It is not new to lead from a distance. Leaders who have teams with employees based in different countries have experience of leading at a distance. However, it is new for everyone to lead at a distance when people cannot meet, both at work or in private life. When people are deprived of the opportunity to even meet their loved ones to protect them from a possible infection by a virus that in some cases can claim life.
The natural energy that we humans get from meeting other IRL, the chemical reactions that take place in our bodies during physical contact such as shaking hands, patting on the shoulder or hugging, do not exist when we are in one way or another more or less isolated.
In addition to this, there is the reduction in employment and the economic consequences of the pandemic that many companies experience and need to live with and adapt to.