It's a question heard repeatedly as the pandemic stretched over a year, case counts climbed and society changed into something altogether unfamiliar.
Take-out has replaced dining in, working from home has taken place of the brick-and-mortar office, and masking up has become as commonplace as putting on shoes before venturing out to the store.
As vaccination rates rise, the question becomes, will we stick with those practices we adopted during COVID? Or will we drift back to life as it was pre-pandemic? "'The new normal,' I think it's a heightened awareness of how my actions impact the community at large, and taking the time to value and experience what I enjoy most," said Juliet Dunham, who runs a marketing and communications business in Pocono Pines, Pa., and has seen a fair share of change in her life due to the pandemic.
According to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update, released on March 8, getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is the key to return to normality — or the new version of it.
The CDC has stated that once vaccinated, people can gather indoors with others who have been vaccinated without having to wear a mask. Vaccinated individuals may also be able to gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household — such as a vaccinated adult visiting their unvaccinated parents — without masks, provided the unvaccinated individuals do not have any increased risks for severe illness from COVID-19.
Lastly, if a vaccinated person is around someone who has COVID-19, they do not need to stay away from others, or even get tested for the virus, as long as they remain asymptomatic. Those who happen to live in a group setting, like a group home or a correctional facility, should opt to stay away from others for two weeks and get tested even if they do not show symptoms, however.
While this new set of standards does provide a step in the direction of a more normal life, many of the same old standards will remain in effect. The CDC still advises mask wearing, social distancing, and avoiding crowds in general, in addition to delaying domestic or international travel, and keeping an eye out for COVID-19 symptoms.
According to the agency, COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing the disease, especially severe illness and death, though we are still learning about how long those vaccinations last, how well they keep people from spreading the disease, and how effective they are against COVID-19 variants.
The Pennsylvania's Department of Health is taking the same stance.
"We need to stay the course and continue practicing social distancing, washing hands frequently, and wearing a mask among other things to keep our neighbors safe in our communities," DOH Deputy Press Secretary Maggi Barton said.
As government regulations on mitigation efforts relax in other states, Pennsylvania is sticking to its guns for now, requiring masks and social distancing. Even after those regulations are relaxed, businesses may very well demand that customers follow certain rules if they want to shop at their locations.
Major retailers including Target, Starbucks and Best Buy opted to do as much following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to lift masking requirements and "open Texas 100 percent" on March 10, and there is no reason to expect anything different if and when Pennsylvania moves forward, at least as long as COVID-19 remains present.
Even if mask mandates are lifted anytime soon, many people have discovered an added benefit from covering their mouths and noses throughout the pandemic that may make they coverings more commonplace in the new normal: cold and flu cases dropped significantly.
"In recent years, flu activity has been widespread across Pennsylvania," Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said. "Last season was higher than usual with more than 11,000 cases of flu this time of year. That is a stark difference from where we are in 2021; below 3,000 cases. We can attribute the low flu activity in part to COVID-19 mitigation efforts that are also effective in preventing the flu, since the two infectious diseases spread the same way."
Dunham said that she has seen the benefits of masking up personally, and will likely continue the practice during cold and flu seasons in the future.
"This was the first year I didn't have a seasonal cold or a seasonal flu," she said. "I do think that mask wearing is easy; I think that it does protect you from lots of different airborne infections, and it is something to consider. Many nations in the world have employed this for years because of air pollution, not to mention contagions. I'm pro-mask."
When it comes to shopping trips, many people are either dialing back their daily outings — Dunham said that she now "maximizes" her stops by visiting one store to pick up groceries and other necessities at the same time when possible — or increasing online shopping, practices that are expected to outlast COVID-19.
A November 2020 survey from McKinsey & Company found that more people plan to make purchases online even after the pandemic ends, with a predicted average of 20 percent to 40 percent increases in categories ranging from groceries to at-home entertainment.
Working from home? That may become standard operating procedure for many positions going forward.
Morning commutes have been cut back from a lengthy drive to a quick shuffle between the coffee maker and the kitchen table. Zoom meetings replaced the conference room. And, in some instances, professional attire downgraded to pajama bottoms and cozy sweaters.
Now, many professionals are thinking that this change may stick around as we make our way out of the pandemic.
In a recent report from Elon University and the Pew Research Center focused upon digital life in 2025, "technology experts, scholars, corporate and public practitioners" speculated on the long-lasting effects of change ushered in by the pandemic.
One of the most fundamental changes, according to responses from those experts, was that society would embrace "tele-everything": work, school, doctor's appointments, e-commerce and other interactions conducted from home instead of in-person.
"There is no reason to believe we will return to 2019. For a start, why would I ever want to commute to an office again? People who are connected have the world's information, entertainment and experiential technologies at their fingertips," University of Southern California's Adam Clayton Powell III, who works in the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, said.
Dunham said that while the transition from in-person to virtual meetings was a bit difficult in the beginning, she can easily see it becoming the standard even after the pandemic dissipates.
"I love this new remote work, because I personally get more done," Dunham said, noting that cutting out the commute to clients makes time for more work. "I find it to be more productive, and I find myself — especially since I have many different clients in different industries — able to encapsulate my work day better. I spend a chunk of time on one client, a chunk of time on another client."
On the other hand, some operations, at least for the time being, must be conducted at a centralized location.
Gary Hoffman, director of communications for the Monroe County Control Center, said that even though many administrators have taken to tele-commuting, emergency response calls have to be handled at the office. Be that as it may, workers at the control center have implemented special standards to cut down on spread, and it has been effective in preventing any COVID-19 cases at the center.
Some of those standards may very well carry into the new normal, Hoffman said.
"Every shift, beginning when a dispatcher comes on duty, they sanitize their area with alcohol wipes, and then at the end of the shift they do it. That way, the person coming in has a clean surface, and if you follow (that person), you sanitize again before you start work," Hoffman said. "We actually put plexiglass barriers up, it added a social distance barrier ... I don't see us pulling those down for the flu season particularly, that might help prevent the spread internally."
Leisure time was another hard-hit slice of life when the pandemic came to town. Getting together at the bar for a drink, going out to the movies, and even hosting a get-together among friends at home were all swept off the table over the past year, and only now are making measured comebacks.
Meanwhile, businesses have accommodated those customers with expanded options. Online streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max and Amazon have made moves to release feature films on their platforms on or near their release dates in theaters. As gyms were forced to close, fitness app downloads took off. With less time spent commuting, some found themselves diving back into reading.
People across the country have jumped into new and exciting hobbies, and many are planning on continuing those pursuits even after the world opens back up again.
Some people have even drifted away from the digital front, cutting down on social media time to avoid "misinformation and vitriol that is out there," as Dunham said, utilizing their new free time for more uplifting endeavors.
"I have made more of an effort to engage in positive activities that better my life or my community," Dunham said. "My daily walk is a little bit longer than it used to be, and sometimes it's a morning walk and an evening run."
In a world where digital virtual meetings have become a ubiquitous element of life, Dunham and her friends decided to make the most of it by trying something new and novel, instead of jumping back onto Twitter or Instagram.
"We actually started a Zoom book club since the pandemic started," Dunham said. "Some of them have never met in person; we've never had a book club in person. But we have our stay-at-home book club on Zoom every six or seven weeks, and it's fantastic. And even when we could get together again, we're going to stay on Zoom, because everybody can connect from all over the place."
(c)2021 the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
