Ohio Nurse December 2021

December 2021 Ohio Nurse Page 5
The New Norm: After COVID-19
Jondra Long, MS, BSN, RN, CHSE & Kris Cope, DNP, RN, NE-BC
Prior to COVID, we walked around knowing there were diseases we could
contract, yet we did not think about the possibility that they could kill us. Travel
has changed especially public transportation. Cho and Park (2021), recall
that overcrowding impedances were previously evaluated through a random
parameter mixed logit model. Now that volume is down and new cleaning
procedures are required because of the pandemic, policies and procedures for
public transportation have changed for the safety of their passengers (Cho &
Park, 2021).
Restaurants have also taken a huge hit because of COVID. According to
Wallace (2021) when indoor dining was cancelled, local family restaurants
relied on carryout and delivery to stay open. If they had outdoor seating, with
the six foot social distancing mandate, less patrons could be served. This was
very difficult for small food businesses. Amazon and grocery stores ran low on
supplies and came up with no touch grocery loaders or truck drivers that would
deliver to your home or car. The convenience of this service may continue for
mothers with children and the elderly that had a difficult time maneuvering the
grocery prior to COVID.
In healthcare, COVID hit in many ways. Patients avoided care for routine
screenings and chronic conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimated that 32% of adults in the United States did not
seek routine services because of fears surrounding the virus (Czeisler et al.,
2020). Although we are still in the midst of the pandemic, some of the new
practices could become new habits. As advocates for public health and routine
screenings, we can only hope that this does not set us back.
Masks have become the new norm and the most controversial. To wear or not
to wear a mask, that is the question now. With the media daily reporting on the
Delta Variant, the public is not as compliant any longer. One reason is when it
was announced that masks were not necessary if vaccinated, the public stopped
wearing masks. Stores no longer required them if vaccinated. The public began
to remember what it was like to not wear a mask. No one wants to put it back on,
yet here we are.
The CDC is now recommending even fully vaccinated individuals should wear
a mask indoors, as of July of this year (Doucleff, 2021). How does one know who
is vaccinated? Chicago FBI warns their residents about vaccination fraud cards
that they are seeing in the public (FBI, 2021). When individuals have recently
been allowed to go to a mass gathering if they showed their vaccination card
or proof of testing negative for COVID, those unvaccinated found a counterfeit
vaccination card to get into the venue. Presently Chicago has another large
outbreak of COVID.
According to Blais et al. (2012), one’s “eyes are not the window to basic
emotions”, but it’s your mouth that has the most “discriminative motions
across expressions” (Blais et al., 2012, p. 2830). So the face coverings
do not allow us to know what others are thinking or feeling. Those with
impaired hearing can’t read lips anymore. This is causing social disruption
in communication and the ability to communicate with others. In my
professional opinion, I believe after COVID we will have several social
issues from face coverings.
With COVID, we are now aware that there are diseases that can kill us,
but prevention is the key to survival. We can decease our exposure to these
killer disease by following the CDC guidelines (CDC, 2021). Education to
our patients and their families on proper wearing of face masks and social
distancing need to be reinforced. We cannot tell if someone is vaccinated
because they are not wearing a mask now. We cannot expect that everyone
carries their vaccination card. So, enforcing wearing of face masks and
social distancing when indoors must continue to be mandated to keep us all
safe, for our protection and that of our families. We need to encourage the
return and continuance of activities intended to keep us safe, healthy, and
happy. We need to create our own “new norm”.
References
Blais, C., Roy, C., Fiset, D., Arguin, M., & Gosselin, F. (2012). The eyes are not the window to
basic emotions. Neuropsychologia, 50(12), 2830–2838. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/abs/pii/S0028393212003491
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Delta variant: What we know about the
science. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-variant.html
Cho, S. H., & Park, H. C. (2021). Exploring the behavior change of crowding impedance on
public transit due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Before and after comparison. Transportation
Letters, 13(5/6), 367-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/19427867.2021.1897937
Czeisler, M. É., Marynak, K., Clarke, K. E. N., Salah, Z., Shakya, I., Thierry, J. M., Ali, N.,
McMillan, H., Wiley, J. F., Weaver, M. D., Czeisler, C. A., Rajaratnam, S. M. W., & Howard,
M. E. (2020). Delay or avoidance of medical care because of COVID-19-related concerns
- United states, June 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(36), 1250-
1257. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6936a4
Doucleff, M. (2021, July 30). Vaccinated people can spread the Delta Variant,
CDC research indicates. [Radio broadcast transcript]. NPR. https://www.npr.
org/2021/07/30/1022909546/vaccinated-people-can-spread-the-delta-variant-cdcresearch-indicates
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2021, May 13). FBI-Chicago warns Illinois residents about
COVID-19 vaccination card fraud. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/chicago/
news/press-releases/fbi-chicago-warns-illinois-residents-about-covid-19-vaccinationcard-fraud
Wallace, T. (2021). Restaurants praying for a post-lockdown party. Daily Telegraph (London), 8.