Pandemic Memories

The past couple of days Kathy of Lake Superior Spirit has raised the question about our memories of the this past year with the pandemic. As I began to try to answer her question this morning, I realized the number of words my answer would take would make a blog post. So here I am, with the warning that none of this will likely contain the spirit of Christmas, but will contain the hope for new beginnings with the new year.

I can’t think of a memory that calls to me – other than my complete frustration with the deniers, the ones that have caused the virus to continue its virulent spread throughout the world – those who claim individual rights so they needn’t wear masks, those who believe the virus is no worse than the standard flu viruses that visit each year. The memory of how the lack of trust in anything and everything has grown, so that we no longer know what or who to believe. The fact that a huge contributor to the lack of trust, a supporter of the deniers, is the man who resides in the White House. I am astonished on a daily basis how many people still believe in this man, believe his fabrications, who see him having parties or holding meetings where the attendees are not masked, and disbelieve the reports of the numbers afflicted or dead because of this virus.

Many of these people are intelligent with reasonable educations but still believe the most incredible (to me) things – and to quote from a post by another blogger I follow, Leenadll quoting a person she knows, they come along the lines of this:

“There’s no ICU bed shortage! That’s a total lie to scare people into susmission! I have lots of friends who are nurses and they’re not working. You know what nurses are doing at hospitals? They’re not treating patients… they’re all making TikToc videos all day!”

Bonus1:

“The covid test [I don’t recall which one] has a 97% false positive rate.” ORly?!?

Bonus2;

“ALL diseases can be cured by adopting a healthy lifestyle! There’s no reason to take medications, especially not antibiotics or vaccines!”

People who believe these kinds of things scare me, because I believe what the scientists like Dr. Fauci say, and I fear we will never rid ourselves of this virus if enough people don’t follow the recommended guidelines for prevention, but instead skip and hop along their merry way, endangering everyone they come in contact with.

How did we get here? How did we get to the point where we believe the media is completely untrustworthy, a man with no redeeming features that I can see is supported and believed, where a virus can make its way into our country and create the absolute chaos that we are now experiencing?

What have we become?

I end this rant with the hope that the new year will truly be a new beginning. That we can, as a country, as a society, find our way back to compassion and caring, tolerance and trusting, that our government can find its way back to governing, for the good of the people and the country rather than the good of the party. Where we can meet, and speak, and allow our differences to exist without offense. Where once again, we can meet for lunch or a glass of wine without fear of contracting what could be our death sentence.

I hope. I wish.