Since the COVID-19 virus was discovered, the world has waited for a vaccine that would help our lives return to some level of normalcy. Now that vaccine distribution has begun, what will this “new normal” look like?

Here, University of Chicago experts explore what the vaccine rollout has revealed about our cities, and how it will impact our lives within them—from our health care systems and businesses, to our educational and cultural institutions.

“So the vaccine is a complex gift. It both gives you a sense that you are protected, but it ought not give you a sense that you’re free to do anything you want,” says Laurie Zoloth, a professor of religion and ethics at the Divinity School. “The fact that you have the vaccine means that you’ve accepted the gift, and the gift comes with some strings attached.

“It’s a privilege to live in the city, but it’s a kind of privilege that carries with it a deep responsibility, a duty that’s incumbent on each of us to make the city safe.

“The nature of this pandemic is such that your personal choice affects the public realm. So when you say: ‘I’m not going to get a vaccine, but I want the right to continue to work. I want the right to get on an airplane and the right to go and hear the opera.’ What you’re doing is you’re imposing that risk on me, and on anyone in the community who might be more vulnerable.”

“Even if people get vaccinated, there’s an issue of whether or not it’s safe to go back to work,” says Anup Malani, a professor of law and professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine. “Are the other people at work that you’re dealing with vaccinated? Do they feel comfortable that you’re vaccinated that they’ll interact with you?”

“Civic leaders need to use their privilege to advocate for communities that have been marginalized and have suffered the disparities that we’ve seen unveiled through this COVID-19 vaccine,” says Brenda Battle, senior vice president of community health transformation and chief diversity, inclusion, and equity officer at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Read the full article about life after the COVID-19 vaccine at Futurity.