How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
I find myself struggling to answer this question 6 years after the pandemic. I’ve spoken before on my struggles with time and pandemic time is even worse. There is definitely a BC (before COVID) and AC (after COVID) time but as a healthcare worker who was in the lab in the thick of it, my life didn’t quite change the same way other people’s did.
Additionally, as someone who understands medical science the way that I do, I don’t live in fear of COVID the way I did in 2020. Back then I was all over getting my vaccines as soon as they were available. I was educating people on best precautions and all of that. Now, 6 years and I’ve lost track of how many mutations later. It’s barely a blip on my radar.
The thing to remember here coronavirus wasn’t new any more than influenza is new. The difference was the variant that caused the pandemic was highly contagious to humans for the first time and acted in a way that no previous coronavirus had. We were unprepared for it. This also happens every so often with influenza despite our best efforts. We do our best to predict the variants and create a vaccine for them but it’s not an exact science at all. It may never be. This is where we are now with Covid. It’s not the same virus it was but much like “the flu”, people will always refer to is as covid and it is now part of our common history.
The reality is, the important changes that the pandemic brought to light haven’t lasted. Restaurants and businesses have returned to less than stellar cleaning practices. People don’t stay home when sick. There is no social distancing or maintaining of space. We haven’t fixed anything in the governmental areas that could have reduced the impact of the pandemic or even prevented it. If anything we’ve only made it worse, with officials who are advocating junk science and canceling real research efforts.
I think the one change that has stuck with me is my extremely low to non-existent tolerance for other people. I do not interact with the general public unless i have to. I prefer to stay within my social circle. If I am interacting outside of that, it’s typically online or in very controlled environments. Not because I’m worried about people getting me sick but because people are dumb and irritating and have no patience for their selfishness.
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