Lessons Learnt From Covid

Today, exactly five years ago on March 23rd 2020, employees everywhere were being called into meetings to be told that the country was to go into lock-down as the Covid-19 pandemic reached the UK shores and it wasn't until March 2022 that the nation opened up again so five years on from the pandemic, how has Covid changed us?
As i was deemed an essential worker I had a very different experience to most as I was allowed out with a letter to show the Police who were now stopping people to interrogate why they were not at home as instructed.  
It was a scary and heartbreaking time and over 230,000 Brits never made it through and died with only an ipad to say good bye to loved ones with, I saw one such interaction with an elderly couple and it still brings a lump to my throat now that that was how their life ended after so many years together but it was a regular occurrence in our Hospitals for those years.  
Unfortunately we learned that banging on pots and pans in appreciation of our Medical teams didn't help the NHS who are still criminally underfunded and understaffed today and it may have ushered in the decline of the Conservative Party and the end of Boris Johnson's Premiership once it was revealed how he partied, making a mockery of the people who stayed home, but we have yet to regain the tens of billions which were handed out to friends of the Conservative Party in dodgy PPE contracts.
Vaccine's which would generally take 10 years to bring to the public was available after 18 months and undoubtedly saved billions of lives around the World but caused a severe reaction in some cases with possible long-term effects.
The take up of Masks to protect the vulnerable were everywhere and they are still worn by some today when they have a cold or flu, an awareness that you wearing a mask isn't to protect you but to protect those around you was a valuable and well received message that remains today.
Some of us have not gone back to using paper money and some shops and banks still have plastic screens that haven’t yet been disposed of and bits of tape on carpet telling customers where to stand to socially distance and there are still some rainbow signs in windows but probably the largest impact was it ushered in the era of Working From Home and learning IT skills for video meetings.
Some people decided after the lock-downs that moving out of the workforce into early retirement, or becoming 'economically inactive' to enjoy life was a viable option or changing jobs altogether with more flexibility with a better work / life balance.
One of the most important lessons I am not sure we have learnt though is that Covid showed the entire world that things needn't be the way they are. That we can change how we do things, how we live for example homelessness was ended, the environment briefly began to recover and there was a real sense of community with people looking out for each other and appreciating the unsung heroes such as bus drivers, shop workers, teachers, delivery drivers and NHS Staff who we took for granted before March 2020.
As the memory of Covid fades and things return to 'normal', it does feel a missed opportunity to take a long, hard look at ourselves and the way we do things.