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Five years ago, the world faced perhaps the biggest test of its resilience since WWII. Billions of people were locked up for months, millions sadly passed away, and for us, history was strongly divided into "before" and "after." The pandemic changed us, and, alas, not for the better.
Now that COVID-19 is history, we can calmly and dispassionately remember what we loved and cherished so much that did not return after the pandemic. Or, perhaps, it did—but it no longer brings us the joy it once actually did.
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#1
My desire to be around people. Nirvana was right .. y'all are stupid and contagious.
Rick Murray 8 months ago
I was watching the pope's funeral the other day and thinking "so many people so close together oh my god".
RELATED:
#2
Trust in science, medicine, evidence-based thinking and decision-making, and rational thinking in general.
Contrarian dipshits effectively leveraged social media and other outlets to exploit the fear and panic of the pandemic to push their chaotic nonsense, and we have not yet recovered from that. And we may never.
#3
Human decency and common sense.
I was a restaurant host at the time, and shortly after we reopened, I was cussed out by a Karen in front of her entire family because due to fire safety regulations, we weren't allowed to push tables together on the outdoor patio. Her son literally had to grab her and pull her away.
We also had more people thrown out of the restaurant that summer for being disrespectful to staff than any other year that I worked there.
A few weeks ago, a thread appeared in the AskReddit community, urging netizens to answer one question: "What never came back after the pandemic?" The thread turned out to be very lively (around 2.1K upvotes and over 3K various comments), incredibly atmospheric, and very nostalgic. Well, of course, not without a bit of humor.
So we, Bored Panda, who lived through the pandemic with you, now offer a selection of the most interesting and popular answers from the original thread. Let's go on a journey through our memories together!
#5
Any of the roughly 15 million people that died from COVID in 2020-2021. (source - WHO website)
While I'm sure many will argue those numbers, fact is COVID k****d a lot of people, and none of them are coming back.
El Dee 8 months ago
That's the number who died whilst we took precautions of shutdowns, lockdowns, masks, social distancing and vaccination. During the pandemic, in my country, we had an almost ZERO number of flu deaths. Prior to vaccinations for vulnerable people that had been 60,000 deaths per year then 12,000 per year after they vaccinated and, of course ZERO with COVID measures. Can you imagine how many would have died without shutdowns, lockdowns, masks, social distancing and vaccinations?
#6
Activities for patients in psychiatric hospitals.
Before covid we had animators, zootherapy, a greenhouse, a cafe run by patients, volunteers, special guests, bbq, etc.
Now every unit has 1 TV. And that's it. Covid saw the extras get cut due to social distancing, then they realized they could save money. And nothing came back.
It's effectively a prison but some people don't get out.
COVID-19, in addition to many inconveniences, has significantly changed the worldview of all of humanity. We realized how lonely we are when, for months, other people presented to us not as ordinary, warm, and tangible creatures of flesh and blood, but as just a set of digital signs on the screens of our gadgets.
Our habits have changed dramatically. Many experts say that a person needs only 30 days of repetition to develop a new habit. We spent several months in isolation—so it is not surprising that completely different people came out of their houses after the pandemic.
#7
Affordable housing / rentals.
Affordable goods and services.
Affordable foods.
Affordable shipping costs.
#8
Hope. Not to sound bleak but if a pandemic wasn't enough to unite people behind a single goal for the betterment of everyone, then I don't know what would be.
#9
In person customer service. Everything is self check out or help now. or you are talking to an ai bot for hours over the phone.
"This is the specificity of human thinking on a global scale," says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of the Intent news agency from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment here. "For example, older people tend to idealize the past not so much because it was really better to live then than now. They are more nostalgic for their own youth.
"Here too—the pandemic, of course, has significantly affected the economy and well-being of people around the whole world, but many of the negative processes in our society were actually launched long before it. Some of them even have their roots in the global crisis of 2008. But the pandemic is imprinted in our memory as the main disaster of its time, and we do blame it for literally everything."
#10
Sanity. Everyone lost their goddamned minds and there’s no sign they are coming back. We’re a lost society.
keyboardtek 8 months ago
I think that mental infection started back when Rush Limbaugh and hate radio became the dominant news source.
#12
24-hour anything. Pharmacies, grocery/supermarket chains, etc.
TheGreaterDebater 8 months ago
Good. Besides emergency workers, nobody should have to work deep in the night.
"It’s also interesting, by the way, that the trend towards expanding remote work took place long before the pandemic—and not all companies were actually happy about it. So the ‘return to offices’ trend caused by the end of quarantine restrictions actually became for many employers just a separate reason to do what they had wanted for a long time anyway," Valery Bolgan reasonably notes.
This, by the way, is damn true. For example, Zoom appeared back in 2013 and was already widely used by many companies and freelancers around the world long before the pandemic. The same goes for the numerous other remote work services that simply experienced a real boom in 2020.
#13
Paper, sort of.
My job went 100% digital during the lockdown, and will remain digital for the foreseeable future.
What's funny is that we learned we can do 100% of our job working from home, but recently they made us all go back to the office just to do what we were already doing at home, except now under bright fluorescents!
Igor914624 8 months ago
That is so management can see and "manage" you. If you aren't there, the managers can't justify their existence and the company is spending money for office space they don't need.
#14
My full face of makeup.
Pre-Covid, I used to spend 20-30 minutes every morning putting on a full face of makeup before work. When we had to start wearing masks I stopped wearing makeup altogether. The masks came off, and now I can't bring myself to waste so much precious time in the morning. Now it's just a bit of mineral face powder, eyeliner, mascara and a touch of tinted lip balm, and I'm good to go.
camomooey 8 months ago (edited)
And you probably look better for it. Yes, I'm old, but I think the younger generation wears way too much makeup. Yeah, there were some in my generation who did too, but it seems more prevalent now. And what's with the huge spider-looking eyelashes? They are just weird.
#15
Full time remote work. I had been remote since 2017, but after the pandemic, my company used RTO as an excuse to get everybody back into the office.
Tucker Cahooter 8 months ago
Opposite case for me. Before the pandemic, WFH was seen as something exclusively for the bigwigs. After the pandemic, WFH became standard for many people; of course I work in a government agency in a country that treats workers with respect and not as drudges to be exploited and kicked to the kerb on a whim.
In fact, we have yet to fully understand what the pandemic meant for us and our society. And perhaps our children will properly do this—after all, as they say, great things are better seen from a distance.
So the pandemic, without a doubt, was the greatest disaster of our time. And God willing, may it so... Just read this selection, please, leave your comments—and consider what we may have missed here.
#16
The casual, spontaneous nature of pre-pandemic social gatherings.
#17
Fully-staffed restaurants. They figured out they could run w a skeleton crew and never looked back.
Petra Peitsch 8 months ago
Many left gastronomy during the pandemic, and never turned back. It's not very easy to find educated personal with experience.
#19
Not acting like a completely entitled a*****e in public.
keyboardtek 8 months ago
The kids that seemed to be the most popular in high school all acted like complete jerks in public. I never did understand it.
#21
I don’t know if everybody feels the same way, but during and since the pandemic, I could never eat a piece of birthday cake that somebody has blown out candles on. Come to think about it. I can’t believe that I ever even did that before, and I’m not even a clean freak. My family still continues to do this. I don’t make a big fuss, but I also don’t have a piece of cake lol.
MotherofGuineaPigs 8 months ago
I grew up drinking from a hose, played in questionable dirt and shared soda with my friends. We had super immunity. I remember my mom purposely taking us to play at someones house if they had the chicken pox so we could get it when we were younger, didn't work and getting them at 14 really sucked.
#23
Infection control in hospitals.
If you worked in a hospital prior to COVID and you went into an isolation room without the proper PPE it was a big deal. Your boss or your co-workers would say something to you immediately and you'd probably get written up. During the pandemic there simply wasn't enough PPE to go around so you just did the best you could with what you had. It was unsafe and we all knew it. The unspoken attitude in 2025 is that if infection control didn't matter in the middle of a pandemic it doesn't matter during flu season or when your patient has a prior history of MRSA. The only thing that still puts the fear of god into healthcare workers is bedbugs or scabies.
#24
Zoom fatigue and burnout.
Before the pandemic, Zoom was something you’d do for work, but now it’s like this unavoidable “virtual” hangover.
Even though we’re back in person, many people are still feeling burned out from too many online meetings and interactions, kind of like being permanently “on call.”
MotherofGuineaPigs 8 months ago
We use Teams. you aren't gonna see my face and otherwise DM me. You want to talk? Clear it with me first, I have to prepare to speak.
#26
I find that in a lot of restaurants and fast food places here, they had taken away self serve salt & pepper packets, serviettes and condiments. To this day, they remain hidden behind the counter instead of readily accessible and you always have to wait and ask someone to get them for you.
Brian Droste 8 months ago
Where I live the local Burger King don't have the ketchup pumps where you can pump ketchup in the small containers. They have ketchup packets you have to grab at the counter. Not sure when they started doing this.
#27
Watching new movies at home instead of the theater.
stephen hoxworth 8 months ago
If there was a movie I couldn’t wait to see I’d probably go to a movie theater. It’s been about 5 years since I’ve had the urge to buy overpriced tickets and popcorn to see a movie.
#29
Shredded pepperjack cheese.
i wish i were joking. where i live, it ran out like many other things, and simply never came back. i live in a town that has a publix on every corner, plus a couple winn dixie locations......no shredded pepperjack cheese of any brand. you can buy a block or slices, but no shredded.
weirdest d**n thing.
#30
We’ve lost dancing.
Rick Murray 8 months ago (edited)
Dancing looks like fun. If only I could manage to get all of my appendages into the right places at the right time... *two* arms and *two* legs, all with a range of possible motions... that's a lot, you know?
What do you think ?
Rika 8 months ago
Before the pandemic, you could pay your bus fare in cash directly to the driver. Now, you can only buy a ticket with a smartphone. The same goes for the metro, only a couple of main stations still have a machine that allows you to buy a physical ticket. Covid really was an excuse to go full digital and exclude a lot of people. I don't care about things like QR codes menus because going to a restaurant isn't a necessity, but I find it unacceptable that I can no longer take public transport simply because I don't have a smartphone.
Lady Eowyn 8 months ago
I don't have a smartphone and feel excluded from a lot of things.
Load More Replies...
Ahnjunwan 8 months ago
Accepting a doctors diagnosis or treatment. Everything is questioned now and far more people are getting into this alternative medicine thing. It is nothing wrong with asking if you doubt something but if you have asthma, you have asthma, it will not go away because you read on the internet pharma companies make money with your medicine
Elio 8 months ago
Prescription d**g cost is a joke in the US but that doesn't mean you don't need if if you have certain medical conditions. Hilariously some alternative medicine garbage is expensive too do you're still paying for it but for something that doesn't work.
Load More Replies...
Lee Gilliland 8 months ago
Snow days and heat days. In Virginia we used to get both, now you go on line that day.
Do-nut touch da donut 8 months ago
Colleges still get snowdays luckily (except the online classes) but yeah i missed the snow dayd when i went back after covid
Load More Replies... Rika 8 months ago
Before the pandemic, you could pay your bus fare in cash directly to the driver. Now, you can only buy a ticket with a smartphone. The same goes for the metro, only a couple of main stations still have a machine that allows you to buy a physical ticket. Covid really was an excuse to go full digital and exclude a lot of people. I don't care about things like QR codes menus because going to a restaurant isn't a necessity, but I find it unacceptable that I can no longer take public transport simply because I don't have a smartphone.
Lady Eowyn 8 months ago
I don't have a smartphone and feel excluded from a lot of things.
Load More Replies... Ahnjunwan 8 months ago
Accepting a doctors diagnosis or treatment. Everything is questioned now and far more people are getting into this alternative medicine thing. It is nothing wrong with asking if you doubt something but if you have asthma, you have asthma, it will not go away because you read on the internet pharma companies make money with your medicine
Elio 8 months ago
Prescription d**g cost is a joke in the US but that doesn't mean you don't need if if you have certain medical conditions. Hilariously some alternative medicine garbage is expensive too do you're still paying for it but for something that doesn't work.
Load More Replies... Lee Gilliland 8 months ago
Snow days and heat days. In Virginia we used to get both, now you go on line that day.
Do-nut touch da donut 8 months ago
Colleges still get snowdays luckily (except the online classes) but yeah i missed the snow dayd when i went back after covid
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