4 ms·
> The things we miss most about our pre-pandemic lives—dine-in restaurants and recreational travel, karaoke nights and baseball games—require more than governme
by huy-nguyen 6y ago
> The things we miss most about our pre-pandemic lives—dine-in restaurants and recreational travel, karaoke nights and baseball games—require more than government permission to be enjoyed. These activities are predicated not only on close human contact but mutual affection and good-natured patience, on our ability to put up with one another. Governors can lift restrictions and companies can implement public-health protocols. But until we stop reflexively seeing people as viral threats, those old small pleasures we crave are likely to remain elusive.
At this rate, life will not fully return to normal until a substantial share of the population has been vaccinated.
- eloisant 6y agoI don't think life will ever return to what it was before. Just like 9/11 changed air travel forever, this pandemic will have long lasting effects on how we live as a society.
- kmbfjr 6y agoI used to think that we'd emerge a cleaner more considerate society. I was naive. Too many Americans are far too selfish and inconsiderate not to return to the "way things were". We're already seeing the 1%'ers of that class coming out of their caves demanding a return to normalcy regardless of the costs in lives. When, is answered by either when there is a vaccine or the virus has touch pretty much everyone. Given the political distaste for doing things like other countries or upon the advice of people who know about pandemics, my money is on the latter.
- erik_seaberg 6y agoI'm not worried about normalcy, I'm worried about running out of replacement parts for the huge distributed system that we all rely on for food and energy and communication. We're draining the queue right now, and I don't believe a command economy can replace the continuously tuned marketplace we halted.