The new normal, and what the past can teach us

While traveling one morning on Hampton Roads Center Parkway I looked up and noticed a sign that read, “The New Normal. Same Rules. Buckle Up.” I had to smile as a car’s engine revved past me, followed by a motorcycle, both vehicles challenging the speed limit.

Here we are at a new normal which doesn’t seem normal since dinner plates with broccoli still have to be cleaned before dessert is served. But now face masks and social distancing are part of our new normal, along with broccoli. Face masks have become the new political football. Retail and restaurants have restrictions that are foreign to us. We don’t like them. However, they have accommodated social distancing guidelines to keep customers safe. The guidelines are easier to obey than are the COVID-19 consequences.

There are those of us who have experienced a new normal several times. Early in our lives we learned about foreign enemies and how we had to obey when there was an air raid drill. That could mean hiding under our desks or sprinting to an air raid shelter until we heard the all-clear signal. Was this fun? No. It was inconvenient but necessary, just as a mask and social distancing are today. Did fear and anxiety exist? Of course. How did we cope? We helped one another by respecting those in authority whose responsibility it was to keep the country’s citizens safe, just as a mask and social distancing are today.

We cannot see the enemy today, only its ravages. This enemy’s capabilities are more lethal than the two-legged enemies who directed the advancement of the destruction in Vietnam.

Agent Orange became a source of much illness and grief. Once it entered the body, it stayed there. Patients’ mental health could be severely compromised. Missteps were made in diagnosis and treatment.

In 2001 what were the killer substances that dedicated first responders inhaled while diligently working hour after hour

Senior Living to save thousands from the effects of the debris that blanketed New York City? These workers developed cancers that resulted in several deaths over the years. It was understood that urgent precautions and responsibilities fell on leadership. People understood they had to protect themselves and their loved ones, however and whatever it took to accomplish.

Viruses began to disrupt lives — SARS, MERS, H1N1 — in the early and mid-2000s. Why weren’t they as lethal in people’s lives as COVID-19 is today? One reason: Public health officials and governments worked in sync to control outbreaks. The country worked to prepare itself. Task forces created guidelines for future leadership in the event of another outbreak.

Then COVID-19 marched into our lives. As the cover of a New Yorker magazine so aptly illustrated, the world turned upside down. People 60 and older were considered most at risk, along with those with pre-existing conditions.

With the lack of awareness that escaped leadership, it has become incumbent upon those of us who are living through and participating in the new normal to once again pick up the mantle and become involved in the future.

How do we accomplish this? We study. Newspapers are publishing articles complete with scientific data for consumers to understand. Viruses, their origins, their travels are outlined in fact-based scientific magazines. We can go to the library and learn.

With study, we can become more educated about immune systems and how they protect us. The New York Times, for example, reported in its science and health section a new (and preliminary) research finding: In many hospitalized patients, “the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells,” suggesting COVID-19 has parallels with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. An article written from Hong Kong advises that a new strain of the H1N1 swine flu is spreading silently in workers on pig farms in China. Scientists caution that this should be “urgently” controlled to avoid another pandemic.

Let’s allow ourselves the joy of being prepared so we can avoid disease and help others avoid a killer.

With the lack of awareness that escaped leadership, it has become incumbent upon those of us who are living through and participating in the new normal to once again pick up the mantle and become involved in the future.

Jo-Ann Mahony, a former New Yorker and volunteer, is a student of words and the psychology of humanity. She can be reached at mahonyhamp@aol.com.