It is February 2021 and the Smith family are excited to have tickets to watch their favourite football team. Sport is newly emerged from months of being played behind closed doors. Outside the stadium, security guards’ handsets register Covid-19 immunity certificates encoded on the Smiths’ smartphones; fans without the app face additional checks. The family pass through body temperature sensors, check their face masks and enter the ground. The view is unimpeded — seats all around them have been blocked from sale — but the half-empty stands mean the atmosphere lacks the old electricity.
The Smiths’ story may prove overly gloomy, or not gloomy enough. Even as countries tentatively start to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, it is clear that life will not spring back to how it was pre-crisis until there is a vaccine. Organisations and individuals must adapt to another “new normal”.
Monumental efforts will still be needed to avoid, or lessen, a second wave of infection. Cycles of relaxing and reimposing shutdowns may follow. Testing and tracing those who contract the virus will be crucial. Some pleasures and freedoms the lockdown has taken away will still be denied.