COVID–19 has completely transformed how we live and work.
We won’t emerge from the lockdown suddenly immune. As a gradual reopening begins, the vast majority of us remain susceptible.
According to some experts social distancing is here to stay and masks may become a new wardrobe staple.
How people connect once social distancing rules are relaxed may change. Handshakes could be a thing of the past.
Our kids and grandkids may tell each other “back in the old days, people used to grab each other’s palms when they saw each other, that’s so weird.”
Will every ‘contact’ have to be scheduled on Zoom, or managed in a non-spontaneous way, keeping distance, observing rules, and checking that others observe them too?
Although businesses are reopening under strict guidelines, their capacity is cut in half.
Fear of infection could make us weary, anxious, and germophobic about trains, planes and shared automobiles.
Concerts, large sporting events and large crowds may not return until next year.
Hopefully we have learned from COVID-19 that there needs to be changes in how people live and work at prisons, nursing homes, meat packing plants and schools.
COVID-19 triggered an immense wave of social experiments.
Some, including homeschooling, may be enthusiastically abandoned, while others, like virtual work-from-home arrangements may continue to be embraced by some.
The road to economic recovery will in all probability be a very bumpy one.
Much of what will happen will depend on how quickly a vaccine is found.
So, if COVID-19 is here to stay, what will life look like a year down the road?
Will the pandemic virus eventually burn itself out or become part of the annual, seasonal soup of respiratory infections?
In the short term, we don’t know if COVID-19 will kill more people, or if it will kill the same types of people that are now being felled by the flu -- the elderly, the marginalized and people with compromised immune systems.
We are social animals. If we can’t shake hands, worship together, eat together, the very core of humanity, what it means to be human and how we thrive, is undermined.
A crisis like COVID-19 is perfect justification for any and all measures. Some may be in the best interest for the common good.
A centralized, top-down tracking app that traces people’s contacts in real time is a tempting possibility for those in power.
The so-called new normal is not a given.
We need to dig in our heels and say we’re not going to accept a new normal without debate, discussion and a vote. We need to be actively engaged in our future.
It is we the people, who ultimately need to decide what we want the new normal to feel and look like, not the experts and politicians.
To be part of the solution contact your MLA Nathan Cooper through mail at Box 3909, 4905-50 Ave,, Olds, AB or call 403-556-3132. Contact your MP Earl Dreeshen through mail at 4315-55 Ave., Suite 100A, Red Deer, AB, T4N4N7 or call 403-347-7426 or 1-866-211-0959.
Age Friendly Committee of Olds Institute
