Will Life ever be the same after COVID-19?

jdtox

Lord Tox
Albatross 2024 Club
Staff member
Joined
May 20, 2011
Messages
58,342
Reaction score
67,108
Location
Michigan
Handicap
5
I was just talking with some friends and we started talking about the future when this virus is behind us. Going grocery shopping and coming home to wipe down packages with clorox wipes. Wearing masks and rubber gloves in the stores. What about professional sports? Concerts? How long will it be before arena's are filled with fans sitting shoulder to shoulder? What about restaurants? Can you trust people preparing your food to be healthy and safe? So much to think about...

What do you think? Is this the new normal for us? Will things return to the way they were before and if so how long will it take?
 
This is something I have been thinking about a lot today too. I hope we can go back to “normal”, but even if we do, I think it will take a really long time to be totally normal again, and I am sincerely not sure it ever will be completely normal ever again.
 
I’m not sure if things will ever be normal anymore, I think some of the habits that we as a society have adopted will continue as standard operating practice.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #4
This is something I have been thinking about a lot today too. I hope we can go back to “normal”, but even if we do, I think it will take a really long time to be totally normal again, and I am sincerely not sure it ever will be completely normal ever again.
The grocery shopping and stuff doesn't bother me that much, I haven't heard a single person cough or sneeze (thank goodness) but the amount of people wearing masks and gloves made me feel strange for not wearing anything. The thing I thought about most was professional sports and packing 20-60,000 people in a single location. I just wonder how long it will take for people to be ok with that.
 
The grocery shopping and stuff doesn't bother me that much, I haven't heard a single person cough or sneeze (thank goodness) but the amount of people wearing masks and gloves made me feel strange for not wearing anything. The thing I thought about most was professional sports and packing 20-60,000 people in a single location. I just wonder how long it will take for people to be ok with that.

I think sports will bounce back quickly. Come football season, I expect to see packed stadiums. Unless it’s Florida, because we have never been able to pack a stadium unless a northeast teams is in town.
 
The grocery shopping and stuff doesn't bother me that much, I haven't heard a single person cough or sneeze (thank goodness) but the amount of people wearing masks and gloves made me feel strange for not wearing anything. The thing I thought about most was professional sports and packing 20-60,000 people in a single location. I just wonder how long it will take for people to be ok with that.

It honestly wouldn't be a bad thing for the whole mask thing to become more of a norm. It still is weird to me, but there's research that shows it at least slows the spread of disease. I'd love to see more people stay home when they're sick, but the reality is sick leave isn't always a thing.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #7
It honestly wouldn't be a bad thing for the whole mask thing to become more of a norm. It still is weird to me, but there's research that shows it at least slows the spread of disease. I'd love to see more people stay home when they're sick, but the reality is sick leave isn't always a thing.
If people stayed home if they were sick (which will never happen) OR wore masks when only when they were sick, I'd be ok with that but I do not want wearing a mask in public to become the norm.
 
If people stayed home if they were sick (which will never happen) OR wore masks when only when they were sick, I'd be ok with that but I do not want wearing a mask in public to become the norm.

Oh I meant when they were sick, not all the time. Sorry - yeah, that's a bridge too far.
 
I think things will MOSTLY get back to normal, but like post-9/11, some things will change, and become the new normal.
 
This is something I have been thinking about a lot today too. I hope we can go back to “normal”, but even if we do, I think it will take a really long time to be totally normal again, and I am sincerely not sure it ever will be completely normal ever again.

I thought the same thing after 911 but it will get back to normal. I'm optimistic that we will have effective treatments by fall and a vaccine in 12 months.
 
The new normal will be different. I hope that it forces us as a society to be aware of and to appreciate the potential lethal nature of viral illnesses including Corona and influenza. Hopefully, people will show more respect and concern regarding these illnesses.
 
This is something that future generations will be talking about. Hopefully, it won't become the magnitude of WW2 or the Great Depression, but it will be historic.

I'm hopeful our economy will recover from this as it did with those other events.

Folks who were alive during the depression - for me that was my parents and grandparents - developed different habits in regards to saving money, wasting food, etc., than did many of following generations. These habits seemed to stay with them regardless of how well they recovered financially.

I wonder if it might be the same to those of us going through this in regards to washing hands, not being around large crowds, trying to protect elderly family members, and having a bit more concern when an epidemic in another country develops.
 
I was talking to my wife about this yesterday. Just thinking about sporting events or concerts is strange at the moment. I can’t imagine being in those types of groups in the near future. I am more of a half empty glass type of guy and my wife is the inverse. I hope it gets back to some sort of normal, but I think it will be awhile.
 
First, we have to get through this. I expect this crisis will get worse before it gets better. Staying resilient and adaptive is necessary. Supporting each other is more important than ever. This is a grinder. Longer term, I don't know what will happen. I don't think anyone can know. COVID-19 impacts are global and the changes to day to day life are unprecedented. I do think the idea of going back to a previous normal is unlikely. But change doesn't have to be all bad. We will find a balance in life again. All we can do now is keep moving forward.
 
I think we might see some new norms out of this, but I don't think it'll be as drastic as you might think right now. People have a very short memory. Their first world problems are far more important than what's best.

I think sports will bounce back quickly. Come football season, I expect to see packed stadiums. Unless it’s Florida, because we have never been able to pack a stadium unless a northeast teams is in town.

Super Bowl LIV was probably fairly full and there were no NE teams involved. Just sayin'...
 
In the last 30 years we’ve had gulf war 1, gulf war 2, 9/11, the Great Recession, H1N1, the current pandemic and probably a few other major things I have forgotten. We have come back to normal after all the other stuff. I have no doubt whatsoever that life will return to normal after C/19. My guess is no later than fall, probably more like July.
 
I think we'll mostly get back to normal but some of it will continue as an ongoing neurosis much like how our War On Terrorism(tm) is still haunting us, or how we're utterly terrified of crime even though the crime rate is at its lowest point in human history. People in general seem to have become addicted to fear so I would not be surprised at all if when this is over you see nuts with masks on in their car while driving to the dry cleaner, or people too terrified to shake hands with others like a normal person. I already have one friend who was so stricken by germophobia before all this even started that he would wash his hands so much the skin on his knuckles cracked. Meanwhile when I was young we ate dirt and chased each other with dog doo on a stick and are probably healthier because of it.
 
There are more responses and once all of them are in place, we'll get back to relatively normal. Right now all we have is distancing so that extreme thing is what's weird. Next will be testing widely available. There's all sorts of things we can do once we can readily test. Then comes treatments. What therapies will lessen symptoms? and then vaccines which may reduce numbers to where it's no longer a wide-spread threat.
 
yes, I think everything will go back to normal. we will seen some governmental and administrative programs to assist in pandemic disasters (e.g. federally supported pandemic insurance, broadened authority for disaster unemployment insurance, etc). but i think our daily activities will be mostly unchanged.
 
I believe a vaccine will quickly turn things around but I hope the world leaders learn a valuable lesson over the avoidable loss of life and other setbacks the world will experience for at least the next 2+ years from job losses, relationships destroyed, house losses, financial ruin, etc, etc.

This pandemic is something the world health authorities have warned us for years could occur and we have modelled the impact but chose to ignore, as recently as late 2019. I hope for future generations we initiate better early warnings and control systems and not be Richards and blame everyone else for their own incompetence and lack of leadership. This has certainly been awake-up call for the world. The post audit of the complete experience globally will be an interesting read as long as we get the whole truth from the onset as to the origin.
 
Think it's too early to say. Thought things would be different after 9/11.

People were friendly for a while ... 20 years of war and internal fighting.

Screw it. We're doomed.

Let's play golf. Oh, that's right, we can't.

$uck.

lol
 
What about restaurants? Can you trust people preparing your food to be healthy and safe?
Heh, I was worried about this long before coronoavirus, and honestly ... if I had to choose a virus to run the risk of catching from food, I'd take my chances with coronavirus over say, Hepatitis A.

I think the majority of Americans will have a short memory that comes from this, at least in social settings.
 
If people stayed home if they were sick (which will never happen) OR wore masks when only when they were sick, I'd be ok with that but I do not want wearing a mask in public to become the norm.
The mask idea would be good for individuals that are sick and need things for daily life. I for the life of me don’t understand the gloves. Unless you use gloves at the store, remove them before getting in car and washing your hands or putting new ones on it doesn’t do anything. People seem to think with gloves and masks they are being germ free. If you wear the same ones all day it doesn’t nothing. Better off doing what you need to do and wash your hands multiple times.
 
I think maybe on the outside less change will he seen compared to Health-Care regulations and things to prepare for another possible pandemic.
 
Things will change. Just like it did after Sept 11. But it will become the new normal.

After this one we will be getting our annual Covid vaccine just like we get an annual flu shot.
 
Back
Top