# Do you that some of the social/public changes will stay in place once the worst is over?



## Marie5656 (Nov 24, 2021)

*I will preface this post by saying that I do not think we are out of the woods yet as far as COVID goes, maybe next year.  But I am wondering how things will change, or stay the same once/if things go back to normal.  
24 hour stores cut back their open hours...I wonder if we will see 24 hour grocery and other stores back again?  I mean, when I was working, for a while I had a job 2nd shift...did not get off until 11PM. Often did grocery shopping after work.
Will public mask wearing completely go away?  Here, store employees still must wear masks, customers optional.  Medical offices all require masks still.
Social distancing....we were talking about it today in my building community room, people who come in tend to drift to a social distance when they come in.  But I do kind of like that...I hat having people so close, even under normal circumstances.
Are we looking at a new normal as far as health/safety and socializing go?*


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## Murrmurr (Nov 24, 2021)

I'm anxious to see if real science defeats the political/pundit covid-warriors of this era, and what happens if it does. 
Wish I could say _when_ it does, but my confidence is beginning to wane.


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## Jules (Nov 24, 2021)

IMO, yes much of this is the new normal.  

Stores like having shorter hours and not having to keep up to the place next door.  The cost of staying open and the extra shoplifting during these hours is a big savings.  

Our bank used to be open 7 days a week and had early morning to mid-evening hours.  It‘s much more limited now.  

Businesses are saving money.

Our doctor rarely sees anyone in person.  He always kept a tight timeline, now it’s even more efficient.  Masks are mandated.  Considering that he deals with sick people, I’m fine with that.

In 2020 there’d be people trying to go without masks.  I don’t see them much now.  Maybe they were socially ostracized. 

When walking and you meet someone, almost always, someone steps well out of the way.  

I never cared for shaking hands or hugging friends, so I won’t miss that custom.


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## Don M. (Nov 24, 2021)

This Covid is Far from over, and until the vast majority of people accept the vaccinations, I suspect we will continue to see "spikes".  Ultimately, this may even lead to people voluntarily "masking up" in public, to help prevent transmission of the common cold and flu.  This virus will likely change the way most people interact with each other, for quite some time.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 24, 2021)

I miss 24/7 convenience.  If businesses have people cleaning, stocking shelves, etc... it seems like a small cost to have someone on the front end to monitor self checkouts or ring up sales.

I like the hand sanitizer dispensers and cart wipes provided by many stores and hope that they continue.

Seasonal or emergency mask mandates make sense to me.  As hospitalization rates rise in my area a new mask mandate is being considered.

I’m fine with social distancing and limiting human contact outside of my bubble.

I’m also fine with an annual COVID jab similar to the flu vaccine.


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## MrPants (Nov 24, 2021)

Businesses have had to adapt to no in person contacts for things like meetings, customer schmoosing, and conventions or national get togethers. I'm betting much of that in person stuff will not return, much to the chagrin of airlines, hotels and convention halls.

I remember seeing many oriental people wearing masks years before Covid and not only in China where the air is extremely bad. I'm betting many will continue to mask up in some public situations in future. 2 years ago, I would have said .... that's crazy!


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## dseag2 (Nov 24, 2021)

I used to be amused at Asians wearing masks when I traveled.  Not anymore.  They went through the SARS epidemic years ago and understood how important masks were in helping them to prevent the spread.  I don't think it will be so far-fetched for us to wear masks in the US in the future.

Unfortunately, I've recently read that because we have been wearing masks for so long we have no longer built up immunities to the flu.  I guess I will keep wearing my mask because I haven't had a cold in 2 years and I don't want the flu.   

As for the other changes, there will be a much larger percentage of workers working from home.  They have gotten used to it during the pandemic and will refuse to go back to an office environment.  

I agree with others who have said we are not finished with the Covid pandemic yet.  One of the medical experts said many months ago that at worst we could see 1 million deaths.  We are now at close to 800,000.  Thanksgiving could bring us to the worst case scenario.  We'll see.


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## Tish (Nov 25, 2021)

I honestly believe this is the new normal.


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## Remy (Nov 25, 2021)

I think we will see people wearing masks for a long long time. Though I think less and less people will do so. When they lifted the mask mandate in California, the masks really lessened but then came the Delta variant and they were back more again. 

WINCO chain grocery stores are back to 24 hours and have been for a long time. Safeway was 24 hour. They now close between two and five AM. Our PAWS thrift store reduced hours to 11-3 from 10-5 but still make a swinging business. This could be due to lower volunteers available. 

I do think much is the new normal.


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## Paco Dennis (Nov 25, 2021)

I am not very optimistic about "it getting better" at all. Not to be a doomer, but when empires collapse, it might take a while, but something very NEW will rise eventually. I have no idea what that might be like, and if/when humans put this back together, i hope we learn ( THIS TIME ) to "make it better".


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## Becky1951 (Nov 25, 2021)

Paco Dennis said:


> I am not very optimistic about "it getting better" at all. Not to be a doomer, but when empires collapse, it might take a while, but something very NEW will rise eventually. I have no idea what that might be like, and if/when humans put this back together, i hope we learn ( THIS TIME ) to "make it better".


"NEW will rise eventually"

What I've heard, yet not sure to put any stock in is New World Order.

Consider this. Create a virus, release said virus, have a vaccine in place but don't let that be known, wait and act as if it was miraculously created.

Create fear, pretend everything your doing is for the peoples own good, mandate said vaccine because yes it really is a deadly virus but their vaccine will control it.

Ops, said vaccine meets Delta, it wasn't suppose to mutate like that.

Once everything is set in place, people are terrified and compliant rise up with NWO.

That's what I've heard.  

Crazy? Maybe. At this point I don't know for sure what to believe..


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## Mr. Ed (Nov 25, 2021)

once the worst is over? How do you determined if the worst is over or begin for that matter? The worse is subjective for anyone to determined, my worst will not likely be your worst and so on. There are no worst unless of course is determined by the "is over" clause.​


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## Paco Dennis (Nov 26, 2021)

Becky1951 said:


> "NEW will rise eventually"
> 
> What I've heard, yet not sure to put any stock in is New World Order.
> 
> ...


Yes I am aware of the New World Order ideas. Some even involve aliens. Yikes! Yes, I do cringe at that sort of future. It seems like we are getting very close to a fork in the road. One leads to this kind of elite authoritarianism, the other leads to voluntary global cooperation to live in harmony with ourselves and our environment.


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## WheatenLover (Nov 26, 2021)

I will continue to wear a  mask during flu season. All this covid mask wearing cut down on the number of people who got the flu.

I've always washed my hands a lot, especially when coming home from wherever. So that won't change.


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 26, 2021)

Marie5656 said:


> *I will preface this post by saying that I do not think we are out of the woods yet as far as COVID goes, maybe next year.  But I am wondering how things will change, or stay the same once/if things go back to normal.
> 24 hour stores cut back their open hours...I wonder if we will see 24 hour grocery and other stores back again?  I mean, when I was working, for a while I had a job 2nd shift...did not get off until 11PM. Often did grocery shopping after work.
> Will public mask wearing completely go away?  Here, store employees still must wear masks, customers optional.  Medical offices all require masks still.
> Social distancing....we were talking about it today in my building community room, people who come in tend to drift to a social distance when they come in.  But I do kind of like that...I hat having people so close, even under normal circumstances.
> Are we looking at a new normal as far as health/safety and socializing go?*


Yes, of course, a  new normal


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 26, 2021)

Jules said:


> IMO, yes much of this is the new normal.
> 
> Stores like having shorter hours and not having to keep up to the place next door.  The cost of staying open and the extra shoplifting during these hours is a big savings.
> 
> ...


Very few people wear masks in Utah and we have almost 1500 new cases of Covid a day, and 10 deaths.  Our ICU’s are filled with Covid patients.  80% unvaccinated and 20% breakthrough vaccinated is, I believe, the national statistics.

Plus there is now a new variant, more contagious than Delta.

Human race losing, Covid-19 winning


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## HoneyNut (Nov 26, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> Very few people wear masks in Utah and we have almost 1500 new cases of Covid a day


Similar in Nebraska, even at the most compliant time there were a substantial number of people not wearing masks, and now the majority are not wearing masks and we are having over a thousand cases a day frequently.  I am still wearing a mask (tho only have gone in stores a couple times) but if I wind up being the only one I will feel silly doing it so then I would stop (death preferable to not conforming to social norm apparently, ha ha).


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## Jules (Nov 26, 2021)

Not sure of how the populations compare for Utah and Nebraska.  The population of BC is ~5 million and with 87% of the adults vaccinated.  Yesterday the cases were fewer than 350.  All I watch is the trends.  The majority of the cases are in the un vaxxed or breakthrough in the susceptible.


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## Packerjohn (Nov 26, 2021)

First we got Covid 19, then some darn "Variants of Interest."  Today they are talking about "Variants of Concern."  The 3 ring circus just goes on and on.  It's got me to the point that I don't care anymore.  I leave it to the young people to solve this.  Hey, there is got to be an ap for this problem.  Ditto for climate change.  I did my thing back in the 60s and 70s.  Now it's their turn and I wish them the best of luck because they sure are gonna need it.  There just has to be an ap to solve these problems!


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## Lewkat (Nov 26, 2021)

Paco Dennis said:


> I am not very optimistic about "it getting better" at all. Not to be a doomer, but when empires collapse, it might take a while, but something very NEW will rise eventually. I have no idea what that might be like, and if/when humans put this back together, i hope we learn ( THIS TIME ) to "make it better".


Sadly, Paco Dennis, if history serves us well, the human race is doomed to repeat its mistakes over and over again.


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 27, 2021)

Packerjohn said:


> First we got Covid 19, then some darn "Variants of Interest."  Today they are talking about "Variants of Concern."  The 3 ring circus just goes on and on.  It's got me to the point that I don't care anymore.  I leave it to the young people to solve this.  Hey, there is got to be an ap for this problem.  Ditto for climate change.  I did my thing back in the 60s and 70s.  Now it's their turn and I wish them the best of luck because they sure are gonna need it.  There just has to be an ap to solve these problems!


An ap?


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 27, 2021)

Lewkat said:


> Sadly, Paco Dennis, if history serves us well, the human race is doomed to repeat its mistakes over and over again.


I am beginning to think the human race is just doomed


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## Sunny (Nov 27, 2021)

I'm not ready to say the human race is doomed, but I don't necessarily think the worst is over.


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 27, 2021)

Sunny said:


> I'm not ready to say the human race is doomed, but I don't necessarily think the worst is over.


Well, I did already say it


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## StarSong (Nov 27, 2021)

Some behaviors will probably stick while some will fade.  People with immune or other vulnerabilities will likely continue wearing masks in public spaces.  Others may don masks when there's a local flu outbreak or other illness spike - not because we're being controlled but to help protect our health.  Some businesses may continue with part of their employees working from home, but I'd bet the vast majority will require on-site presence.        

@Becky1951 - Any New World Order worth its salt wouldn't want a population wearing masks (makes dissidents that much harder to identify) and they certainly wouldn't be standing by idly while people continue to arm themselves to the teeth. 

Creating, releasing, then vaccinating against a virus that even at its worst was far more apt to kill off the medically vulnerable and elderly rather than the young, hale and hearty seems like a poorly managed NWO to me. The Spanish Flu of 1918 hit young people with a vengeance - you'd think the NWO would replicate that strategy... Why kill off those least likely to fight back? 

And who's behind this New World Order anyway?  China?  Russia?  Pfffttt... they've got plenty of problems of their own, Covid and otherwise.  North Korea or Iran?  Ditto - they just aren't copping to it.       

Being compliant about wearing a mask in public during virus surges is very different from whatever this supposed NWO would demand. There are far more efficient ways to control a population than by releasing a virus that kills off those least likely to get in their way.


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 27, 2021)

StarSong said:


> Some behaviors will probably stick while some will fade.  People with immune or other vulnerabilities will likely continue wearing masks in public spaces.  Others may don masks when there's a local flu outbreak or other illness spike - not because we're being controlled but to help protect our health.  Some businesses may continue with part of their employees working from home, but I'd bet the vast majority will require on-site presence.
> 
> @Becky1951 - Any New World Order worth its salt wouldn't want a population wearing masks (makes dissidents that much harder to identify) and they certainly wouldn't be standing by idly while people continue to arm themselves to the teeth.
> 
> ...


My husband works for a nationwide national business with thousands of employees, most of them still work at home.  I think this is the new norm as it is cheaper than going to the office for the company and the employees, better for the environment, and more convenient for many families.

As for a new World Order, , every decade or so there is a New World Order-nothing new in that.


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## Packerjohn (Nov 27, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> I am beginning to think the human race is just doomed


The problem is over population but no one talks about it.  The business community of which we are a slave to just wants more and more customers.  Mother Earth is crying and the wildlife is dying.  Too many people yet our government keeps bring more and more in.  No wonder the housing industry is booming and that is about all that is booming.  OK, Christmas Sales are going crazy.  Saw a Christmas Tree for $999.99.  That's crazy!  On top of that there is a tax of $120.  We are drowning in debt but not this ole' packer.  I sleep good!


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 28, 2021)

Packerjohn said:


> The problem is over population but no one talks about it.  The business community of which we are a slave to just wants more and more customers.  Mother Earth is crying and the wildlife is dying.  Too many people yet our government keeps bring more and more in.  No wonder the housing industry is booming and that is about all that is booming.  OK, Christmas Sales are going crazy.  Saw a Christmas Tree for $999.99.  That's crazy!  On top of that there is a tax of $120.  We are drowning in debt but not this ole' packer.  I sleep good!


Saw a pound of my favorite bacon for 9.99 a package.  . Yeah, crossing bacon off my list for a long, long time.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 28, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> Saw a pound of my favorite bacon for 9.99 a package.  . Yeah, crossing bacon off my list for a long, long time.


I’ve done that with a few things.

When the price drops to $7.99 we’ll think it’s a steal!


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## Packerjohn (Nov 28, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> Saw a pound of my favorite bacon for 9.99 a package.  . Yeah, crossing bacon off my list for a long, long time.


Good for you Aneeda72.  That is what I do.  If the price is way out of line, I just don't buy it.  Anyway, I'm not all that sure that fried bacon is all that good for your health.  You body might be thanking you for the break in the diet.  LOL


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 29, 2021)

Packerjohn said:


> Good for you Aneeda72.  That is what I do.  If the price is way out of line, I just don't buy it.  Anyway, I'm not all that sure that fried bacon is all that good for your health.  You body might be thanking you for the break in the diet.  LOL


I don’t get bacon that often, maybe every couple of months, but at that price, forget about it.


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## StarSong (Nov 29, 2021)

Aneeda72 said:


> I don’t get bacon that often, maybe every couple of months, but at that price, forget about it.


I was at Costco yesterday and happened to pass their bacon display.  $5.59/lb.  Not sure if that's a good price because I haven't bought bacon in at least ten years, and rarely did so before that...


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## RadishRose (Nov 29, 2021)

You're lucky if it's a whole pound 16 ounces. I've been seeing 12 ounce packages for five or six dollars.


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 29, 2021)

RadishRose said:


> You're lucky if it's a whole pound 16 ounces. I've been seeing 12 ounce packages for five or six dollars.


Well, I like a certain brand and type of bacon and I do not like smoked meats at all, so no smoked bacon.  But if people pay such high prices for products then those products will stay high: because it’s “whatever the market will bear” Principle.

There is simply no excuse for these high prices.  Same with gasoline-shameful.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 3, 2021)

I had to go shopping today.  I visited Costco, Staples and Home Depot plus I dropped off a car load of stuff at our local MCC Store (Mennonite Central Committee).  Man Alive!  Were the people shopping!  Ya, I know people shop everyday but this was different.  Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am but they were almost running.  It was like they figured that the store would be gone tomorrow.  Also, so many shopping.  Don't folks have jobs anymore ?  I was sure glad to get home.


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## Becky1951 (Dec 3, 2021)

Packerjohn said:


> I had to go shopping today.  I visited Costco, Staples and Home Depot plus I dropped off a car load of stuff at our local MCC Store (Mennonite Central Committee).  Man Alive!  Were the people shopping!  Ya, I know people shop everyday but this was different.  Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am but they were almost running.  It was like they figured that the store would be gone tomorrow.  Also, so many shopping.  Don't folks have jobs anymore ?  I was sure glad to get home.


This new variant omicron? 
Getting as much as possible before it spreads everywhere?
People are afraid of another lockdown coming?

Getting stuff for Christmas just in case that happens?

Hope we don't have more shortages.


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