So what are we as a society going to do with the aftermath of covid?

[peasant]

I know this is hard to think about while we're still in the middle of restictions and we all just want to go back to "normality", but I think normality as we used to know it is gone, never to return.

The new normal will need a bit more than just washing our hands of covid. I'm afraid there is a pretty big impact on society coming down the line:

Lots and lots of people have lost their jobs and/or businesses, some of these jobs and businesses will be gone for a long time if not forever.

Of those people, the majority will have experienced financial losses which they never might recover. These people will be locked out of markets like housing or anything else that requires significant investment for years to come.

Children and young people most of all have experienced severe disruption to their social development. I'd like to think we owe them something to make up for this.

Workplaces have changed. While wfh is not everybody's cup of tea, many people have had reason to re-evaluate the amount of time they used to spend away from home / commuting and will be looking for change.

We have discovered that we treat our essential workers pretty poorly. We also had reason to re-evaluate what really is essential and what isn't. We might not want to, perhaps we even shouldn't go back to the old normal on that point.

There is lots more to mention (like mental health, abuse and domestic violence for example) that will have left scars that will need healing.

This whole mess has also cost a lot of money and somebody will have to pay for it ...this needs to be done fairly, some of the people mentioned above will need a break.

And then there is quite a significant number of people who will have done rather well out of this mess. Who kept their jobs and piled up the savings. Are they under some obligation now?


So ...any ideas for our brave new normal?

[BrianD3]

One of the biggest issues for me is care of the elderly which encompasses nursing homes, home care and hospitals. Elder care ties in with how we structure and pay for health and social care, a monumental issue in other words.

We know what happened in nursing homes in terms of Covid deaths. How many nursing homes were deficient in infection control which, pre Covid, resulted in problems with norovirus and flu, deaths and pressures on an already d…login to view the rest of this post