Ricketts reflects on COVID anniversary: Nobody knew it would go on for over a year | Politics

Q: What do you anticipate that Nebraska will look like eventually?

Ricketts: I think we’ll get back to a more normal life and enjoy the things that make this such a great place to live, work and raise a family. I think certainly economically we’re going to be coming out of this pandemic well positioned to be able to continue to grow our state.

I do think there’s going to be other changes. You may not need as much real estate as you did before. You may go to more people working at home. We found that some people really, really enjoy that and it adds to their quality of life, and that could be one of the things that we use to attract talent to the state of Nebraska.

I think people are going to be a little be more careful now, at least for the short term, with regard to if they feel sick, they have to stay home more often. Kind of a corollary to that, you’ll probably see more masks being worn in public as, again, some people may be taking greater care.

Q: There are also things that have torn us apart: masks and how serious is this thing really and should you have shut things down sooner or later or less or more. You’ve come in for an awful lot of criticism through this year.

Ricketts: Again, I think we’ve struck that right balance for Nebraska. We’ve always been able to preserve our hospital capacity. That’s helped us keep our mortality rate down, and it’s helped people go back to a more normal life, and that’s what people want.