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Hello I suspect that like so many others I've had it difficult if not

impossible during the last two years to disentangle any sort of normal life from the relentless shocks of COVID.

I mean a year ago there was the need to cope with the COVID death of a former

academic colleague and there were the constant updates on a close relative who was

enduring the severe pains of long COVID. And in addition there was the recurrent worry

that a very old friend who was living in a care home might be fatally

infected by other residents who'd been discharged from hospital without the proper screening.

These everyday anxieties, I mean it's a relatively minor collection it must be said

when compared to the COVID traumas experienced by others, they were quite enough to allow me to suspend what I might

rather grandly call my customary sociological curiosity.

It was quite a mission, for here, so many customary modes of behavior, work, education, travel, entertainment, family life, laid bare the usual assumptions

about the banner in which society functioned. It was therefore relief to

discover that at least some social scientists had managed to

...