How Has Covid 19 Affected You?
By
Sandra Sokol
Posted: 2021-05-06T17:14:00Z
From Mario Oropeza
How Has The Covid 19 Pandemic Affected You?
April 21, 2021 Zoom Program
Summary of Attendee Comments
How has the virus affected your existing relationships and how have you adapted?
- Covid-19 is real as one participant shared her own story of being sick and being all alone with it for some weeks.
- Loss has been more frequent and dealing with it by attending zoom funerals is less than ideal.
- Isolation is helped by zoom and other remote ways of interacting with others but does not completely replace in-person interaction.
- People valued these more and wanted to maintain and enhance their quality time with close friends and family. They ranked this above any return to a specific activity such as traveling.
- Often people found ways to get together during this period by meeting outdoors.
- Moving forward, being asked about vaccination status is becoming a part of the questioning and jockeying that occurs when people have invitations to social activities.
- Existing relationships have been strengthened and there has been an increased use of phone calls and Zoom to reach out and maintain relationships.
- Cuts in travel have reduced opportunities to maintain relationships out of town.
Have you developed new interests or hobbies, or perhaps pursued existing ones to new levels?
- Some have been stimulated by the epidemic to learn more about virology and zoom technology or used the extra time to write to politicians or friends about their political ideas.
- Adding to a current hobby by investing time, energy, and money in enhancements was one direction that a few people chose.
- In another case, taking up a long-neglected hobby occurred.
- Finally appreciating and enjoying a long term and current hobby/activity was an important part of coping.
- Addressed those new “what if I had the time” interests and pursued new interests.
- New hobbies include exercise, gardening, watching Netflix and audio books.
Once the pandemic is under control, what is the first thing you are going to do?
- All are looking forward to actually hugging family and friends, especially the little ones (grandchildren).
- For many people returning to in person visits with family and friends is foremost in their minds.
- For some people being able to again travel matters.
- Travel and take advantage of “live” arts and entertainment.
- Taking “baby steps” as the pandemic eases.
In what areas has the pandemic permanently changed your outlook?
- There is still much anxiety about going about freely, e.g., eating inside restaurants even after vaccination. Buffets may be a thing of the past!
- Optimism is a useful, but denial of obvious problems is not.
- Older people sometimes cope better than younger ones, as we have learned to be more resilient and been through other hard times.
- Looking forward to going to a spa with friends.
- Activities that were previously in-person may have a rocky re-entry to this status.
- Some performance venues may encounter pushback from previous subscribers.
- Maybe restrictions will lessen but some of the constraints imposed by COVID may loosen only gradually if at all as venues (orchestra halls, stages, restaurants) cope with a return to in-person activities with much reduced audiences and payees.
- Increased awareness and appreciation of families, friends, and support workers who provided services during the pandemic.
- Newfound resources within oneself to cope with the pandemic.