The Things I am Worried About as We Move Closer to the Pandemic's End

The end appears to be in sight!  We are getting closer.  Living in a pandemic has presented many hardships and challenges.  The numbers of COVID cases and deaths are going down where I am and the completed vaccinations are going up.  There are still several important unanswered questions sitting on the table about the development of new variants, how effective the current vaccines are against those variants, and if COVID is going to have a seasonality to it like the flu.  These questions are being worked on by experts in various scientific and public health fields, and I am confident that they will find answers.  Science, like many things, takes time.  And although the end is in sight, we are not there yet.  While the continuation of the pandemic and these questions generate concern, there are other things that I find myself worried about as we enter a more full-steam ahead kind of re-opening. 

There is a push to return to “normal” and get back to “normalcy.”  The problem with this is multifold.  First and foremost, there is no such thing as normal other than as a setting on a washing machine.  Now that we have that out of the way, specific to returning to the way things were before the pandemic without any thought means we are returning to some things that weren’t all that great or that flat out were not working.  Not thinking and acting intentionally means that we may be reverting back to opening the doors up to some of the same problems.  There are some things that began to happen during the pandemic that were actually good.

For years, educators, parents, and students have expressed concerns and complaints about large class sizes and the impact this had on learning and development not to mention stress levels of all concerned.  Over the course of this past school year, class sizes in many places were made smaller in order to meet safety guidelines.  When push came to shove, it became possible for classes to be smaller.  This helped many students to be able to make connections with their teachers differently than before.  The anxieties of asking questions went down for a lot of people and the opportunities for learning went up.  How amazing would it be for the other effective strategies teachers utilize in their classrooms to be paired with the smaller class sizes that occurred over the course of the pandemic?  To be sure, there were numerous challenges faced by educators, school personnel, and students over the course of the last year.  Taking the time to look at how they faced these obstacles resiliently and found ways to grow is important.  The growth I’m speaking of here is not limited to the academic growth we are trained to seek out in school progression, but growth of a more personal kind.  The kind of growth that matters outside of academic settings.

In the physical and behavioral healthcare systems, access to care was made easier as several barriers were removed.  Without transportation and travel distances, it became easier for people to make and keep scheduled appointments allowing for better and more effective care.  Insurance companies covering 100% of contracted rates without cost-sharing meant that people were able to get the care they need without worrying about how they were going to afford their co-pays and deductibles.  For the first time since the dawn of the commercialized health insurance system, the only thing people were responsible for was the maintenance of their premiums. 

When commutes were removed and activities were closed down, people began to create better balances.  There was far less rushing around and there was no overscheduling.  Stress levels went way down.  People were living in accordance with their priorities and were allowed to do so with no pressure from external systems.  It was okay to take breaks and these were built into the day for many people.  It was okay to work from home which allowed many people to be able to take care of work tasks more efficiently and effectively while also being present for children, pets, families, and activities that bring joy.  People were able to spend more time outside and more time connecting to the people that mattered most.  With less commuting traffic on the road, the environmental impact was also strongly felt!

Over the last year, we became more aware of the problems and the things that had not been working.  We were forced to face them and begin the conversations about them that will help to generate solutions.  It is imperative that we not get so caught up and lost in the return to normalcy that we allow an opportunity to sustain positive changes and engage in a creative solution development process to be cast aside.