Six years ago on Saturday, Malta reported its first case of Covid-19 - the pandemic which today, in some ways, seems like a distant memory.

Yet it was a time which had a profound effect on millions across the globe.  Malta was not spared of its effects. The country soon, like many around it, introduced a raft of measures such as the closure of schools, closure of certain business sectors, suspension of travel into Malta, and a mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone who had come into contact with carriers of the virus.

Daily briefings by the Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci became a lunch-time appointment for the country, and the way of life that people followed changed seemingly overnight.

Today, while Covid-19 remains present, it is not the illness itself that we consider the impacts of, but rather the legacy its arrival has left in the last six years.

Chief among them without a doubt is the way in which we work.  Remote working was practically non-existent before the Covid-19 pandemic made it an absolute necessity, since people had been asked not to physically meet in order to lessen the spread of the virus.

Remote working today remains an important part of the work dynamic: competitive sectors which can offer it use it as a means to make their work package more attractive, and it is something which has fundamentally changed how the workplace operates.

Today - by the admission of Prime Minister Robert Abela - it seems that the practice of remote working is starting to dip; but in reality, remote working should be something which is actively encouraged. 

There is scientific evidence from across the globe that shows that not only did productivity remain the same with remote working, but in some cases it even increased.  There are also other benefits: more people working from home means, for instance, less people clogging up the roads during rush hour every morning.

It would be in the government's interest to issue incentives that actively promote remote working as it can have positive knock-on effects on people's quality of life.

From a medical standpoint, the legacy of the pandemic is complex.

On the one hand, the pandemic showed an extremely capable health sector in Malta: doctors, nurses, and other health professionals worked hand-in-hand with the end goal being to treat those affected as best as possible and to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.

As a country we will have also learnt from the pandemic, which means that Malta will be more prepared than ever before for any health crises that may happen in the future.

Yet on the other hand it is difficult to look past the impact that the pandemic had on public faith in important medical features such as vaccines.  Baseless and senseless rabid misinformation, particularly about the Covid-19 vaccine, has caused a chunk of the public to look at them with a higher degree of scepticism than before.

Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela himself in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday warned that disinformation surrounding vaccines is costing lives, with Malta recording lower influenza vaccination uptake as public fear over vaccination programmes grows.

"There are many positive things about social media; however, on the vaccination matter, this is something which ... is costing lives. There are no two-ways about it, this disinformation causes harm to the individual and the system," Abela said.

In the face of any future public health crisis, this may ultimately have a negative impact - and one that we may live to rue.