Is this now the new way of life?

[Wannaflyaway]

Hi, I just wanted to ask those, who are a lot more knowledgeable than me, if, the way life is now, i.e. face masks in enclosed places, social distancing, the constant threat of local/national lockdowns, travel restrictions, quarantining, no theatres, no concerts, no mass gatherings etc. is really the new normal, not just temporarily, but for the long-term?. I think that it actually really is. I also feel that I'm now starting to come to terms with this new normal, which is what I thought I never would, but it isn't a nice feeling. It's a low-level depression and the feeling that I'm just existing, but not living, and that I have fuck-all to either plan for or to look forward to in the future.

As a member of the farming community who lived through foot and mouth and the lockdown of the farming community during that I have experienced these feelings before and the fear that things would never be the same again.

Actually, mostly it did, with a few changes, systems and precautions in place to try and prevent it from happening again, life pretty went back to normal and for 6 - 12 month after there was a definite feeling of appreciation for all the things we had previously just taken for granted. But even that passed.

We still have '6 day standstill' on animal movements in place 20 years later and thats the main 'impact' I can think of that still effects us.

Well .....it is the way things are for now. While not " embracing " it , I am still making the most of it for me and ds .
Life is measured in time, and I am not wasting one moment of it seething behind closed doors and pining for my pre covid life . I will not let life pass us by hoping for a normal that might never come back.
I've been slated on here from the start because i pointed out the hysteria surrounding all this, so I am far from a " sheep" , but we just have to get on with it I'm afraid .

Back in March I started a thread asking if this was the end of life as we knew it. I was SLAMMED by some posters for being melodramatic etc etc.

I still think life will change considerably compared to life a few years ago. This doesn't mean we'll all be living life in an apocalyptic film scenario. Climate change might do that but not yet . Some of the changes we've already made will stay - I think there'll be far less commuting and a different balance of life. But we do have to get through the economic hit first and that will be pretty shitty.

I actually think the political leaders we have (Johnson, Trump, Putin amongst others) are a far greater risk to our wellbeing and way of life over the next few years.

No, this is very definitely temporary, people won't follow the rules now, there's no way people will keep it up once the risk has gone.

It's shit, but no one wants to have to do these things, even if some seem to revel in it all.

Catastrophising is only going to make it worse. We have come a long way. You can be sure that capitalism will get us all back to complete normal very soon and this will all be some weird memory. There is too much money to be made!

They will either find a vaccine or effective treatment and more people will develop immunity so after a while things will become less restrictive. I do think things will change as there is now a global recession and some of the things that happen now may stick. I think WFH will become more popular and it's certainly good for the environment so that could be a good thing. I think more home deliveries rather than going out shopping will continue and entertainment may be more online and streaming live concerts and sporting events. People will probably be more concerned with the spread of diseases in public, just as the Asian countries already are and some mask wearing may continue. Families will search hard for homes with gardens and prepping may become more of a thing in case of a future pandemic or crises (maybe I made that last one up due to too much YouTube videos on how to survive the apocalypse).

@Gcgjiut

Catastrophising is only going to make it worse. We have come a long way. You can be sure that capitalism will get us all back to complete normal very soon and this will all be some weird memory. There is too much money to be made!

Visiting family doesn't help the economy. We are in local lockdown, have been for a month, our cases are lower than neighbouring places and yet they've extended it for a week. They've allowed businesses to open but we cannot see friends or family in houses and even in gardens. It's cruel. It's fucking cruel and unnecessary and there is no incentive to change it because visiting others doesn't help the economy, yet it's the most important thing for human beings.

It isn’t here for good, just for longer than most people would like. There’s positive progress on vaccines, we have a better idea of how to deal with it when people get it. I agree it has speeded up some changes that were starting to happen. Also think a lot of people will be much more focused on a store cupboard as my parents generation.

I was a bit pissed off at the start of this thread about the sheep comments but reading further can see that people are really struggling with where we have found ourselves. I think there is a small section of people who do revel in it to some extent but for some it is just that their worse fears have come true.

Think there are a fair few people who are just cracking on with what they can do do make the best of things and do as much as they can as safely as possible given where we are at. Think we don’t get to hear much about them as it is extremes in either direction that generate the most attention.

This too will past, but it's the damage that will be done in the meantime to people's lives.

I've stopped going to places now for worrt of track and trace meaning we can't go to work or school for 14 days (not fear of the virus, but the restrictions that come with it).

From a personal and selfish perspective These are the last two years of both my DCs schooling and I wonder how much disruption there will be, both now and to their futures.

will pass

I hope not.

I hate I when people say they enjoyed lockdown or enjoy the new normal. It's weird imo. Reading some of the stuff on here I genuinely believe that some people are relishing in the misery or in seeing others miserable.

I think Covid is probably here to stay, but with some general immunity amongst the population. Perhaps an annual vaccine similar to the flu vaccine we will be able to go back to normal.

My area is on a watch list, 34 in 100,000 and local lockdown seems to loom every week now.

I also think that some people have fallen down a mumsnet rabbit hole starting endless doom threads.

When I go out in real life most people seem to be tiring of restrictions. Staying cautious but wanting a bit of normality. So I doubt most people would accept the new normal.

@PerveenMistry

This is likely only the first of many pandemics as climate change, our ghastly treatment of animals & wildlife and other ecological shift's become irreversible, along with human overpopulation.

Get used to it. The halcyon days are over. I'm glad I got my innings in before this.

This ^^

@TrustTheGeneGenie - you can see family just not at their home. We are just out of a month of local lockdown & I saw friends & family all week, every week. Met my mum in the park with the grandkids & we went to the seaside one day. Met my friends at outdoor play centres, country walks & trails etc. Even in local lockdowns, you can make the most of what we’ve got. It made me so angry we couldn’t go in safe & clean gardens but much like an above poster, life is short. So I’m squeezing what I can out of it. It might not be exactly what I had in mind but there are still so many things we can do. Even a trip to see friends in a park would have seemed incredible in April. So don’t lose sight of how nice these things are compared to full lockdown!

It will go on until one or both of two solutions occurs:

1. there is sufficient herd resistance - I don't like the reference to immunity - it's a virus so you are unlikely to ever get immunity just natural antibodies that mean if you do get it again the reaction is much less severe. In the same way the annual flu jabs give you resistance for that winter. The problem with this approach is a) a lot of over 80s and vulnerable people will die and b) the longer the restrictions go on ( face masks, social distancing etc) the longer it takes to build herd resistance.

2. a vaccine is developed, tested and rolled out across the whole UK. The problem with this approach is that it will take some time despite the enormous amount of work to fully develop and test - say another 18 months. Then who gets it first and you have to ensure enough people get it - compulsory vaccination? Then it is unlikely to offer immunity just resistance- so does it get rolled into the annual flu jab? Then what happens in other countries- otherwise we just re import it.

I think the best example is the 1968 /69 Hong Kong flu epidemic which killed approx 80k people in the UK mostly children and elderly. Restrictions were much less severe and a vaccine was developed- except by the time it was available there was already enough herd resistance to make it unnecessary. This flu virus is still in circulation today as are many others and still kills the old and young every year ( 17k to 30k people die every year from flu related deaths mostly pneumonia).

So in summary and in answer to your question I would guess another two years.

[quote Bol87]@TrustTheGeneGenie - you can see family just not at their home. We are just out of a month of local lockdown & I saw friends & family all week, every week. Met my mum in the park with the grandkids & we went to the seaside one day. Met my friends at outdoor play centres, country walks & trails etc. Even in local lockdowns, you can make the most of what we’ve got. It made me so angry we couldn’t go in safe & clean gardens but much like an above poster, life is short. So I’m squeezing what I can out of it. It might not be exactly what I had in mind but there are still so many things we can do. Even a trip to see friends in a park would have seemed incredible in April. So don’t lose sight of how nice these things are compared to full lockdown![/quote]
When you've got small children it's not always practical to meet everyone outside the home every single time. DS is 4 and frequently needs a wee while we are out. Our council have kindly kept about 90% of public toilets shut.

Please don't minimise this like oh cos you can see family in a park it's ok. No, it's not ok. It's cruel.

Talking to a friend in Australia, they are in lockdown, only allowed out once a day and there is a curfew after 8 pm. At least we can come and go as we please at the moment. But I agree, life just seems on hold at the moment. We have a uk holiday booked in a few weeks time, apart from walking and seeing the sea and maybe lunch at an outside cafe, it’s just going to be a break away.

I accept this new normal because there is no other choice at the moment, but a vaccine is on the horizon, and things will return to the real normal. No one can possible enjoy this

I too am experiencing low level anxiety and depression, which I'm coping with and is something I've never experienced before. Kids going back to school, disabled child who has been ill throughout, older parents, risky jobs (NHS) has all come together in this perfect storm of anxiety.

Even after a vaccine and normality, will we always be waiting for the next pandemic?

Also it's all well and good when your family are local and a brief outdoor meeting is practical.

Most people I know are just seeing these things as temporary measures and one day mask wearing/social distancing/restrictions will be a thing of the past. The best thing to do is not get sucked into the drama of 'things will be like this forever'. Because there are some people who have loved the drama of a pandemic. So far, people on here have sworn hands down that we'd be in strict lockdown until 2021. That schools wouldn't be open for years. That the people who didn't stock pile 5000 bog rolls and 3 tonnes of store cupboard food before lockdown would start starving etc etc. This wasn't the case in any of these circumstances. So I'm not going to buy into the 'We're going to be like this for years belief.

*SomewhereEast

"...it will primarily be of interest in terms of highlighting how people in our time process the idea of death & ageing & risk and the extent to which we expect to be able to control those things (basically we're really bad at coping with all those things, because we're mostly quite insulated from them)"*

This is interesting as have been thinking the same. I was reading the Midst of Life (call the midwife author on death as a nurse) and she was saying the same even in the 1950s as people were starting to get used to more things being done to postpone and treat conditions. Now we are used to feeling everything can be fixed and prevented.

in reality many things can't, even cancer treatment is still not there, things like MS and neurological conditions, but this virus has meant people thinking about it happening to them rather than others.

@Pinkmakeupbag

I also think that some people have fallen down a mumsnet rabbit hole starting endless doom threads.

When I go out in real life most people seem to be tiring of restrictions. Staying cautious but wanting a bit of normality. So I doubt most people would accept the new normal.

This. MN is absolutely NOT representative of the real world. I think in real life these doomsayers would have no friends at all. Who could put up with such relentless misery? An online forum is the only place where they can be tolerated.

Try to stay positive, I'm hopeful by this time next year we will be out of this but the focus will be on the damage this has done to the economy, every other healthcare and the national debt.

Someone mentioned foot and mouth, we had HIV in the 80s. These brought about big changes but things drifted back towards the usual. And those things still in place feel normal.

I will prefer to be a sheep than die of Covid or suffer long term illness. Things change.