Is life never going back to normal?

[JuneMoonstone]

I feel incredibly lucky that I've lived 44 years of a normal life. I am heartbroken at the way life has become. Like so many others, I feel like I am existing, not living. I don't see any point in making plans, I don't feel any hope for the future. I was feeling quite positive about the progress made in the UK with vaccines and seeing the infection rates and death rates lower. However with the news about the rest of Europe going into lockdown due to escalating infection rates, I can't help but feel that we are never going to get out of this bloody mess. I cannot help but believe that we will have to live our lives under constant restrictions forever now because of this virus. Is life really going to be shit from now on? Will I ever be able to, for example, go into a busy pub on a Friday night and watch a live band and have a bloody good time again? Will we have to wear face masks permanently in public places from now on? I get a very strong feeling that this will be the case. It's my daughter I feel for the most. She's just 5 years old. What kind of a life is she going to have?

Of course it will. I think people have been through far worse than this and wondered if normal life would ever return and it always has.

@LawnFever

Life is pretty much back to normal in some places, Australia/New Zealand, why is everyone convinced we can’t get there too when we’re so ahead on vaccinations too

I dont know much about this, but I think I am right in saying, that citizens from those countries who are abroad, some cannot even get back in again!

Pandemic is a media term. It has no scientific definition

WTF is this? Utter drivel.

Exactly. Ridiculous

It’ll get back to largely normal

I do think some things are permanently changed, when 9/11 happened airport security changed and tightened considerably, it may have slackened a bit after the initial shock but I don’t think it ever went back to pre 9/11 standards.

This will be the same (albeit a totally different scenario) things will swing back towards the old normal but there will be some things that don’t change all the way back. Eg. Testing for large events, masks, vaccine passports - It could be any of those kind of things

Define normal in a post-pandemic world & you’ll find it isn’t the same as the normal of a pre-pandemic world. Things have, & will continue to change, as a direct result of COVID.

Here in the UK our vaccination programme is going well, society is gradually opening up again. Pubs/shops/leisure venues opening again very soon. Yes you’ll be able to sit in a busy pub again & listen to live music, yes you’ll be able to see friends/relatives again.

Try not to worry. Things are getting better x

@pinkearedcow It's really not.

And if you think Boris Johnson, Priti Patel et al are well intentioned then I'm not really sure what to say to that I'm afraid. Remember that in general the rise of totalitarianism doesn't start with the extremes of concentration camps etc - it starts with identification of an enemy which the government are going to keep you safe from - in some ways the virus is even more perfect for this than an identified group of people because no one thinks "well I know so and so and they're not like that" and builds from there.

I would desperately like to be wrong and for the government to restore civil liberties and end their current level of power voluntarily, but I don't see this as likely. Hence, whenever there is something that might bring an end to restrictions, like a vaccine, we get BUT NO BECAUSE THIS.

I would be willing to bet my home that in fact it will take significant civil unrest to do so - which is the worst solution to any problem.

@DianaT1969
At least the UK will be back to normal faster than Europe.

1. the U.K. is in Europe
2. the EU nations will likely have caught up significantly vaccine wise by summer’s end
3. it won’t be fully back to normal if there’s still a pandemic raging a few dozen kms away

I hardly know how to respond. Your view that 70 is a cut-off age beyond which we don't prioritise care appalls me.

Your world is not one I want to live in.

I totally agree - what a horrible way to think. My 87 year old DF requires no social care whatsoever - and he's not alone in that - but according to joystar59 he should be sacrificed. Plenty of people 70 and over are still working, but let's just let them die. Appalling.

@EarringsandLipstick

I read how people are suffering in the UK and it makes me so sad as there was an opportunity to implement strict hotel quarantine there too. Being an island has perks.

@tcjotm

This was not possible in the UK, or elsewhere in Europe. Strict hotel quarantine wouldn't have resolved the issue. The context of Northern Ireland specifically made that unworkable (part of UK, so travel possible, but also connected to the island of Ireland, and as we have the Good Friday agreement, cannot - and must not - impose borders or border checks).

The Australia / NZ solution isn't workable outside those countries. Even within the countries it has been problematic eg decisions made re fines in Australia would not get support in European countries.

@EarringsandLipstick

I’m sorry, you’re right, it would’ve required combining with Ireland for it to work as thoroughly. Our state borders have been closing which feels very weird but the history of Northern Ireland makes that a whole other issue I didn’t consider with my comment.

@Actsofgenerosity

LawnFever surely you can't have failed to have noticed that Australia and New Zealand have shut themselves off entirely to the world, hardly normal

I’d settle for that level of normal right now, wouldn’t you? Or would you rather we stayed in lockdown forever until we can snap back to pre March 2020

@ilovesooty

Well we can't please ourselves and go back to normal if our normal is going abroad on holiday.

And if travel isn't permitted that's that.

Travel, at least to some countries, will be permitted in may. I’ll be going on holiday abroad this summer as I did last summer. People are crazy to think we won’t return to normal, festivals are even going ahead.

You’re being very overdramatic. The vaccine programme is working. Just because we aren’t out of it yet doesn’t mean we never will be.

The West will certainly I hope get it’s shit together on its future pandemic responses after this.

When the pandemic broke, China quarantined 50 million people with road blocks etc within a couple of weeks. Meanwhile in the U.K., two months on from China shutting down an entire country sized province and with Covid deaths already on the island, Britain was still hosting 80,000 people piss ups at Twickenham, hosting packed pop concepts and encouraging people to run in vast city marathons.

It took Europe until August, literally half a year, to finally accept the need to wear masks in crowded indoor places.

Unbelievable when you think back to how clueless and caught off guard our leaders were.

@applesandoranges221

Probably not - unfortunately the government has realised that it now has carte blanche to take away freedom so is taking rapid steps to make this permanent, like all but removing the right to protest, the right to bring a judicial review etc and this week will extend lockdown regulations until September (at which point, my guess would be they'll say " oh no, winter again, back into lockdown".

Yesterday's events in London do give me some hope, but how horrific that it has to come to that.

The government want the economy back on track, people paying taxes and businesses making them money, you’re conflating two completely different things, the bill around right to protest isn’t about covid restrictions

@lightand

They are allowed back in, the problem is with quarantine the numbers of arriving passengers each day are capped at much much lower numbers than normal. So it’s hard to get a flight and very expensive.

I think people just didn’t realise how long it would last and so didn’t rush back. We were told to come home ASAP in March and quarantine was free until July I believe. But everyone’s reasons for being abroad were different and rushing back in March not always possible and now it’s not easy. But it is possible.

Honestly, some of you are just absolutely ridiculous 🤣

I struggle with posts like these right now when things are going well.

Currently deaths & hospitalisations are coming down by 25-30% per week.
We have a brilliant vaccine programme going with over half the adult population already having had one vaccine.
Summer is on its way.

We are heading in the right direction.

Yes mainland Europe is currently behind us, but they will catch up. There is also the willpower and understanding that the rest of the world need vaccinating too.

Things will be more 'normal' by the summer, and even more so by summer 2022. Yes the world will be changed, but the new normal will be fine.

surely you can't have failed to have noticed that Australia and New Zealand have shut themselves off entirely to the world, hardly normal hmm

Well, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone there, or indeed in Singapore, or China who regrets their country not going down Europe’s inout inout inout shake it all about perpetual lockdown and crash the economy route.

Endless lockdown AND no international travel?
Or just no international travel?

It’s a tough one!

@Neonlightning

Not sure if this helps... Life in Australia is almost back to normal except for no international travel. Still have restrictions for large events - I went to an outdoor concert last weekend which was enforced sitting down.

Very thankful to be able to live relatively normally, but it's certainly a surreal situation to not be able to leave.

I don't know why, but ever since last year when it all kicked off I've said 2023 for borders to reopen.

Thank you, my family in Australia are telling me the same.

Some people are determined to only cling on to the negatives rather than see that some countries are moving out of this and that we’ll follow on.

Life in the UK I think is going to be nearly the same as pre-pandemic by the time everyone is offered the first vaccine. I expect it is foreign travel that will take longer.

If we remain having screens at tills, face coverings when in a shop or visiting the GP, and more people work from home at least part of the week, is that really a bad thing?

@CuthbertDibbleandGrubb

Life in the UK I think is going to be nearly the same as pre-pandemic by the time everyone is offered the first vaccine. I expect it is foreign travel that will take longer.

If we remain having screens at tills, face coverings when in a shop or visiting the GP, and more people work from home at least part of the week, is that really a bad thing?

I agree that being more aware of hygiene and those measures staying as a lasting change can’t be a bad thing at all

Six months and it will be 99% normal IF everyone gets their jabs. Yes we will all have to have an annual covid jab but thats not a big price to pay really

March 2020
Two weeks to flatten the curve

March 2021
Boris Johnson to extend 'draconian' coronavirus laws for six months
www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/20/tory-anger-police-powers/#comment

Governments do not willingly give up powers. The people need to claim their freedoms back.

I don't understand why we couldn't have imposed a travel ban because we border Ireland. If the government limits people's movement to within their own county then people in NI wouldn't be going to mainland UK or to Ireland. In Wales our govt said no one in or out of the country except for legitimate reasons. Given that we are in a pandemic there must be scope within the NI agreement that only business traffic could enter or leave, with quarantine controls. Under exceptional circumstances there must be scope for nations to protect their own citizens. I know it's not the same as Australia, but they must have had goods imported during that time, so some people coming and going.
It would have made a big difference to our numbers if we hadn't been letting people land at our airports from the rest of the world and go on their merry way without any checks. And if we'd not allowed foreign holidays last year.

Joystir 70 is a bit young to be writing people off. Some have barely retired at that point. I do agree that prolonging life where there is no quality of life, is a bad idea. Vaccinating 80 year olds who have dementia maybe shouldn't have been a priority. There is an argument for vaccinating those with underlying conditions and the young first, since that would have kept the economy moving and made schools safer. I'm not sure though - I like living in a country that considers taking care of the elderly to be important.