Two years since the pandemic had swept the planet, leaving the economy in shambles and changing everyone’s life forever.
For the better?
For some, not all, and it killed many. Too many.
Families were ripped apart and dreams shattered. So much pain, so much suffering, the self-isolation caused a trauma that is still healing. You can still see people outside with face masks, despite the vaccine. There are less hugs, and handshakes are frowned upon.
And yet …
The world was forced to take a good look at itself and reconsider its priorities.
Many had hoped for extreme changes, positive changes in healthcare, minimum wage, work from home, accommodations for people with disabilities. And some of this has become reality, while other things …
Humans don’t like change, most of the time. Even during the pandemic, most of them just wanted to go “back to normal”. But what is normal, after an event like this? Slaving away in a dead-end job, serving the economy that did not care at all when people died? Cared more about the loss of profits than the suffering of people who lost their loved ones?
There is more gardening, more cooking, more home-made art. People have learned to bake their own bread and, after months of eating it, have developed a distaste for what qualifies as “bread” in the stores. Eating patterns have changed, for the better, for the worse, or maybe not at all?
Every human has their own way to cope with trauma.
Some haven’t even been traumatized by the events, and they are the lucky ones. They often dismiss the pain many of us still carry in our hearts, the fear of a reemergence of the disease, or a similar one.
Will we be better prepared the next time?
So much money is being poured into research since the outbreak, and it is still being poured into more. Ways to develop vaccines and drugs faster than before.
Be prepared, be prepared.
Don’t repeat the same mistakes.
Oh, mistakes were made, and I encounter them sometimes. On the streets, in the supermarket. Those are the lucky mistakes, the ones that survived the vaccine trials.
I got the safe vaccine, I was lucky. I was not desperate, desperate for money, not like them. Praised as heroes, injected with something that was supposed to protect them. Protected them but caused other damage. This is why vaccines usually take years to develop, we test them on animals to not break humans.
But there was no time. People were dying.
A real-life trolley problem. Was it ethical? It depends on who you ask.
And speaking of heroes:
There are graveyards filled with doctors and nurses and med students and student nurses who gave their lives to help safe ours.
And people clapped.
What are those that survived paid? Is it enough? Can it ever be enough? And will parents still encourage their children to go into medicine, knowing that another pandemic may happen?
Caring for the sick has always been stressful and dangerous, but how aware were we … were we before?
And as I walk through the streets, a mask on my face because I have a light cold, people move out of my way. 6 feet, approximately. Are they even aware they are doing it? Or has it become such a part of them that they do it without noticing?
Or are they afraid that my runny nose and my dry cough might be the next pandemic, infecting them before anyone even knows there is something dangerous that needs to be fought? Can I blame them?
And in the wake of an event that flooded the public with science they barely understood, pseudo-experts rose and never vanished when it was over. Now everyone thinks they know science, know biology, know medicine and what to do. And the conspiracies grow larger by the day.
And the racism has taken deep roots, because of course it was the foreigners.
Who caused it
Who spread it
Who didn’t contain it
Who lied
Who acted too slow
Who didn’t listen
Who died.
And every country has someone else to blame, because they don’t want the blame themselves. But blame is not the answer.
Two years since the pandemic had swept the planet, leaving us all stranded and changing how we think.
I appreciate the people I care about more, the time I get to spend with them.
And I hope they appreciate me.
Signature by
