New Normal?

We’ve all heard the phrase: “The New Normal”.  We hear it from newscasters all the time, but more importantly we hear it from the people in charge – from both our elected and unelected officials.  The governors of California, Washington, Nevada and here in NY Andrew Cuomo , have all used this phrase. 

Here’s a compilation, including Andrew Cuomo in his own words: “When do we get back to normal? I don’t think we get back.  We get back to a new normal.”

Justin Trudeau, the Premier of Canada has used this phrase.  So has the First Minister of Scotland, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Eric Garcetti the mayor of LA.

When pressed on how long this ‘new normal’ will last, the answer is uniformly the same: until a vaccine is available, and - according to Bill Gates - 7 billion doses have been dispensed.  In other words, we will get back to a semblance of normality once the entire planet has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

That’s a tall order.  And when pressed for the likely duration of this new normal, the answer is typically given in years - not months.

So while we wait for the vaccine, our new normal is shaping up to be very tech heavy.

Earlier in September, Flint, Michigan’s airport became the testing ground for a ‘smart helmet’, donned by a police officer gliding around on a segue.  According to the Airport Director Nino Sapone, the smart helmet can detect the temperature of multiple people at a distance of up to 21 feet.  Police officers will also be using the smart helmet to facially scan individuals to detect wanted criminals and suspects, read license plates and detect QR Codes. 

In case you are wondering what kind of QR codes a police officer might want to detect, that would likely be your future COVIpass containing your COVID-19 relevant medical records, that we will all apparently soon be using to gain entrance to public transport hubs, offices and large events. 

Over in Australia, local authorities are using Draganfly to police citizens.  Mounted on drone, Draganfly technology is apparently able to scan people from the air to detect fever (as opposed to temperature), coughing, respiratory rate, heart rate and blood pressure.

And all over the world, governments are signing up for social distancing detection tech that scans crowds to identify people standing less than 6 feet apart.  Red boxes appear around the non-compliant, green around the compliant, all capable of referencing facial databases.

It’s all meant to keep us safe in our new normal, while we wait for our vaccines.

All this got us thinking about how humanity survived pandemics in the past.  Back then we didn’t have all this tech, and we didn’t have a vaccine - but somehow managed to pull through.

The most horrific pandemic within the last century was of course the 1918/1919 so called Spanish Flu that killed between 30 to 50 million people worldwide.

Next up on this grisly leaderboard is the 1957/ 1958 flu pandemic that killed an estimated 2 million worldwide, then then 1968/ 1969 flu pandemic that killed 1 million, now a tie with COVID-19 that has so far killed around 1 million people worldwide.

Several of these pandemics took place within living memory for some of us, and I’m curious how these pandemics changed the world back then. 

The most horrific by far, the Spanish flu, was followed by the roaring 20s, a period when the nation’s total wealth more than doubled.  Millions of women entered the workforce and young people invented the charleston, the cake walk and the flea hop.  Jazz bands played at dance halls like the Savoy and the Aragon.  Radio stations were invented and 100 million phonograph records were sold just in 1927 alone.

That’s a lot of partying and dancing – none of which sounds like it entailed much social distancing.  And all just a few years after 30 to 50 million people had died of Spanish Flu.

Back in 1969, just a few months after 1 million people worldwide had died during a flu pandemic, thousands of people converged on a mud patch in upstate New York, and practiced whatever the exact opposite of social distancing is.  Of course I’m talking about the Woodstock Music Festival and if great music and bad haircuts were that pandemic’s new normal, I’m starting to feel we are getting the short end of the stick this time around.

So how did we humans not only survive but thrive after all these dreadful recent pandemics – all without social distancing, lock downs or a vaccine?

What is so different today?

We’re interested to hear your thoughts…