What exactly is the “New Normal”? While it is a post-pandemic term that has come into use across the world, do we really understand it? What is clear is that it means many different things depending on individuals and communities, and possibly no consensus of opinion as to its exact meaning can be reached.
My personal opinion is that the "New Normal" represents a shift away from pre-pandemic norms and towards a future that may look and feel different in many ways. As a term, it is porous and may be assigned a meaning by individuals, institutions etc. or, more dangerously, politicians and governments.
With regard to the elderly, the “new normal” is a term which lies embedded in government policy resulting in a collision between care for the elderly and the limits of budgets assigned to it, thus possibly, or indeed provenly, resulting in discrimination with regards to what kind of treatment may or may not be awarded to an elderly person within the public health system.
As a member of the elderly community, I want to look at some of the “abnormal” things that have been going on before, during and after Covid19. The pandemic has worsened the situation of the elderly and has enabled a much wider generational rift. It is not a case of ageism alone but a much more subtly brutal affair which begins with our governments and trickles down to today’s youth.
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