Long Covid- the ongoing cultural impact of the virus

The pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on out cultural and creative lives

Photo by Ben Garratt on Unsplash

Long Covid is not just about the devastating impact that the virus may wreak on the physical and psychological well being of an individual. The effects of the pandemic has stretched its long tentacles out to many areas of our local communities and larger societies.

In particular, it is the cultural and creative sectors that have been hit hard by the rigours of social distancing. Although normal service has been resumed, the cultural effects of the pandemic will continue long into the future. With the virus still out there — beaten, bloodied but not yet dead — many people remain reluctant to return to the old ways of close and prolonged social contact in pubs and clubs, festivals, trade fairs, recreational and educational facilities.

The work force is also having a major rethink regarding how things are done, favouring the possibility of a shorter working week for the same amount of work and salary, as well as continuing the trend to work from home. Now the genie is out of the bottle many people do not wish to return to how things were done before, just because that was how it was done. The enforced changes, imposed by the pandemic, has led to a reluctance to just return to business as usual, without learning some of the lessons from the experience, especially some of the benefits of being released from the daily commute to the office. These initially unwelcome changes to our work behaviour has now led to some innovative thinking that may have long term benefits to the working environment both in productivity and in the overall health and well being of the work force.

The difference in societies provides a difference in perspective to responding to the pandemic and in its aftermath. For more collectivist cultures such as Mexico and India, behaviours are orientated towards social cohesion, preserving the group rather than individual interests. The values of the traditional family remain dear to them, and physical and emotional closeness is vital to well being. In such cultures, the effects of social distancing and wearing face masks, provided their own particular set of challenges and tensions, driven by their collectivism.