Will things go back to normal faster than anticipated?

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I personally believe there will come a point, sooner rather than later, where people will want their normal back. I guess as we are seeing that already with how busy places are.

My mum believes the opposite, that the effects of this on the public will hang around for months. She believes queuing outside shops will be the norm now as will face masks and gloves.

What’s your opinion?

My work (a university!) has said they don't think the team I work in and other similar teams will be in the office again before January - but in reality I think it'll depend what happens elsewhere. If we're all the pub at the weekend I think it'll start to look a bit mad that we're not allowed in the office even though some of the work is very inconvenient (though possible) to do from home.

Epigram

Absolutely, agree. But we must do it within the confines of what this virus dictates. Going to work and taking all necessary precautions, yes, because most people have to. BBQ at granny’s, no not for a long time yet.

Going to work and taking all necessary precautions, yes, because most people have to. BBQ at granny’s, no not for a long time yet.

Yeah, what's even the point of family and sociability and human contact and all that? There are loads of successful human societies without them, right?

People aren't going to go to work and then hole up at home for the weekend, Zoom calling family for months on end. Whether they should or not is a different question.

I think things will quickly go back to normal. Example - long queue outside M&S on Friday evening (one out, one in). Inside the store it was business as usual in spite of the markings on the floor (which I always forget about anyway). Only about 25% of people wearing masks (I don't wear one). I noticed our neighbours had a dinner party with other neighbours over the weekend, although I wouldn't do that myself yet.

@dementedma but the reason you only saw 1 family in the distance is bcasue you are still in lockdown. Once it is lifted that beach will be full of people. Will you still be so blase about It then? If everyone thinks sod it im going to the beach then you won’t be able to stay away from everyone so they are a dot in the distance.

@Daffodil101 I agree, the measures are excessive and makes most shops very unwelcoming this places right now - not sure how sustainable a business model it is if people can’t linger, try on or browse. Or if people who (like me) often inevitably have a toddler in tow don’t even feel they can go in. Not very I’d imagine!

The old normal was crap, why don't you want a better normal?

Mine wasn’t, thank you very much. And this brave ‘new normal’ that people seem to be welcoming with open arms sounds bloody miserable to me - no live gigs, theatres, festivals? No new TV as they can’t socially distance during filming? No libraries? Children attending school part-time? Socially distanced shops where you can’t touch anything? Movements severely restricted?

And these suggestions of half full theatres and cinemas making money from popcorn sales are for the birds - many theatres barely break even on a sellout run of full-house performances. Yesterday I read that the Royal Albert Hall might have to close permanently if social distancing continues. Is this the world we really want?

I think we are all bringing ourselves out of lockdown in our own way. If you use your common sense I don't see any harm in having a walk with friends or sitting having a drink in your garden, albeit sitting apart.
The press have an awful lot to answer for hyping everyone up and scaring them. This is going to be around for a while yet, we can't all stay locked up forever.

I have a question .. If you saw a sheep ( insert any creature ) jump off a cliff , would you follow ?
Why is everyone now saying we can do what we want now and fuck the virus because Cummings did and Boris defends him ?
Nothing has really changed , people are still dying , we have not all been vaccinated , surely one prat should not make us decide we will all go out now ?

Agree, the new normal sounds crap. I just want some simple pleasures like taking my DD to the park with her friends, taking her for a look round the shops and visiting family.

The new normal doesn't have a lot to offer

LisaSimpsonsbff

It’s been 2 months. Many people have relatives on the other side of the world who they see once a year.
I’m resigned to waiting another 5 months to see my parents because if Oxford/AstraZeneca achieve what they are currently pretty confident of, patience will hopefully give us another 20 years together.
If they don’t, we reassess then.

You’ll make your own choice depending on your own priorities.

I really hope they do.

I'm living in sydney,
Obviously we didn't have anywhere near as many cases here however since the first easing of restrictions we have almost gone back to normal within 3-4 weeks.
They suddenly scrapped the transition back to school and my sone did two weeks of one day a week and went back full time today, two weeks ahead of plan.
They have opened restaurants, max ten patrons at a time and we are allowed social gatherings of up to 10 adults and however many children.
It feels very fast if I'm honest but our infection rates have remained in single figures three weeks in.
From 1 June we will be able to trace and pubs will reopen for up to 50 people.
I expected this to take months not weeks.

I wasn't terribly social before and we rarely went to parties or pubs so life feels pretty normal again.

I hope the same for you guys up there, all my family are in england.

The trouble is that what people are asking for is contradictory.

They want the public kept safe, but don't want their own freedoms curtailed.

They don't mind the stuff they don't care about staying closed, but the stuff they do personally care about should definitely open.

They'd like to wfh until they know the track and trace system is robust, but those staff running the services they want certainly shouldn't be allowed to do that - the schools, skips and public toilets should definitely be open according to current mn threads.

Theyd like to protect the vulnerable, but they don't want to put life on hold for much longer and they don't want them to stay inside forever either.

They don't think the public should be blamed if the inspection rate spikes, but they also think we've all had enough and should be doing our own risk assessments now.

@beingsunny yay! Thanks... fingers crossed for the same here!

It’s been 2 months. Many people have relatives on the other side of the world who they see once a year.

But that's a choice.

You’ll make your own choice depending on your own priorities.

That's not what you said, you said that people 'must' do only what was necessary and so go to work but not see granny socially. I took that as saying that you thought the legal restrictions against social gathering should and would continue. If you're just saying what you personally will do then great, you crack on with not seeing your parents until there's a vaccine in the apparent belief that that will be five months away (you've seen that the Oxford group say they now think they only have a 50% chance of success, right?).

Yeah, what's even the point of family and sociability and human contact and all that? There are loads of successful human societies without them, right?

Sometimes reading these threads it seems that those who are most militant about keeping us all locked down until god knows when are motivated less by altruism and saving lives than by their own misanthropic tendencies - lots of people who see no need for ‘non-essential’ human contact, think all public places are filthy and germ-ridden and rarely left the house anyway, so have seen little change to their lifestyle. Finally their previously niche lifestyle choices are everyone’s ‘new norm’.

@Mascotte I know!
I have been waiting everyday for a spike in infections. I think people are still being sensible and maintaining social distancing.
Fingers crossed this continues for us all

The government didn't expect the level of compliance that was attained
I wonder why they got it so wrong?
Masterminded by maverick geniuses who know all about social engineering and manipulating us by social media
But they got it wrong so all those techniques for engineering and manipulating people must be bullshit?

@ Bluntness100

I completely agree with you, lockdown has been thrown out the window.
We are acting with outrage as predicted, and now lock down is over.
Back to herd immunity.

Back to normal within 3 - 4 weeks
That's very encouraging beingsunny😊

"The government didn't expect the level of compliance that was attained
I wonder why they got it so wrong?"

The only thing they got wrong was the fact that the outrage and non-compliance came a little later than expected.

We're there now. Time for the herd-immunity that everyone thought was so scandalous at the beginning.

I'm really hoping that by July we'll be mostly back to normal-ish lives. With some social distancing and personal choice allowed. I really would love to be able to see family abroad, dc to be able to see their friends, be able to go to the beach on hot days etc.

LisaSimpsonsbff

Well yes, we must all live within the confines of the virus. One of which is assessing the amount of risk we’re prepared to take in our own circumstances. Would have thought that was obvious?

If you choose to visit granny you must do so accepting the risk to her. If you’re happy to do that, entirely your/her choice.

I’m not. As I said, we all have different priorities.

No need to be aggressive with each other about it.

Yes. Which is why I said if they aren’t successful, we’ll reassess then. Until then, I’m just be patient for a while longer. With 3 vulnerable family members, 1 extremely, not much choice really.

@Bluntness100

I agree it doesn't work that way for everyone, I meant specifically for me. I wfh a bit already, and all our staff can continue to work at home indefinitely.

What I would vastly prefer as a next step is not sitting in the office with people I work with, but limited contact with my friends and family.

For people who can wfh, I think it's inhumane to ask them to waste their transmission chances on colleagues rather than friends, at least initially. (e.g. If I should only be seeing ten people in a week, that would be entirely absorbed by colleagues - but if I can wfh, entirely friends).

@TempsPerdu

I think that that does indeed sound miserable, though its not my priority to do those things yet.

I've lowered my standards for expectations for this year to include none of those things, but I certainly don't want it to continue into next year.

There was a great article on the actual risks on the BBC website yesterday, which are still, as they always have been, tiny for the individual. I agree with what's been done for the present crisis, but the idea of perpetual distancing measures just shows how bad some people are at assessing and understanding risk.

(or conversely, how incredibly small and limited some people's lives are - not through their own fault - that there's no normal of concerts etc to return to)