Will We Ever Go Back To Normal?

[EmilyAdkins1]

It seems as if this is the new normal. Will we ever get back to not wearing masks, seeing our loved ones, traveling, and hugging people etc. Is this forever?

[Canary42]

Just be thankful you weren't around in 1939 - we were severely restricted for 6 years in the UK.

But we were more stoic in those days, before the snowflakes came along.

[anneasquith]

So many of us, hopefully the majority have kept to the rules re masks and social distancing. For all who have allowed vulnerable people to stay safe I thank you on their behalf .

[sherrardk]

Oh goody, somebody’s mentioned the war.

[ichkeria]

“ Just be thankful you weren't around in 1939 - we were severely restricted for 6 years in the UK”

And it was worse on the continent.
But we were glad of our US allies.
If you want to bring the war into it

[nailit]

Go to work, be a key worker, mix with all and sundry and be applauded!
But dont dare to kiss your gran or you will be selfish and spread a disease!!! Pariah!!!

//Enjoying life and having fun, Dave50. That's not only cocky but incredibly selfish too.//
Really cant work out if this is parody or serious??

[New Judge]

Dave is right. At some point or another it is going to have to be accepted that Covid is endemic. We will have to live with it. Dave is also right – living is not simply avoiding death at all costs. The way some people are living at the moment is not living at all. They are eating, drinking, sleeping and, if they are really lucky, popping out for a bit of shopping. If they are obeying the rules they have had no social contact with anybody for many weeks and for most of them this is the third or fourth time this has happened to them in the last eleven months. The long term consequences of this in both physical and mental health will be profound.

I don’t like the term “killers” when it is ascribed to those who contract the virus and pass it on. They are not going round knifing people. The disease is the killer, not the people unfortunate enough to contract it. Regretfully this hysterical language serves only to make matters worse.

The vaccine rollout has been, so far, a success (one of the few in this whole affair). By the end of next month most people over 50 will have been offered their first jab. Over 50s account for 99% of Covid deaths. The country will have to wait another two months before life begins to return to normal. If that “normal” is to be constrained by the sort of measures we have seen during lockdown it will not be normal at all. Pandemics come and they go. So will this one. The danger is that the some of the measures which have been taken will also become endemic. Wearing masks is not second nature to most people. Keeping six feet away from each other is also not normal. If these measures are to be sustained (and complied with) the logical conclusion is that boys and girls (or boys and boys or girls and girls) will not get together. They certainly should not have done so for the past two months. I wonder if none have? The idea that these measures will become normal in the long term is ludicrous and the sooner the notion is ditched the sooner “proper” normal can resume. There’s nothing to stop those who want to from continuing to take whatever measures they wish. But they cannot expect others who want to behave normally to refrain from hugging, to swerve round each other in Tesco’s and to walk about in face masks. The rest of us need to get on and we need to do so soon. In the meantime the NHS can gear itself up so that it can deal effectively with any resurgences that occur.

[New Judge]

//Just be thankful you weren't around in 1939 - we were severely restricted for 6 years in the UK.//

I am grateful I wasn't around in 1939 and I'm eternally grateful to those who were (including my own parents) who had to deal with WW2. But some of the restrictions we have at the moment are in many respects more severe for most people than those imposed in WW2. In fact, the two situations are not remotely comparable.

[nailit]

You just got to love NJ^
Puts things so much more succinctly than the rest of us
who know what we mean but cant quiet put into words...

[dave50]

NJ always there with the best answer.