This whole year has been sureal. It is nearly a year to the day since a national lockdown was imposed on the UK. The idea of this was to limit the spread of Covid-19
At the time I didn't think that we would still be living under such restrictions on our freedom and liberty a year later. I think most people understood at the time that the measures put in place were for the greater good and it was a reasonable think to do, to ask us to limit our social contact to slow the spread of the virus in the hope that a vaccine could be developed.
I guess that these measures have helped to slow the spread and also save the lives of people with underlying health conditions who were at risk of serious illness due to covid, but how many people may have missed a diagnosis for other serious conditions as a result, or been in chronic pain and had their operations postponed due to the pandemic?
Also there is now a huge backlog of people waiting for hospital appointments! It can be a long waiting list at the best of times but the situation is now much worse than before. How long will it take to clear the backlog.
People have suffered mentally due to being isolated as well and young people have missed much of their education too.
The measures taken to slow the spread of the virus have had a great cost themselves. Time will tell if we have done things the right way or not?
We have all got used to a new way of doing things, working from home, wearing masks, sanitising our hands frequently, zoom meetings and so on. Now we have a vaccine developed and 'hopefully' we are coming out of lockdown soon. I wonder whether life will go back to how it was before covid.
Many people have been off work for a long time under the furlough scheme, which has cost the government a fortune. Will they be happy to go back to work after they have gotten used to staying at home and being paid 80% of their salary? It's not their fault, I know, they were just doing as they were asked by the government. It just seems to me that it has been easy to impose a lockdown but coming out of it may be more difficult than we imagine.
Taxes will no doubt increase to pay for the huge amount that the government has had to borrow during the pandemic to support business.
Maybe people will go out and spend, spend, spend as soon as they are able and this might give a much needed boost to the economy.
School children here in the UK have returned to the classroom today, but will be tested every week for covid and have to wear masks in class too, though they themselves have little risk of severe illness due to covid.
Will people be afraid to shake hands with others in a year from today, afraid to give people a hug, still be walking around other people in the street outside, still wearing masks?
Will we see a return to packed football stadiums, music festivals, packed theatres?
Will new variants cause a new threat and may we have to re-impose social distancing measures again, and develop new vaccines?
Will we be able to travel freely without having to prove that we have had a vaccine or a negative test?
In a year from now, I don't think by any means things will be back to the way they were before covid.
Two years from now I wonder what life will be like?
Will life ever be the same as it was before covid?
I don't know the answer, I wonder what you think?
My own article
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