What will our 'New Normal' be like?

[Pete]

The thing that strikes me about this whole thing more than anything is our ability to accept huge numbers of people dying and barely flinch. It’s thrown our whole sense of concern for each other into disarray and is very much an entirely new experience for most of us. Even during WW2 these would have been very depressing figures. The fact that I regularly see and hear people refusing to be concerned about it disturbes the f*ck out of me.

[Mini Mad Swede]

Usually the local paper has 1/2 to a full page of obituaris (schpelling aside) a day during weekends, but past weekend it was three and a half page!
Most of those was people born in 1920-30-40's
Was one guy I kinda knew and he didnt make his 60th, but he's been sick since before this.
One young person about 30 years old it was mentioned death was caused by covid.
Paper is tabloid size if that matters. Cos it doesn't!

Ok next door neighbour 80+ years old died of cancer, and they have been extremly aware of covid and kept away from everyone.

Have a niece who lives in Florida who has been diagnosed with covid, but is okay now.
She doesn't have any underlying conditions, but wears herself out in gym. Think they have a home gym, but havent paid attention listening to that bit.

Think most of you have heard about how 'horrible' Sweden (where I live) has handled the situation.
Have no flippin idea which way is best handling this, but yelling they are trying to take away our freedom might not be the best way?
Time will no doubt tell.

Thread ressurection in five years?
If you and me still live then!

Now lets go burn some petrol before that freedom of irresponsibility is taken away from us all!

[mab01uk]

The thing that strikes me about this whole thing more than anything is our ability to accept huge numbers of people dying and barely flinch. It’s thrown our whole sense of concern for each other into disarray and is very much an entirely new experience for most of us. Even during WW2 these would have been very depressing figures. The fact that I regularly see and hear people refusing to be concerned about it disturbes the f*ck out of me.

I think barely flinching and refusing to be concerned is maybe a symptom of what is sometimes known as 'compassion fatigue,' which is probably inevitable eventually in an age of 24-hour news channels on TV/radio and soundbite headlines constantly popping up on our phones and computers. In the face of appalling events that are occurring around the world there is a danger that we eventually become numb to the headlines and in the case of Covid, the daily death tolls that shocked us at the beginning of the pandemic. In my lifetime the news has gone from just the daily newspaper that my dad had delivered through the letterbox each morning and a 20 minute TV news bulletin at 6pm and 10pm on BBC & ITV to now 24/7 instant live rolling coverage. In WW2 much of the bad news and losses were played down or held back and government propaganda news reels promoted the victories and successes to keep up morale and ward off depression on the home front.
What also disturbs me now is how social media has helped promote the rapid spread of 'conspiracy theories' about many world events including the pandemic and the growing number of people who believe the twisted conspiracy theorists and have gone down their rabbit hole is becoming quite frightening.

[nick@dunsdale]

The thing that strikes me about this whole thing more than anything is our ability to accept huge numbers of people dying and barely flinch. It’s thrown our whole sense of concern for each other into disarray and is very much an entirely new experience for most of us. Even during WW2 these would have been very depressing figures. The fact that I regularly see and hear people refusing to be concerned about it disturbes the f*ck out of me.

I think barely flinching and refusing to be concerned is maybe a symptom of what is sometimes known as 'compassion fatigue,' which is probably inevitable eventually in an age of 24-hour news channels on TV/radio and soundbite headlines constantly popping up on our phones

I think you have knocked the nail on the head Martin.
The ammount of people i hear saying i am sick of hearing about Covid the constant news feed doesnt highten ones concern, it is information overload which people eventually come to despise !!, for some people it pushes them in the opposite direction.

Floormanager a few posts back mentions some really good points how on earth are we going to able to keep on top of this virus if going forward we are going to need boosters every year, first time round vaccinating the entire country or world is a mammoth task how will we cope if this is an ongoing program

I feel quite conflicted sometimes by nature i can be quite cynical but i do take this situtaion seriously
I have met quite a few people who say they wont be taking any vacination, intially i was one of those people but i think we wont have much choice specially if we ever manage to holiday abroad it will be a requirement.

[Polarsilver]

1. Covid being mentioned on the Death Certificate in todays News.. tells us there are now over "One Hundred Thousand" Deaths in the UK due to Covid.. RIP
2. New World War about to break out as the EU threatens to control exports of the "juice of life" that are made inside EU.
3. Different Strains arriving that seem to be appearing from anywhere in the World & question will the current Jab be good enough to knobble that latest virus concoction ?

4. Premier Football sets the example to follow along with winging Tennis Stars .. then i wonder what Lewis,Max & Alonso and their mates will suggest is their New Normal.

New Normal of year 2021... "Stay Safe" .

[hicklingmick]

I have stage 3 COPD (No it doesnt make me faster) and at a age where I have to be concerned.Last yr had to stay at home for 5 months this time allowed to visit GP or hospital.

I recently got a permanent ban from Twatterland because I said to 1 female

" if you had a + covid test and then knocked down by a truck and died you would be classed as a covid death"

She reported me and the ban was for threating violence to a person.

But my point is in the USA you can get this listing all covid deaths and what diseases contributed to there death where covid was classed as cause of death. Scroll down 3/4.

Its strange that intentional deaths are include plus this "" Deaths involving more than one condition (e.g., deaths involving both diabetes and respiratory arrest) were counted in both totals. To avoid counting the same death multiple times, the numbers for different conditions should not be summated."" How do they know those deaths were not added up?

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covi ... orbidities

Why cant we get something similar here in UK?

I personally dont think we will get back to normal until late 2022.

[mini_surfari]

The thing that strikes me about this whole thing more than anything is our ability to accept huge numbers of people dying and barely flinch. It’s thrown our whole sense of concern for each other into disarray and is very much an entirely new experience for most of us. Even during WW2 these would have been very depressing figures. The fact that I regularly see and hear people refusing to be concerned about it disturbes the f*ck out of me.

I think barely flinching and refusing to be concerned is maybe a symptom of what is sometimes known as 'compassion fatigue,' which is probably inevitable eventually in an age of 24-hour news channels on TV/radio and soundbite headlines constantly popping up on our phones

I think you have knocked the nail on the head Martin.
The ammount of people i hear saying i am sick of hearing about Covid the constant news feed doesnt highten ones concern, it is information overload which people eventually come to despise !!, for some people it pushes them in the opposite direction.

I agree with the above , but also humans are unbelievable at adapting and evolving, so 'routine' numbers of deaths become the normal, so you are numbed to it... the ones that will see the most effect are those that are directly connected to such loss (health care workers, friends, family). Every single death is a extremely sad, however only 0.175% of the population have died from it, so still a small number of the population will appreciate their loss.

I feel its no different to the wars in recent history ... the news reports 'Private Smudge was killed in Afghanistan today'. The viewer than feels empathy for that split second and carriers on with their life.

Anyway, I hope everyone stays safe!

[Andrew1967]

Human beings are good at adapting but are also extremely stupid and selfish. Just look at these raves and parties going on. How to stop, difficult but starting with £10k fines for everyone present not just the organisers. Anyone in the building or house, no matter whether they were taking part or not.

Mick, that is so typical of the pathetic snowflake society we live in now. If you wrote that exactly as you did here, then WTF is the problem with that ? You didnt threaten her at all, just stated what is FACT !

I personally think we can write off 2021 as well. Things aren't going to get better anytime soon. On the news last night, 2000 jobs a day being lost and those aren't coming back any time soon.

What really pisses me off about the news is the constant stupid f***ing questions that are pointed to Boris and Co.... 'when are you going to re-open the schools' .. 'when are you going to relax the lockdown' ... etc etc. How the hell can they say when the death rate and infection rates (Ok that is dropping, at the moment, because of the lockdown measures) are as high as they are and only a small percentage of the 'at risk' population has been vaccinated ? Absolute morons.

[mab01uk]

What really pisses me off about the news is the constant stupid f***ing questions that are pointed to Boris and Co.... 'when are you going to re-open the schools' .. 'when are you going to relax the lockdown' ... etc etc. How the hell can they say when the death rate and infection rates (Ok that is dropping, at the moment, because of the lockdown measures) are as high as they are and only a small percentage of the 'at risk' population has been vaccinated ? Absolute morons.

Totally agree, the current generation of 'dumbed down' TV 'journalists' seem totally incapable of asking any intelligent worthwhile questions for their audience. I look forward with hope that the new GB TV daily news channel coming soon featuring the 'old school' Andrew Neil will be less moronic with their questions!

[Exminiman]

What really pisses me off about the news is the constant stupid f***ing questions that are pointed to Boris and Co.... 'when are you going to re-open the schools' .. 'when are you going to relax the lockdown' ... etc etc. How the hell can they say when the death rate and infection rates (Ok that is dropping, at the moment, because of the lockdown measures) are as high as they are and only a small percentage of the 'at risk' population has been vaccinated ? Absolute morons.

Totally agree, the current generation of 'dumbed down' TV 'journalists' seem totally incapable of asking any intelligent worthwhile questions for their audience. I look forward with hope that the new GB TV daily news channel coming soon featuring the 'old school' Andrew Neil will be less moronic with their questions!

spot on.......or even a bit of Paxman