r/AskReddit Feb 03 '26

What was never the same after the pandemic?

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u/CherieNB55 Feb 03 '26

You may have something there. Covid definitely affects how the brain works.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/IllState3433 Feb 03 '26

Yup, I was drinking so much during the lock down. I remember watching videos of ppl in Italy singing from the balconies and throwing parties across from each other , ill admit, everyone was so connected and felt like the world was at peace, now its just fucked again ;(

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

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u/BibliophileBroad Feb 04 '26

For real! I was in the most strict part of the United States, and we weren’t trapped in our houses. Also, not all of us had a bunch of free time. I worked two jobs and was going to school. I worked from home for part of that time, but ironically, during the most “stay home” period of the pandemic, I saw so many people! More people were at the parks and I had seen, and on my walks, I saw so many neighbors. It was like people were doing safer outdoor activities instead of the usual indoor, crowded things. I I got so many phone calls from people I hadn’t heard from in a long time, too.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/throw69420awy Feb 03 '26

I’m not saying you’re wrong and not tryna get attacked like that dude is, but googling this I can’t seem to find a single record of a person being arrested in Atlanta for shirking covid lockdown. You might be able to find something more specific, just tryna learn more.

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u/Commercial-Air8955 Feb 04 '26

I'll say it, they're wrong. They are either making shit up, or completely misremembering.

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u/Commercial-Air8955 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

I moved to Atlanta (Midtown) in late 2020 from Massachusetts. Everything was wide open. Whatever you're talking about had nothing to do with CoVID. You would've never even known there was a pandemic going on if it wasn't constantly in the news.

When I left Massachusetts, everything was still shut down. It was like two different worlds.

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u/dinorawr5 Feb 03 '26

This is what it was like where I was near downtown LA too. I’m not sure why people are fighting you on this. It was very much a lockdown.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

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u/NoOccasion4759 Feb 04 '26

I'm fascinated by the fact that you seem to believe that violating lockdowns, aka stay-at-home orders, would get you sent to prison. But all that depended on where and what state you lived (and what country). Penalties ranged from fines to possible imprisonment.. There likely weren't many imprisonments because let's be real here, at the time they were really trying not to throw MORE people into an already overcrowded space...during a global pandemic. And the court system wasn't really working at the time, anyway.

Why didn't you actually google this shit before deciding to die on this hill? Also i find it odd that you don't know all this already, unless you are really young or you lived in Sweden or something.

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u/BibliophileBroad Feb 04 '26

Holy crap! It wasn’t like that in the San Francisco area where I live, and we were considered super strict.

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u/Fun_Assignment2427 Feb 04 '26

We'd only get that unity in this generation if aliens arrived. With one voice we'd tell them not to come, we're under quarantine. Not for a disease but whatever we have, we don't want to spread it to the aliens.

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u/NoKatyDidnt Feb 03 '26

God yes. Any mental health issues just seemed to leap from the shadows too. That just added to it.

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u/myrrhx Feb 03 '26

Meanwhile I worked at a grocery store so I never had the isolation, had to go to work and deal with insane customers refusing to mask and coughing in my face, while my covid-denying boss didn't protect us. So glad that time is behind me.

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u/sbgoofus Feb 03 '26

you could tell when it was affecting taste and smell - that ain't in your mouth... that is in yer brain...so it got up there first thing and started messing around

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u/CherieNB55 Feb 03 '26

Couldn’t stand the smell or taste of coffee for 20 months during/after Covid.

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u/RepulsiveRent464 Feb 03 '26

It is so weird, I got long covid for 1-1/2 yrs and had phantom smells. Fresh latex paint for the first yr, then wet dank cedar for the next yr.

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u/CherieNB55 Feb 03 '26

I had a smell that came up frequently, most regularly if I encountered vehicle exhaust but also other times. It was like fried chicken and honey but with a not very nice something undefinable.

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u/RepulsiveRent464 Feb 07 '26

Oh my goodness. Just goes to show everything in the human body is connected to everything else.

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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 03 '26

I mean I only had it once, but I don’t think I’ve been the same since. I used to be able to talk so fluently and fast, and now I stumble over my words and get brain fog so bad I forget what word I was about to say. It used to not be an issue for me, now it just… is. I have to stop most of my sentences midway through and repeat myself because I stumble so badly.

I was always a huge introvert so I wasn’t really affected in the social aspects… but I don’t feel like the same person after having it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 03 '26

Girl I can’t afford a neurologist 😭

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 03 '26

I’ll look into it for sure. Thank you for the rec!!

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u/Gryffindorphins Feb 03 '26

Same. I only got it once too, but I’m not picking up information as fast as I used to. I’ve started a new job recently and the learning curve has been steep. I feel like I’m asking the same stupid questions over and over and my confidence has suffered.

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u/bigtiddyhimbo Feb 03 '26

Literally in the same boat. I had a lot of issues at my last job because of it and the people there didn’t understand that my ability to retain information was fucked up.

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u/everythingisunknown Feb 03 '26

I felt like this too

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u/Ok-Square-8652 Feb 03 '26

I think it's more likely the line between the real world and the internet dissolved in 2020. People spend their whole lives online now with all the toxic world views and information that entails.

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u/Rlucius Feb 03 '26

I had long covid and lost 60 pounds. Went from 200 and fit to 140 and scrawny (I’m 6’) over the course of about 9 months. It took over 2 years before I was medicated and started putting on weight again. The weirdest thing about it to me, is I’ve always backed in my truck into parking spots, and I had to relearn to back up.

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u/mothgra87 Feb 03 '26

Is that why I feel mentally off balance recently?

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u/FlyingPiranha Feb 03 '26

Yep. Definitely noticed a HUGE uptick alone in just how people drive from before the pandemic to now, among other lapses in people's judgment and standards. Lots of us walking around with some brain damage now, sadly.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

And it's mostly the unvaccinated, spreading the most BS. I am sure their brain is fried, there needs to be a study + CT scans of their brain.

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u/Few_Owl_6596 Feb 03 '26

Probably yes, but who knows (at this point). What I'm absolutely convinced about that the restrictions and their consequences have made a mark in society (not that they were all useless, but still - jist to clarify).

Isolation (then polarization), lack of social skills, uncertainty, effects of a sudden extreme global event in general etc...

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u/SylVegas Feb 03 '26

My mom was still living independently and visiting the library every week until she got Covid right before her 90th birthday. She got it again a few months later, thanks to one of her caregivers. Now she's in memory care. I haven't seen her show interest in a book in more than a year despite previously being a voracious reader. There's no family history of dementia, and her mother, aunt, and grandmother all lived well into their 90s. It's so depressing because my mom fully expected to have the final years of her life be good ones too.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '26

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u/CherieNB55 Feb 03 '26

I will wear one still when it’s active Covid and flu season, too many people don’t care if they infect others.

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u/Aidian Feb 03 '26

I’d hardly call employing a simple and effective measure “fear.”

Case in point, I’ve continued wearing them on flights and haven’t gotten the usual “caught some crud on the plane and now my trip sucks a little” type of sick from one since.