A year ago on Saturday, the country went into the first phase of the closure, although some better meet the guidelines than others. Three hundred and sixty-five days later, Covid-19 claimed more than 530,000 lives in the most prosperous country in the world – about a fifth of the global death toll.
Despite a bumpy rollout campaign in some countries, many people anticipate a summer filled with hugs, dinners, holidays, concerts, sporting events, beer at pubs, worship services, personal learning, parties, museums and packed cinemas – among other pleasures that we take for granted accepted.
After receiving his second dose of vaccine, Joe Sanders, 93, of Princeton, West Virginia, told CNN last month that he had no bold plans; he was simply looking forward to slipping out of the nursing home, where he was limited for his safety, for a small country ham and red sauce.
“I was just very relieved and I hope to get out of here and do a few things,” Sanders said. “It keeps you going instead of feeling like you’re going to be here until the end.”
Hope was also a valuable weapon. This is one of the many things Americans have learned over the past 12 months.
Other lessons:
1. About resilience
It was not always beautiful. The pandemic exposed us weaker, and also our naivety and divisions, but we learned to adapt to the most devastating episode in recent history.
Not only have we climbed the shocking disruption of pandemic life – at work, at school and in our social life – but we have done so by keeping the busiest hurricane season on record and a long simmering race bill.
It was by no means a uniform effort, but according to our reports we showed our steel, our resilience. The vast majority of us continued to wear masks and avoid large gatherings to keep ourselves and others safe until the cavalry in the form of vaccines arrived.
Recovery is approaching, but it will be good if we remember those among us who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. It could have been one of us, and for them the consequences of the pandemic will remain long after the final vaccination phase. The best prescription? Some collective compassion.
2. On sacrifice
What we are willing to sacrifice in a catastrophe, the spectrum of almost nothing leads to just about everything.
Even the leaders who are most virtuous about the virtues of masks, to give up and stay at home, could not help going to the hair salon or a Michelin-starred restaurant. They set a terrible example, but their temptations are not strange. Who among us did not want to finish a centimeter or two, or an expertly prepared surfboard and lawn?
Yet many of us have decided we can wait. Events in the super-distributor caught the news, but under the media spotlight were tens of millions of people sacrificing the favorite parts of their lives to save others.
Of course, not everything was a choice. Many businesses close. Hospitals and nursing homes banned visits. Events have been canceled and travel banned, but we will ignore them to ignore the accompanying sacrifices that amount to small acts of heroism and undoubtedly saved countless lives.
3. About our elders
Knowing that a loved one is dying alone is exhausting because it is also not to alleviate their pain. Saying goodbye via Zoom or from a parking lot is heartbreaking.
Before the pandemic, there was an epidemic of isolation and depression among the elderly, and the country generally received low scores for caring for its elderly. Older Americans already lacked physical touch and saw people’s faces more than most. The pandemic greatly exacerbated these shortcomings.
Coronavirus in particular visited elderly people with a lethal effect, and Americans were slow to protect them. Take government Andrew Cuomo, who was initially seen as a stalwart and model of the Covid-19 response: he now faces allegations that he has obscured the death toll among New York’s nursing homes.
Here, America is not exceptional. In September, many months into the pandemic, the director-general of the World Health Organization expressed disappointment when he heard a colleague that the massive death toll worldwide was ‘good’ because the victims were mostly old.
“No, if the elderly die, it’s not good. It’s a moral bankruptcy,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every life, whether young or old, is precious and we must do everything we can to save it.”
The take away: we can take much better care of our older men.
4. About who is essential
Covid-19 stressed the need for many professions. At the top of the list are health workers and teachers underpaid, while doctors take their Hippocratic oath seriously, too often at their peril.
Those who work in agriculture and the restaurant and grocery industry, as well as delivery managers, are essential to keeping people healthy in such times. Cleaners, police and social workers also put their safety at stake.
In a nation that places great, sometimes common, sudden value on athletes and celebrities, the pandemic has forced a reassessment of the priorities, which are important. Now that Covid-19 has exposed it, will it hold?
5. On versatility
It would only take a few weeks. Despite all the inconvenience the pandemic has caused, we have shown that we can turn around.
We now know just about anything can be delivered to our doors. We learned how to hang out online, or on a porch or garden – BYOB, of course. Working from home and distance learning were not yet ideal – they actually taxed a lot – but we found ways to make it work, and in some cases, better.
Living rooms, dining rooms, basements, spare rooms and backyards have become (almost) functional office spaces. Neighbors have teamed up to form pods, where children can connect with their teachers from afar, while easing the burden for parents who still have to work and pay bills, regardless of the state of the world.
At the same time, the consequences of exclusion have affected the same racial and socio-economic inequalities as many of society’s diseases. Many feel that the gap in education has widened. Although we all feel like tearing our hair out, we are still assessing the real impact of the pandemic on mental health, and experts are concerned about the ripple effects on Generation C, the Covid generation.
6. About technology
Technology has been tremendously helpful, whether it leads us to the nearest vaccine clinic, to send a grocery list to a delivery service, to entertain ourselves, to visit doctors and therapists remotely, to educate our children, or to make contact with friends, family and colleagues. We also learned that many of the meetings could be emails.
But it was not all smooth.
The technological landscape leans away from the don’ts, and denies many access to important innovations. Social media is a blessing and a curse. Video conferencing is rapidly becoming obsolete. Ordering is not as gratifying as eating out. Personal worship trumps viewing services on a laptop. “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Tenet” would have been nicer in the theater. And although we D-Nice, Post Malone, Norah Jones and others owe our thanks for the distraction they offered us, nothing live music is reproduced.
7. About science
Science is incredible and in many ways is the only thing that can save us, regardless of whether we believe in it. Of course, in record time, science has produced several vaccines and given us important information on how to protect ourselves.
Too many have chosen to ignore the latter, but those who obey science can deserve credit for helping save lives.
However, we have learned that science does not always move as fast as the problems it seeks to solve. More worrying is that some, as science emerges, will exploit uncertainties for political purposes, and even our best experts may get the lead wrong if science is new and unclear.
8. In fact
In the age of the internet, when most of the answers to life’s questions are a few keystrokes, some of us are still struggling to reach truth and facts. This is not new. In 2017, CNN felt the need to launch a home advertising campaign aimed at those who hawk in disinformation.
The struggle to find truth had our fatal consequences during the pandemic. The aggravation of affairs was those among us who felt so strongly about our civil liberties that we were willing to harm ourselves and others. If scanty characters are added that will politicize anything, encouraged by the leaders who put them in power and others who put the economy over lives, and you have a poisonous recipe to deal with a deadly outbreak.
It put an exclamation point on something that many already knew: The truth can not be chosen, but many think so.
9. On strength and togetherness
We regularly can not rely on politicians to save us (not as America’s businessmen can). Some leaders may fly to Utah or Cancun when the disaster strikes or eases, while people get sick, starve, or owe their power bills, but in many ways we can rely on our fellow Americans.
Amid the headlines, there were chronicles of bad behavior: selflessness and triumph: restaurants that feed the hungry, doctors that treat the poor, musicians that provide a respite from the chaos, volunteers who help ex-prisoners or addicts, and so much more. other.
This raises an important question about how we as a country define strength: hold on to our freedom, be condemned to consequences, or reach out and sacrifice – even to endure a cumbersome mask – to to ensure the safety of our fellow Americans?
10. On lessons
There is an old saying about history that repeats itself, and there is no reason to believe that it will not apply in post-pandemic life.
If we deny or do not pay attention to the lessons we have been given, we can do it again – and perhaps sooner than we want.