Quote from: The Pharmacist on July 17, 2020, 08:19:50 PM

There's a new normal for now, but I seriously doubt all of the social distancing, face masks, and everything else is here to stay for the long term. The influenza pandemic of 1918 was much, much worse than COVID-19 and whatever modifications to people's lifestyles that were made back then eventually went away as fear subsided--and eventually enough time passed and it just became a historical event (albeit a serious one). I'm pretty sure the same thing is going to happen with the current outbreak, though it's going to take some time.

Actually, wearing masks became "the new normal" in Asian countries because of the Spanish Flu, and you could see a lot of people wearing them even before this pandemic. Eventually other reasons added up - air pollution, fashion, social meaning. And because of that, nearly everyone wear masks now over there, and their death rates are substantially lower.

But the same won't happen in the West, especially not in the US, where people make everything into a political issue.