As we do with almost every momentous event in our lives, we’ve gone through most of March observing the one-year mark of this seemingly never-ending coronavirus pandemic.
We’ve talked about how we’ve coped, the tremendous outpouring of volunteerism to help those who have been affected most by COVID-19. We’ve discussed the evolution of masks, the meaning of the word “normal” and even the strange case of the disappearing toilet paper.
But why? Why are we still doing this a year later? Why is it almost April 2021 and the COVID numbers seem to be going up again? Why did the town of Swampscott have to regress to the point of all-remote learning recently because some students decided having a party was a capital idea? You’d have to be a hermit not to have heard of the term “super-spreader” by now.
Why are revelers in Miami practically being hosed off the beaches by authorities? Why are there too many people doing too many things that run counter to simple health directives?
Are we that stupid? Are we that arrogant?
We’re heading into our 13th month and were it not for the vaccination shots being plunged into people’s arms, goodness knows how bad this oncoming spike would be. Absent Mssrs. Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson, I’m guessing hospitals would be overflowing again.
I see five major reasons for the disregard and distrust we feel toward those who, you’d think, exist to help us. Let’s examine some.
First, we spent the last four years with the term “fake news” seared into our consciousness. Is it any wonder that those conditioned to be skeptical would ignore the severity of this virus? We don’t accept facts anymore. Facts are now open to be spun to fit individual agendas, or disregarded entirely if they run counter to our narratives.
If your narrative happens to be “this is just propaganda perpetrated by people who want to control us,” then you may be very willing to dismiss something that sounds as draconian as COVID-19 as a hoax. After all, nobody under the age of 103 ever experienced anything like this before. Therefore it’s all an exaggeration.
Next comes “anti-vaxxers meet fake news.” It’s bad enough there are people who spent the past year scoffing at reports of this virus (though I notice a lot of them stampeded to the vaccination clinics anyway). Put that together with people who just flat-out refuse to get vaccinated and you have another serious problem.
Now, it’s true certain segments of our population have, at different points in their history, been ill-served by our medical community. Selling them on the efficacy of a vaccine that’s been developed out of an “operation warp speed” mandate might be difficult. But lately, there have been studies suggesting this refusal is more partisan than caution. I don’t know what to say about those people, except that they should be identified and surcharged on their next health insurance bill.
Moving beyond vaccines, we turn to the classics. “These directives apply to everybody but me.” You know these people. They’re the ones who park in handicapped spaces when they don’t have placards. Or they stick their cars in front of fire hydrants and never get tickets (but if you, a law-abiding citizen, does the same, you’re sure to get one). Well, those are the same people who go into public places without masks, or those are the kids who consider themselves entitled enough to have parties in direct defiance of simple instructions. They go to spring break and crowd themselves onto beaches, and go to athletic events and rallies maskless. They may get what they deserve, but do the rest of us deserve it too?
Fourth on the list are those who think they’re civil libertarians fighting the good fight. You know. “Wearing a mask violates my freedoms.” “The government can’t tell me what to do.”
They conspire to kidnap governors and to riot at the Capitol building. Those are the people with whom you want to cast your lot?
What’s left is post-traumatic stress disorder. Yes, PTSD. It’s been more than a year now. Even reasonable people are weary of having images of desperately ill people, death, tragedy and all the rest pounded into us. We are all itching for some kind of return to normal. We deserve a break. It’s perfectly understandable. This thing, if it is abating, is taking its dear, sweet time.
Some of that has to do with the aforementioned. But as we’ve been hearing more and more, this is no time to let up on these disciplines.
We have to smarten up, or we’ll be talking about the fifth anniversary in 2025.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].