Anyone else just think it’s great that life is back to “normal”?

[curiousitygotthebetterofme]

After two years of covid restrictions, I mean.

Was just watching Glastonbury and looking at the big crowds of people there, it’s hard to believe we have had so many restrictions over the last two years.

This time in 2020 and even this time last year I never thought we’d get back to this level of normality, well at least not for an extremely long time so I just think it’s wonderful to see everyone back together and enjoying themselves again

I dont think it is back to normal really. My local bus service is still running at covid times guess they decided to cut most the buses.

You still can't just go anywhere u have to book and anything touristy or half term fun-ny are usually booked up weeks before.

We regularly get emails at work complaining we haven't done the banking but the bank.is always shut and the shift patterns don't allow for crossover at the times they do decide to open

Our (the govt/sage) response to covid has done as much damage as the virus has.

The nhs will likely never recover.

So while I'm glad things are back to normal and most sensible people appear to be moving on we're going to be dealing with the fall out for decades

And as others have said, some good things we should have kept (wfh/improving ventilation and sanitation) we haven't

I agree with the PPs saying we can’t lockdown forever, I think the same too and have always said that.

people will catch covid just like they’ll catch the cold virus. We have to get on with life.

How could the country keep up with the financial burden of more restrictions?

we just need to keep vaccinating people and making sure we are practicing basic hygiene and common sense

we just need to keep vaccinating people and making sure we are practicing basic hygiene and common sense

Bit sure thats making the difference everyone was hoping. All my work colleagues are vaccinated complete with boosters and they still keep getting it or their families do.

Its not helped with maintaining staffing levelss at all

Loving the normalcy.

We should never have locked down in the first place IMO. I'm convinced lockdown has caused more damage than Covid ever would have.

I've had it twice - at there beginning and this year - a snotty cold both times.

I'm a nurse and the NHS has even just ditched masks at work thank goodness - I'm loving not having to wear the ineffectual things, seeing my peoples faces and not struggling to communicate with my patients.

Our (the govt/sage) response to covid has done as much damage as the virus has.

I think so too

It doesn’t stop you getting the virus, just makes your case less likely to be severe and less likely to result in death.

It would be absolutely ridiculous to keep restrictions in place just because people are still getting it. We’d be in lockdown forever if that was the way it worked

There have been a couple of times this year where I was out with my friends and I suddenly felt really, really happy that we could just do this freely whenever we want :).

But restrictions are still in place.

Not officially but the " new normal" seems in many cases to be difficult in accessing things. That doesn't appear to have changed much

But they were never all going to dodge it indefinitely, and once it breaks into your social circle it will suddenly seem like everyone has it.
My experience is the opposite: I know very few people who haven't had it, although those few may of course have had it asymptomatically as a good proportion of them are children who have miraculously dodged several large school outbreaks and Covid-y parents, whilst also doing all their usual activities as and when the rules allowed. The bulk of my friends and family came down with it in Nov and Dec last year. I currently know just 1 person with it, and that is the first person in months.

OP, I'm loving the normality too, although have found the return to a faster pace exhausting. I am going to a festival in 2 weeks and can't wait!

I wouldn't say we are 'back to normal.' We're back to a normality which includes Covid.

Hospitals are not overwhelmed but still struggling with the backlog of patients who missed appointments and diagnoses due to Covid. And the death rate is increasing.

But it's great that we can meet up with family and friends again. However it goes, there won't be another lockdown as no-one would comply.

Some restrictions such as mandatory isolation should still be in place. Personally I know of one person (not in the UK) who currently has covid and will be travelling hundreds of km by train to get back to his family. He thinks it's ok because he 'doesn't feel too bad with it.' I dread to think of the number of people he will infect en route.

Yes. It’s lovely. I’m a teacher and I’m vulnerable but I’ve never wanted schools closed or anything like that. I’ve also been incredibly lucky as I go out regularly to pubs, bars, restaurants etc and, on top of my workplace, haven’t tested positive ever.

It’s not easy for those who are CEV which is why I test as regularly as I can (my mum gets free tests). At least then I know to the best of my knowledge that if I’m going out I’m not going to unknowingly give it to someone. I don’t really know what the answer is beyond that. We can’t keep locking down.

A dd* tested positive last week - triple vaxxed and already had it very mildly just after Christmas.
Only 3 or 4 days later she tested negative, twice.
So on the whole I’m hopeful.

*She’d been using planes, trains and buses in Eastern Europe for work, so thought it was probably on the cards regardless of mask-wearing.

The mask thing… does anyone remember when masks were first a thing and people were tripping over each other to correct mask wearing, don’t touch blah blah. Now people have them spilling out of every bag, footwell etc, most having been there for weeks 😂

And I think the real demographic time bomb is in carers. Anyone can get long covid, including children, and many young people do have it. However, the most vulnerable demographic is apparently women in their 50s. Who are also the group most likely to be carers both of their own and others' children, and of their ageing parents. When you have a very large group of people who in normal circumstances would be the unpaid (and paid) carers, who then not only can no longer care for others but also need caring for themselves, there's going to be a massive care crisis.

Once again, thank you for doing the job you do 💐

it's beyond ridiculous that you've had to move in together to be able to afford basic living, but I hope in the long run it has other advantages for you all & is (at least mostly) enjoyable.

it's still shit for a lot of us, in various ways. I'm over 50 & CEV, I'm doing my best to avoid getting it, but that gets more difficult as people think 'it's over' don't bother testing even with symptoms & even if they do test & get a +VE don't stay home, even from public transport, recreational shopping or entertainment.

I've been rather shocked at the casual callousness of some of the posts on this thread, the "some people will get covid but tough shit, we can't organise society around the needs of vulnerable people".

But then I thought what is happening is that those who either have never had covid, or who have had it really mildly or who were asymptomatic, still don't really understand that the risk of covid is far wider than that of "vulnerable people".

I've had it twice, despite being so, so careful. I'm not "vulnerable" (or at least I wasn't). My whole life has changed. I'm in constant pain. I don't know if I will hang onto my current job, or ever get another - which will plunge me into poverty. Meanwhile some people who have been mixing freely have never had it at all, and are quite blasé about "living with covid".

Perhaps there's some kind of genetic lottery going on, and some people are just more likely to catch it and me made seriously ill than others. I just wish those who have - so far - won the covid lottery realise that their luck is exactly that, just luck, and that they or their family could have their luck change at any moment.

I think the messaging around Covid made people suspicious and wary of others (for many, we're no longer fellow citizens, but rule-breaking disease vectors) and I'm not sure that's ever going away.
Many people retreated into themselves during the lockdowns and are now conditioned to living lives of hermitude.

Agreed. I think there’s a fair few bits of covid mindset that are going to take a while to shift, if ever: the idea that covid would go away if we all just behaved ‘sensibly’ enough, the idea that other people are responsible for changing their behaviour for things I feel anxious about.

It’s so great to see big crowds again. I have never even liked crowded places much but seeing crowds now still makes me so happy.

@ArcheryAnnie

Long covid is rare.

Its even more rare with omicron.

Perhaps there's some kind of genetic lottery going on, and some people are just more likely to catch it and me made seriously ill than others.

Yes, probably. But this is the case with other illnesses too. The year before covid, I had a viral illness which everyone else I knew either didn’t get or shrugged off, that left me struggling on and off for months. Earlier that year my weeks-old baby picked up some kind of infection, was in paeds ward on IV antibiotics for four days - nobody else in the family even got ill.

It is awful that some people will have lingering nasty effects from covid. Of course it is. But there is a limited amount we can do about this, in terms of other people’s day to day behaviour.

Covid is not ever going to go away unless some distant future technology can achieve things we can’t imagine at the moment. So there is always going to be a chance of getting it and getting it badly. Many, most, people feel that chance is not high enough to be worth shutting down big parts of their lives forever.

@ArcheryAnnie yes, it's luck. But do you really want to live in a locked down society? We have to get on with things. Enough damage has already been done. We are all suffering now from a recession brought about because we decided to shut down most of society to protect a few vulnerable people. It didn't have to be that way, but that's what happened. We can't go back to that, sorry.

I'm going on holiday tomorrow and the pure excitement I feel is an absolute thrill. I realised that what we (certainly my family at any rate) did is hunker down and follow the rules, which inevitably made our life smaller. These last few weeks have been talk of nothing but holidays at work as colleagues jet off in quick succession.

The opportunity to get out there again is intoxicating and even normally sour faced more reserved DH is admitting to looking forward to it.

Yeah, I am, though pity about the damage it's done to millions of vulnerable people.

@toucaninjapan That shows that masks don't work.
Covid may be on the rise, but deaths from it aren't, thanks to vaccines.
The country can't afford another lockdown and I doubt many would comply anyway, particularly when the government was partying on during the last one.
Life needs to get back to normal and this ridiculous fear needs to stop.