As far as lived life is concerned, I don't agree. What would be the new things that changed from the old normal?
Where I am I'd say the majority of people are (were) back to the old normal. Walking around 2 weeks ago, besides the odd face mask, I wouldn't have seen any difference with how things were before the pandemic. Don't get me wrong, this is obviously a stupid state of affairs, but people down here are largely of the opinion it's all over. Or were. Then we heard about omicron and a few more face masks went on. The point is, in their heads and their lived lives, covid was over. And it went back to normal.
It would be great if the new normal had things like the attitude to face masks that you see in many parts of Asia. But like fuck it will.