What are you hoping for?

[petra]

As things start to ease up from the strictest lockdown, what are your hopes?

Comments

[petra]

I hope we can maintain a steady upward trajectory of improvement, though it does not seem very likely on the face of things.

[mific]

I hope I can maintain some of the good changes the lockdown's forced me to make. :)

[petra]

That is a good ambition. My fingers are crossed for you!

[fairestcat]

I hope I can continue some of the better routines of keeping connected with long-distance friends I've started to develop.

[petra]

That is a great ambition!

[fred_mouse]

I hope that some of the societal flexibility will remain, so that people who would benefit from work from home, telehealth, and a whole range of other things can actually access them.

[petra]

That would be an unmitigated good.

[fred_mouse]

It would make things so much better. I suspect our far-too-right-wing government will wind everything back as fast as they can get away with it though.

[mesotablar]

I'm using survey sites, and every time a covid overview one pops up I praise all the good things the government has put in place like telehealth and the increased welfare payments. Recently there have been a few interesting additions to the surveys mentioning business hubs as shared business areas so you can work close to home without working at home.
also worryingly there have been mentions of GST increase and income tax cuts, so everyone gets higher costs but the wealthiest get the biggest benefits.

[petra]

That sounds like a fascinating way to find out what the people in power are thinking.

I hope the tax changes don't go through in a way that benefits the wealthy the most. I'm sure you're doing what you can with the survey answers to let them know that that is a bad idea.

[mesotablar]

I always wondered where they got the statistics they quote on the news from, well generally it is survey sites. I don't mind being a small voice in many and with surveys most of the time you do get heard.

[mesotablar]

I'm hoping that people realise the benefits of hand hygiene, not going out when sick and social distancing in large groups of strangers. Apparently flu cases are 1/4 of what they were this time last year. Whooping cough and headlice are also much less common.

[petra]

Those would be great things to normalize. I want this to be the watershed year when everyone learns to wash their hands properly, so that in the future people look back at the advent of handwashing and wonder why it took so long for the world to get from "handwashing is good" to "and here's how you do it right."

[mesotablar]

Last year was a bad flu season and there was a doctor recommendation about hand washing and quite a few tv special reports of families amazed that their kids were suddenly healthy all the time just because they started washing their hands properly several times a day. I'm hoping that this 2 year in a row hand washing focus gets lots of kids into the habit so ultimately the future can be a healthier place!