Relishing the new new normal, 3 years after MCO

 

I had Covid-19 recently. My friend, with whom I had coffee the previous evening, said don’t worry about it. She’s had four doses of the vaccines and also contracted Covid twice.

She said if anybody hasn’t had Covid yet by now, he must be from Mars.

Well, hello there Earthlings!

I had thought I’d be able to go through this pandemic as a Covid virgin, but that’s all history now.

For about 24 hours, I had high fever, headache, coughs and joint pains. Then these went away, leaving just some fatigue and a deflated ego.

I’m not taking Covid lightly. A couple of friends were patients in the early days when being a patient with a two-digit number meant really bad news. Luckily they survived, though it was a close call for both.

I did lose some friends and close relatives. This virus is not to be trifled with.

But I’ve also had four doses of Covid vaccines, and if they tell me it’s best to take more, I’d just stick out my arm and say ”stick it wherever the sun doesn’t shine Ma’am”.

As to whether I trust the doctors and experts crawling their way through the most calamitous pandemic in a hundred years, or some random guy on YouTube instead, well, it’s not a hard choice for me.

Exactly three years ago today, we began one of the most traumatic periods in our lives. The lockdown, called the Movement Control Order, was imposed throughout the country, changing everybody’s lives, often in unpleasant ways.

At the time I’d been retired from my corporate job for a year, and had travel plans for some long journeys. I had spent over two months on a very long road trip in late 2019, and was supposed to turn that into a round trip by early 2020.

That didn’t happen, of course. Not in 2020, nor 2021 either; 2022 wasn’t much better, so we’re hoping for a luckier 2023.

I now have realistic hopes of spending a few months on the road again, barring another Covid wave, or another virus, or perhaps an armed conflict or two at the usual hotspots.

I live in a big house with lots of space and greenery, a benefit of buying cheap property in the boondocks. Having retired, I didn’t have any career pressure except being reminded that month-end is not a great time for my bank account.

I didn’t have to adjust to working from home or through video, both of which I hate. Neither did I have to manage the new reality as a corporate warrior, though parts of me still think it’ll be cool to have a go at it.

Others obviously didn’t fare so well. We had a few governments and prime ministers over that period, though I can’t recall for sure as they all started to look the same after a while.

I remember them spending lots of money, and not showing much competence (or integrity) at it. Some of the money spent seems to be sore points with one side or another on the political divide. Expect fireworks about them to continue for a while.

I remember this thing called the white flag, which was waved virtually on social media a lot, and occasionally, physically too. And yes, it does mean what you think it means.

I’ve worked in and am familiar with a few industries, many of which got terribly hit by the lockdowns. I know of friends, including those who owned businesses, who suffered and waved their own white flags.

We entered 2020 without any inkling of what was in store. I went fishing for sailfish off Kuala Rompin and noticed the town was deserted. The locals said Singaporeans were staying away because of this then-new virus.

I didn’t think much of this, back in late February 2020. I thought it was just the usual kiasu Singaporeans always wanting to be the first to overreact to anything. Nothing could keep the Sing dollar crowd away for long I thought.

Perhaps they knew something after all. Wawasan 2020 certainly didn’t say anything about being locked at home staring at computer screens, or having our jobs or business or friends and relatives disappear, often forever.

What many would remember was the very real fear of not knowing where things were heading, and the fear that some of the horror stories we were hearing from elsewhere might also happen in Malaysia, with calamitous results to our people and society.

The worst didn’t quite happen. In fact, some people did very well, with their products and services being so in demand during the lockdown, such as hospital supplies and pharmaceuticals and pretty much everything online.

Record after record was set for the new wealth created among those already super wealthy even before the pandemic. No white flags for this lot for sure.

A big casualty of the pandemic was rational thinking. In a world already sceptical with any instance of rationality (remember “alternative facts”?), the sudden onslaught of the pandemic led many to question anything that’s told to them.

If you look at the history of drugs and diseases, vaccines always took a huge amount of time to be developed, because of scientific and technical difficulties and also because it’s rational to take extreme safety precautions for something that will be given to millions, if not billions.

Looking back, there were mistakes made for sure, but the rear-view mirror is always 20/20. Science is messy and progresses in fits and starts. Many people are too scared to try to understand it, and happily settle on any quick solutions that offer definitive answers or better still, a straw man to blame.

If the pandemic had happened during the 1950s or 60s, when there was faith in our ability to scientifically solve massive challenges, whether the moon landing or curing smallpox or growing better crops, our reactions would’ve been more systematic, more orderly and probably more effective too.

But unfortunately, the need for quick solutions and for finger-pointing, to ignore traditional experts and established science and to believe in random TikTok videos or social media influencers instead, plus the deliberate efforts to chip away at established authority (so the “chippers” can replace it with their own) is becoming all too common in these days of massive societal and environmental challenges.

It’s also the time when the real heroes among us were not those in camouflage carrying guns into battle, but rather the frontliners in healthcare and welfare. Many were pushed to breaking point, and some paid the ultimate price for their service to their fellow citizens.

I don’t have any data but I wouldn’t be surprised if more doctors and nurses died fighting the virus than those from all the other frontliner services combined who died in the line of duty .

A lot has changed in three years. We have let down our guard, and the scary memories have become distant in our minds. Life has begun to feel normal again, and there’s no virtue in being a Covid virgin.

It’s the new-new-normal. Long may it last, though I really shouldn’t tempt fate by saying that. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.