The New Normal?

Artwork by Richard Kahwagi. Photos by Teemu Paananen and Lucas Gouvêa on Unsplash

Sometimes I find it hard to imagine what day-to-day life was like before the COVID pandemic and national lockdowns. I feel like we’ve all become germaphobes now: we’re all touch starved but at the same time touch-hesitant, masks are the new norm, Zoom calls and Team’s meeting are the standard, and we are all just that bit more considerate of personal space. Will things ever go back to the way they were before? Do we even want them to?

I don’t think many of us really understood the gravity of the situation when we were going into that initial ‘3-week lockdown’. I remember talking with friends about how fun the prospect of staying at home for the next few weeks would be. The reality of the situation didn’t seem to set in for many of us until we started seeing the reports of the rising numbers of COVID cases and the extension of lockdown, then soon after hearing about the death of our friends and family. A year later we are only now just tiptoeing out of lockdown, stretching our legs, and seeing our loved ones again.

I caught COVID in early February of this year. It is quite hard at times to wrap my head around the fact that I caught the virus at what seems like the tail end of the pandemic or light at the end of the tunnel. It’s strange to admit but for some reason I thought I’d be one of the “lucky ones” that wouldn’t catch the virus, especially after making it through almost a year of the pandemic. It was terrifying how quickly my symptoms escalated into me having to go to hospital. Within the space of a week my symptoms had gone from the average flu-like ones, to breathlessness, extreme fatigue, severe chest pains, dizziness, brain fog and a loss of smell and taste. It took about six weeks for my symptoms to really subside, although I still have some lingering ones in what is described as Long COVID.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at that time though, I was able to successfully apply and have an interview for this job as project coordinator of the Black Health Matters project, receiving my confirmation call while resting in an A&E bed. I spent the next few weeks at home resting and getting excited for my new job. It was at this time that I also started reading more about the vaccine and saw that friends and family were getting their first jabs. Collectively this helped in answering my concerns and dispelling my fears about the COVID vaccine, primarily the speed in which it was produced.  I now understand that due to the wealth of global resources funnelled into researching the vaccine it was able to be fast tracked, whilst maintaining and keeping to all regulations and medical standards (click here for more information). A similar trend of decreasing vaccine hesitancy was seen across Black communities in the UK with it halving between January and March.

After understanding the importance and safety of the vaccine I felt it was important to start having conversations about getting vaccinated with my family. When trying to convince our family members and loved ones to get the vaccine, it is important that we are patient with them and give them the space and time to make the decision for themselves. We must remember that everyone has their own often very valid reasons to be concerned about the COVID vaccine – the pandemic has been very difficult and scary for us all, the misinformation and half-truths that have been widely spread only added to people’s fears. In such a difficult time it is important that we extend our empathy to others around us and take the necessary time to have informative discussions with them about the vaccine.

With my own mother I had regular conversations with her about the pandemic in which I would slowly drip feed information to her about the disproportionate impact the virus was having on Black communities and the reasons why. It was only once we had reached a point where she was starting to actively engage in those conversations with me that I would then inquire about her views on the vaccine and get her to see the value in having as many of us as possible taking it. At the heart of our conversations we were always reflecting on our health as a family, the wider community and why we should care about it. These conversations were challenging at times, like many others she had internalised a lot of misinformation. But each time I went back to her for another conversation I could see that she had been reflecting on the previous discussion and was becoming more inquisitive about the vaccines. Now she has even begun having those conversations about the vaccine with her friends.

I enjoyed these discussions with my mother. Not only were these conversations a bonding opportunity that gave insight into how both of us were affected by the pandemic, but also made me see the gaps in my own knowledge. When she came to me with questions, it served as a prompt to do further research so I could go back to her with answers. I encourage us all to also search up the answers to our concerns about the COVID vaccines and share that knowledge with our loved ones. The vaccine is our best tool to protect our communities from COVID and the exacerbation of existing health inequalities.

There is so much that could be said about how ill-prepared the British government was for the pandemic. The delayed action taken in protecting us from a COVID outbreak in the UK and the poor communication of lockdown procedures are also some of the many failures of the government throughout the pandemic. The National Audit Office highlights that going forward solutions need to be put in place to address workforce shortages in the NHS, insufficient funding to local governments, and IT system failures; these have all contributed to the exacerbation of the impact the virus has had in the country. On the individual level we all need to continue to wear masks in public enclosed spaces, socially distance and get vaccinated when offered. I have recently received my first dose of the vaccine and I could not be happier. June 21st is fast approaching and like many of us I cannot wait to go out and celebrate!

As we enter this next phase of the ‘new normal’ I hope some of the changes that have come about in the past year stick around. The need to work from home has shown that there is more than one way to work and that there is an opportunity to make work life much more flexible. The pandemic put a spotlight on the many health inequalities that exist in the UK, and my hope is that the commitments that have been made and the work that has been started to address and resolve them continues long past the pandemic. COVID-19 and its impact will shape so much of what life will look like going forward, and we can only begin to speculate what the next 6 months to a year and beyond will look like. But what do you want the future to look like and are there any changes in the past year that you would like to keep around?

For more information on COVID-19 and the vaccine visit:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/