PostCorona

In a conversation sometime during the pandemic, friends were wondering how long it would take till things got back to normal. I pulled the guess of 'five years' from my arse. It is five years since I discussed the pandemic here so this is an excellent time to revisit the topic. My wild guess was both too optimistic and too pessimistic. Too optimistic in the sense that Coronavirus and its many consequences are still with us. Too pessimistic in that the successive lockdowns necessarily imposed were over within two years for Victorians, while the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global emergency over within four years.

Once we had vaccines, an amazing human achievement in speed of development and implementation, the path back to a 'new normal' was forged. Covid shots are now a standard like flu shots. Along with these, we have the everyday normalization of mask wearing and hand sanitation for those who choose to employ them. Personally, I felt that restrictions could have been lighter yet longer, but the prudent among us can enact that in our own life practices. I have long since developed and refined my own protocols and many others do the same thing. I reckon they have resulted in me having fewer common colds than in the past. Also, I now suspect that the times I feel like I'm starting to get a cold are often just overexposure to cat dander, dust and dairy.

I'm remembering behaviours from the time of that global emergency. Profiling came naturally to many of us. For my part I noticed that both the young and the old were tardy with things like safe distancing and proper mask use. However the elderly rapidly improved and I wonder how much of that was from loved ones suddenly suffering dire infection.

Much was made of the contrasting behaviours of different community groups. For instance, it is hardly surprising that Chinese-Australians rapidly adopted practices that 'back home' had been the norm due to other pandemics in recent memory. However I noticed something subtler than this. If a sufficient number of residents within a suburb adopted proper practices then locals of all backgrounds were more likely to do so too. Locality rather than background became a better predictor of behaviour as I was out-and-about (sometimes even with a document to show I was allowed to attend face-to-face work).

Another factor I noticed, one that looking at demographics misses, was the difference between lone individuals and groups. The former were better at keeping a distance than the latter. Hardly surprising since our companions are such a focus while we are with them. It is a pity then that individuals often fell between the cracks of consideration for a variety of recognized groups in society. I'm still appalled by the news story of someone sitting alone in a park eating a snack and getting charged by police (because at the time we were only supposed to be exercising outside of the home).

There was plenty of online talk of 'Covidiots' and for sure there were many who never gave a damn for risk of infection. However I also noticed what I called 'Covigilantes' - those who adopted the pose of restriction enforcers with zero understanding of personal circumstances. I know of a student with a medical exemption to mask-wearing who copped so much verbal abuse from strangers that they wore a sign showing proof of that exceptional status. Frankly it all got a bit ridiculous and the pandemic had a way of exacerbating that. Staunch advocates and critics of the police practically swapped attitudes during that time. The consensus that had defined political responses to the emergency was too soon undermined at the grassroots.

I understand. Life was difficult even if in other ways it was strangely easy. Communications technology allowed us to stay at and even work from home. Rarely was I exactly bored because I'm easily amused by assorted lone pastimes. And yet there was an enervating listlessness that left its dull patina over life in general. We were facing the biggest change of our lifetimes and it was defined by an utter absense of change in day-to-day living. By the final lockdown of late 2021 I was turning rather scruffy. I also noticed locally that everyone was unilaterally choosing to act like it was over. I'm sure the state government was noticing this too and made sure that final lockdown was over a year before its next election.

What is the legacy of that time? Politically there were changes big and small. One innovation was the practice of Australian government leaders conferring regularly as the ad-hoc National Cabinet. From that time came more of a sense that government plays an important part in our lives. I recently walked past one boon of that attitude - a new messenger gene manufacturing facility for vaccines that will benenfit both Australia and our neighbours. There are a tiny few who look on this with suspicion but I will say nothing more here on that (except possibly for one anecdote I can share in comments below).

We all discovered our local parks and backstreets. The public golf course was closed for play and suddenly we were using it as another walking space. Our own neighbourhoods became the whole world for a short time. Since then I have noticed many more picnics happening than had in the past and more residents now use porches as alfresco spaces to enjoy a snack or drink. I still enjoy reading a novel while sitting in the front yard.

We also started using local shops more. One consequence of this was that those very long inner suburban shopping streets dwindled somewhat. Shops that had once served all the many visitors to those precincts suddenly closed so that only those the locals truly needed now persist. Old arcades like the Jam Factory in particular seemed to suffer. We shall see if they take the oportunity to refurbish and revive.

Of course some of these pandemic trends simply boosted the existing effects of things like globalized online shopping. Likwise the more withdrawn youths I observe now could be the product of forced home schooling during lockdowns but could also be the result of too much time spent online. Work will have to be done to compensate for such influences. The new normal needs to be something that feels normal for those experiencing it.

For me a personal indicator that I have gotten back to normal was that I finally recovered the gumption to travel. I was pretty slow to get there and know others who stepped onto planes as soon as they were allowed. I did it eventually and 'getting on with life' is a lesson that is coming very slowly to me. The pandemic has impinged on many aspects of life and even just a search for the term lockdowns returns a surprising variety of posts here. Some of it even looks like it was fun, but I hope we are spared such experiences in future.