COVID-19's impacts 3+ years later

@a-unique-nickname said
I don't see how the two are connected.

Noted.

@drewnogal said
No, just me rambling BUT my parents weren’t able to read or write in English when they arrived here but they soon picked the language up.

I believe that the government arranged some sort of post war integration program for them with other Eastern European groups who had lost their homes during the war and wanted to come to the UK to work in the collieries.

Governments always get helpful when they need a particular workforce.

@fmf said
Here in Indonesia, COVID-19 was deemed to have arrived, officially, about a month shy of four years ago in March 2020, and it was declared over by the government [here, anyway] 18 months ago in June 2023.

Aside from family, friends, and neighbours that may have passed away, what [thus far] lasting effects has the pandemic had on your everyday life?

There's been a handy shift that happened gradually 2020 until now.

Pre-2020, repeat prescriptions required monthly visits to the doctor... travel to the hospital, queue to register, go to the 4th floor, wait in a corridor for half an hour, 5-minute consultation, 10-minute wait for the cashier, 15-minute wait at the chemist, travel home.

By 2023, this was rarely necessary and the monthly supply could be ordered from the chemist by WhatsApp message, they check with the doctor, no visit necessary, pay using a phone app, and the medicine was being delivered by motorbike courier.

Definitely more acceptable to meet by Zoom rather than needing to meet in person.

Better built-up food delivery mechanisms.

Solidified the acceptance of online education.

More things require appointments. Pre-covid, you just walked into a museum or amusement park most of the time. Now it seems that buying tickets in advance is pretty much the norm for everything.

Other than that, not much has changed. Frankly, where I live, we were pretty much back to normal by the Spring of 2021.

@fmf said
Aside from family, friends, and neighbours that may have passed away, what [thus far] lasting effects has the pandemic had on your everyday life?

There has been a flood of academic articles, pouring into every national and international journal, exploring almost every imaginable aspect of the pandemic's impact on Indonesian life.