIVE prize. I've decided rather than powering up that 30 HIVE to my account I'll award that 30 HIVE in my own challange.

@daltono's challenge covered the possible future several decades from the present. This challenge will focus on an alternative past within roughly the last year. One I suspect many have already spent at least a little time pondering.

The exact origin of the still current global pandemic is unknown but for the sake of argument suppose something had happened to avert the initial spreading of the virus. How would roughly the last year have turned out differently?

There is obviously no "right" answer to the challenge question. Even if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't occurred events can go in different directions. This is a kind of worldbuilding exercise where you assume something (the current pandemic) hadn't happened and try to deduce the ripple effects that would have followed.

This challenge isn't about how your life would have been different. The challenge is to describe how the objective world around you would have been different than it is now without the COVID-19 pandemic occurring. It could be about how the events in your town, state, country or the world in general would have played out differently.

Some topic examples:

• What would have happened at the 2020 Summer Olympics?
• Would any elections that occurred have turned out differently?
• Would the cryptocurrency markets have been different?
• Would certain delayed TV shows, movies, comic books, ect. have been more or less successful if they had been released as scheduled?
• What news stories might have been bigger had they not been overshadowed by coronavirus news coverage?
• What would the money and resources that have gone toward fighting the pandemic otherwise have gone toward?

It’s up to each user who submits an entry what they want to focus on when describing what an alternate timeline without the COIVID-19 pandemic would have been like.

Out of all the entries to this challenge submitted one will be chosen by me (@holovision) to receive a 30 (thirty) HIVE reward (on top of the winning post's rewards payout). I will read all the entries and chose my personal favorite out of all the entries as the winner. The winner will be announced within 24 hours after the challenge deadline (see below).

While judging entries what I will be giving most of the weight to is the logic and reasoning of the alternate history scenario. As examples of how an alternate history scenario can be played out the YouTube channels Whatifalthist, alternatehistoryhu and Monsieur Z have many "what if" alternate history videos. In the Alternate History community I have made posts about Caroll Spinney being on the Challenger when it exploded instead of Sharon Christa McAuliff and the DeLorean never having been designed.

If anybody would like to increase the reward amount with a donation please feel free to contact me.

• User submitting an entry cannot be on any official Hive blacklist. This tool can be used to check status of an account. Being on any official blacklist disqualifies the user from this challenge.
• User must reblog this post.
• User must either post or cross-post their entry to the Alternate History community.
• User must comment a link to their entry on this post to help ensure that I am aware of their entry. Within 12 hours I should be able to reply back to confirm that the entry has been seen.
• User must include a link back to this post about the challenge in their entry.
• User must use the #AlternateHistory tag.

Not required for users entering this challenge but it would be appreciate and help to promote the spirit of this challenge:

• User can upvote this post.
• User can subscribe to the Alternate History community.
• User can follow @holovision.
• User can publish a link to this challenge in their favorite Discord groups or out to their followers on the various centralized social media platforms.

This post should be published around March 01, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. GMT to begin the contest. This challenge will last for 7 (seven) days and end when the reward payout for this post occurs. After the post payout occurs no new entries will be considered in this challenge. Posts about an alternate history without the COVID-19 pandemic can still be posted on the Alternate History community but will not eligible for the prize.

Good luck to everyone who enters this challenge. I look forward to reading all the submitted entry posts.