Covid: Will our lives ever truly get back to normal? – Helen Martin

The government’s clinical adviser simply warned – there may be no foreign holidays until 2022.

Dozens of other theories have come up about when this will all end in chat shows and discussions, all of which none of us can figure out if they are realistic or pessimistic. At this stage, we just don’t know what the future will be like.

Will the vaccination systems all work efficiently? Will there be more surges, strains, mutations and variants? Will the vaccinations be annual and different each year? Will we be wearing masks for years, or possibly forever as some people in the Far East do?

Will mass gatherings for entertainment or campaigns start again, and if so when? If and when this pandemic is overcome, will our countries continually study and check to prepare for any more?

Can it all eventually be solved and can our lives move back to “normal” or is normality never something we should depend on?

Back in 1918 with the vast Spanish flu pandemic, it was only a minority of people who travelled to foreign destinations. Most people did not holiday abroad. Today we are very “global”, and will that have to be restrained?

Of course, we hope we all get out of this virus mess. But those last spring who thought there would be no second wave and it wasn’t a global pandemic were deluded. Booking a holiday now is madness.

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