Covid-Redux

Friends,
The specter of covid continues to hang over us like lingering morning fog. I personally have at least relegated it to a small “c” and speak of it as an epidemic as opposed to a pandemic, but the fact remains it is still a force among us. Two of my three sons, members of their families, my sister and brother-in-law, and a number of my close friends - I have lost count how many -  have been diagnosed with some form of covid this past month alone. The chilling images of isolated people tubed up as they die are no longer part of a daily horror story, but there are enough reports of long-covid and the disruption, incapacitation and isolation continue to menace to our lives.

I have not (yet) contracted the disease (knock of wood and send a prayer of gratitude). My experience as been tangential. But in addition to the number of reports of local contagion, my reflections on covid this week were initiated when I drove past the Walgreen’s pharmacy an hour away from our home where Cathy and I stood in a long line in the rain waiting for our first vaccination. Do you remember what a big deal the introduction of vaccinations were for us? We first called around to see where they were available and shared our experiences of how to get the shots. And if if we got them, we still didn’t really know whether they would work. Enough flack out there made us wonder what we could trust. And then we waited for the masking and vaccinations to have effect, and for the covid restrictions to be lifted and we could again return to “normal.” But our covid-impacted lives had defined - and continues to define - a “new normal” of post-covid life styles.

In spite of these often tense, politicized efforts to offer - impose? - vax recommended guidelines to prevent the further spread of the disease, sufficient compliance with masking and vaccinations in some ways miraculously spared us from the worse consequences of a deadly pandemic. Fact-based science prevailed for most of us. And here we are in 2024 still subjected to the ongoing disease and its cousins, but now the vaccinations and the introduction of Paxlovid meds have provided a merciful relief. I think especially about my sister and brother-in-law, both well into their 80’s, who would have been especially vulnerable to the disease if not for the good ministration of these preventative measures.

In many ways we still are not able to access what our species has learned - or not learned - from the covid pandemic. Unfortunately, perhaps one of the most important teachings we failed to learn was to acknowledge the reality that we live in a world tightly interdependent with mutual accountability for each other. The dangerous fissures of individualism and racism were painfully evident when the debates about how to stem the disease and offer a cure became politicized and exploited for political purposes to assert personal power over the welfare of the whole. 

On the flip side, the pandemic did clearly demonstrate the crucial interconnections among people world-wide. For those who paid attention we have learned the utmost importance of cooperation and mutual support in all aspects of planetary life - illness, distribution of resources, common illnesses, climate change, and war and peace, among other concerns. For that I am grateful, and may the lessons of interdependence and cooperation continue to be explored, studied and implemented by the generations to come if we are to survive.

My long-term memory about the pandemic, I think, will be the realization that every single one of us was vulnerable and in need of some level of protection and care. Although we may have been initially wary of someone infecting us in public, we also became more tolerant and supportive of each other as we leaned to read the warmth of another's eyes when the masks hid our smiles. We helped our neighbors shop. We patiently coached each other how to use Zoom. In short, we had intimations of the Beloved Community that is possible as we faced a crisis together. So be it.

Peace,
Tom