Dawn Hovie: Defining the post-COVID era is surreal

Dawn Hovie
·3 min read

In this post-COVID-19 world that we live in, our lives are, for the most part, back to normal. I’m 99 percent mask-free and really only panic when I hear someone “tested positive” — not because I’m worried that I’ll contract COVID, but more because I’m worried I’ll have to quarantine for five days whether I’m sick or not.

But even that is not something we ever had to do before 2020. There was a brief Ebola scare and that was legitimately scary. COVID was scary at first, until we found out what it was and how to treat it. It still scares some people, but I’m not really one of them. There is a term we now use and I've been hearing it a lot, especially on the various podcasts I listen to: “before COVID.” Our world is now floating around in this pre-COVID/post-COVID space.

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It’s gotten me thinking about my own “Before COVID …” list of what is now different since we’ve done the pandemic thing.

Before COVID, we could sneeze and someone would say “bless you.” Now when we sneeze, people leap out of the way and give us that “how dare you infect my airspace” look.

Before COVID, if someone did cough or sneeze we thought, “You know, I really should wipe down that table, but I’ll get to it later.” Now, we spin around and grab two feet worth of antiseptic wipes of the bucket behind us and hose down the table, chair, pencils and anything else that came within six feet of the sneezer.

Dawn Hovie
Dawn Hovie

Before COVID, nobody knew, or cared who Dr. Fauci was. Not only that, we really had no idea what the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control were or what they even did.

I take that back. My friend’s daughter got chicken pox three times about 25 years ago and they had to send a sample to the CDC.

Before COVID, a cold was “just a cold.” You just felt like crap for a couple of days and then it was over. Now it’s a cold with a fancy name that you have to get tested to qualify for. These days, when I just get a normal cold and it isn’t a fancy cold like the Omicron or Delta variant, ("Delta Force," as my husband called it), I feel a little left out.

COVID-19 transmission rates have increased to the point that the entire state of Michigan should now wear a mask when indoors in public, according to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 transmission rates have increased to the point that the entire state of Michigan should now wear a mask when indoors in public, according to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We had to actually go into the grocery store to get groceries before COVID. I’m not going to lie. I love the post-COVID grocery pickup days. If I get groceries from the comfort of my own car for the rest of my life, I’ll be good.

We went to work sick. Sometimes it was just easier to go to work no matter how bad we felt. Staying home these days seems a lot more socially acceptable (and encouraged).

Talking about the world “before COVID” kind of feels like referring to things that happened, “back in the day,” but no matter what, we lived through it. We are a part of history. And as long as I can keep grocery shopping from my couch, I’m OK with that.

— Dawn Hovie is a Charlevoix resident and a teacher at Charlevoix Elementary School. To view more of her columns, visit theflipsidelifeafter40.blogspot.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Dawn Hovie: Defining the post-COVID era is surreal