[W Forum] COVID-19 and Happy Spring Days

The first quarter of 2021 has passed, and we have entered April. The sight of seniors aged 75 and older beginning to receive vaccinations stands out in today’s COVID-19 news. Days that start with COVID-19 updates and masks have already surpassed a year.

On the way to work, measuring temperature at the building entrance and reporting daily on any COVID-19 symptoms, various meetings?whether training sessions or international conferences?are held remotely (untact). Even when wanting to share a meal with colleagues, we count heads and give up. Will the routine of last week’s first birthday celebration for my grandchild, known to most relatives only through photos, change after this year?

In 2020, as always, I felt proud when patients received treatment, recovered, and were discharged with smiles. I enjoyed sharing delicious meals with my husband who retired that year. I was glad when my husband recovered from a critical heart condition. Holding my beloved first granddaughter in my arms was awe-inspiring. After moving in 2020, I was happy buying a bunch of flowers every Saturday morning and, despite my clumsy skills, filling the vase to the brim.

On the last weekend of March, I brought yellow freesias and filled every vase, muttering to myself, “Yes, now it’s spring,” and “Last winter was so cold it didn’t seem like spring would come, but spring does come after all.” Yet something felt strange. I was feeling spring not in the fields, mountains, or flower gardens, but by cutting flowers bought at the market with pruning shears. Suddenly, even when cherry blossoms in full bloom caught my eye from the car on the way to work, I realized I hadn’t even thought about walking under the flowering trees. The year spent with COVID-19, with external rules to refrain from going out for quarantine, completely blocked the idea of leisurely walking in the mountains and fields. It was a moment of realizing that personal perceptions and habits had definitely changed.

Hearing the phrase “We cannot return to life before COVID-19,” I shattered the illusion that once the epidemic ended, we could return to the familiar daily life.

Over the past year, the quarantine and medical treatment system responding to the infectious disease COVID-19 shifted its strategy from the initial goal of early eradication to coexistence and response as early eradication became impossible. As the short-term battle turned into a long-term one, changes in healthcare service delivery methods, public health issues, and measures to address information inequality among vulnerable groups may show patterns completely different from previous medical access approaches. Not only healthcare but changes in all social sectors such as education and housing are expected to continuously evolve alongside fundamental changes in individual perceptions.

Ultimately, it will be difficult to fully return to life as it was before COVID-19. To survive by following new societal norms, one might grumble about the harshness of life. But what can we do? Even though everyone struggles to make a living during COVID-19 and finds it hard to adapt to the changing society, it would be nice to spend each day calmly and sincerely, finding and feeling happiness in ordinary moments during spring days.

Baek Hyun-wook, Director, Biomedical Research Center, Department of Clinical Nutrition, Bundang Jesaeng Hospital

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.