“I don't know if we will ever return to how it was before. I don't know if that's a negative thing.”: Examining COVID recovery from the community perspective.

That COVID has caused, and is causing, lasting harm is clear. What may be less clear is precisely how such harm has manifested itself within communities, and more importantly what this can tell us about how recovery from such harms may be achieved.

During a period in which the notion of the expert has become eroded, even before the pandemic, the tension between ‘experts’ and publics has never been so apparent than during this time. As such, the implications of this tension for such recovery will also be examined, as will recommendations for future public health engagement in the wake of COVID.