Itās really incredibly tiring living through the ongoing pandemic and feeling like the world around me does not care that it still exists and is dangerous as ever.Ā
It really does feel like few people care at this point. Itās very hard to be honest, but the threat is such that I canāt really just relax and pretend like itās not there.
I do follow covid conscious people on social media and it helps to know that thereās many of us out there. And Iām glad to have a number of friends who have remained covid conscious, but like we really are few in number. A lot of friends and family members who used to be cautious have thrown caution to the wind, only maybe masking when, say, going on flights or maybe to crowded spaces if that. I still want to be friends and have relationships with these people but every time I meet with them Iām very aware that thereās increased risk in doing so. Meanwhile plenty of friends who stopped taking covid seriously have simply stopped really talking to me or including me in plans, even online friends. Itās disappointing. Itās isolating. It feels like Iām disposable to many people. But at least I do see some people repeatedly in person consistently wearing masks like I do. And that helps some.
Every couple waves Iāll see more people wearing masks such as the ongoing one. You know what, thatās welcome, I appreciate everyone who starts masking again after having stopped. But masking only during the heights ignores that the spread of the virus still goes on in between. So the next wave comes as people relax and transmission increases again.Ā
Itās hard feeling mostly housebound. I am a bit of a homebody, but not nearly to this degree. Not having an in person job outside of my home doesnāt help with that but also Iām not sure that I could bear to do one at this point. Being disabled already pre-covid and moving states literally weeks before the shelter in place orders came into effect (not lockdowns, we never had those in the US) meant that I did not have a job when the pandemic struck. I decided to wait it out for weeks months a year until the first vaccines got rolled out and thought about trying to apply again but then in the summer of 2021 Delta came. Then Omicron. And so on. Now weāre up to BA.2.86 and JN.1 as the variants of interest. Itās never stopped. Thereās never been a break. The years start comin' and they don't stop comin'.
Working from home was a huge option early in the pandemic for many people outside industries that require people to work in person but gradually companies and organizations have rolled back this accessibility by requiring people return to office. And the economy sucks right now. Applying to jobs sucks even in the best of times with the current system, but now we have confirmed cases of job recruiters putting up phantom jobs, some admitting that 75% of the jobs theyāve posted being fake to make their company look like itās in better shape or positions where the candidate has already been selected internally and they just want to make it look sorta fair. Not to mention all the scam listings. Job hunting sucks. Itās a lot of energy spent for very few returns and my disability/chronic illness means I just canāt channel endless amounts of energy without paying a far greater price in the future.
Itās not just work either. I havenāt seen a movie in theaters since the Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey movie in February 2020. Maybe Iāll actually go see one soon, but itās a real risk, even during a matinee when fewer people might be there, even masked in an N95. (And definitely a much bigger risk if I should want some popcorn or a drink.) I have been to one indoor event (MBMBaM live show) that required masks of everyone in late 2022. It was a risk but masking made it feel a little safer. Nothing like the risks today where so many people seem to have forgotten the danger that they knew in 2020 and 2021 and maybe 2022 and will look at you funny if you even wear a mask much less suggest they might wear one.
Weāve known about covid spreading as an aerosol but Iāve had people I know act like itās safe to eat inside as long as youāre far away from people regardless of ventilation. Some even still believe the six feet away idea that has been thoroughly debunked. Weāve known about long covid post-viral syndromes since 2020 and that you can still get long covid after vaccines at least since 2021. Research has come out over the last few years about covid having rampant effects on your immune system, heart, brain, pretty much any organ in your body, but people still think of it as just a respiratory illness.
Our government has failed us profoundly. I never had much trust in the government, becoming politically conscious in the early Bush era in the wake of Islamophobia and endless wars against concepts which got widespread support from both dominant parties in the US. Coming out as queer in my early adulthood, I learned about the Reagan response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic (ignoring it for several years because ewwwww gay people!!) which filled in the blanks of knowledge from my childhood where the education was pretty much just scaremongering. Itās truly monstrous how Reagan ignored HIV and yet Iām not sure anyone has really done that much better since him.
Iāve never liked Biden nor do I pretend to. But even so, he campaigned on how thousands of covid deaths in 2020 were unacceptable under a US president when it was Trump in power. Yet under him weāve seen likely over a million people die and the dismantling of protections that helped prevent covidās spread or monitoring. We were pushed the idea that you simply had to get vaccinated and then it wouldnāt be a problem anymore. But thatās never been true. He declared that the pandemic was over in September 2022 and in the two years since then Iāve watched more friends who mask consistently get sick than those I knew who got sick from November 2019 to September 2022. (Iām pretty fortunate in that regard, I know many people had lots of friends and relatives get sick and die or become permanently disabled prior to September 2022.)Ā
Sure, the White House approved 4 more covid tests per household again in response to the current wave (after getting rid of that program months ago), but the tests are notoriously unreliable for a single test unless it gives you a positive and generally you need to use them over multiple days to make sure you donāt have false negatives. Not to mention that we have known about asymptomatic transmission of covid since 2020, but people just seem to have forgotten about that. Testing daily would do so much to help track the disease, especially if our leaders were to encourage everyone to do them. But thereās a serious lack of test availability. The government could give each of us a test per day and help stop a lot of transmission. Where are free masks? Where is the continued funding for vaccines? Where is funding for improved ventilation including air filtration systems for every classroom and other shared public space? Where are protections to make sure that employers have to keep people home and give them sick pay? Any public health response we had has pretty much fallen away into privatized, āyou-do-youā individualism. (Anyone remember that āyou-do-youā MTA sign from 2 years ago saying masks were optional so wear them however the fuck you want? āYou-do-youā feel free to get someoneās immunocompromised grandma mortally ill on the subway.)
Thereās only one mention of the pandemic on Harrisā campaign websiteās Issues page at the moment, only in passing while talking about automotive industry jobs. The pandemic is in the past, this seems to say. Thereās no need to mention it except to compare what she has done under Biden vs. what Trump did. Biden may have stepped down from running after getting covid for at least the third time and possibly suffering lasting health issues including possible covid-accelerated dementia from it but thereās no need to address that. Simply move on and forget. Maybe she canāt even admit that Biden fucked up royally in 2022, she just has to save face for the DNC. Or sheās trying to appeal to anti-vax anti-mask āNever Trumpā Republicans who still wonāt vote for her. I donāt pretend to understand what sheās thinking of during her campaignās numerous missteps so far.
We donāt live in 2019 anymore but so many people seem trapped there. They think that we who are covid conscious are unwilling to move on and are trapped in 2020, but I find that often weāre more attuned to the actual situation going on. So many people seem to be unaware of the long term consequences of catching covid, especially multiple times. So many people passively question why everyone seems to be sick all the time or why there are so many more heart attacks and such happening in young people or why there seem to be more dangerous drivers on the road or why there are so many fewer workers these days but never stop to pursue the answer to the most clear solution. Occamās Razor never had a chance.
The pandemic has changed us all on levels we probably wonāt realize for years or decades, but I feel like many people who have moved back to 2019 are worse for it. Worse empathy for those who had any empathy at all beforehand. Worse science literacy, especially amongst medical professionals. (āYouāre not going to get sick in a hospital!ā āWhy would we wear masks in the cancer ward!?ā) Worse critical thinking. Worse memory. I know people deal with trauma in different ways but so many people just seem to be so avoidant that any tiny reminder of it makes them want it gone gone gone. Or they seem to just sigh and laugh internally at those of us taking it seriously. āYou just have anxiety!ā they might say, even when in my humble opinion nothing is more rational than our desire to not get sick. Not to mention all the harassment people have gotten for doing things like masking because using a simple medical device has turned into a moral panic in some spaces. (I know of some people who would mask donāt anymore because of social pressure or outright threats used against them.)
Itās hard to have hope for the future and yet I hang in there. Maybe someday Iāll be able to work in person again. Maybe someday I will be able to be on a plane again and travel outside of the US or go to visit friends in parts of the US Iāve never been to. Maybe someday I will be able to eat inside a restaurant again instead of getting takeout or (rarely) taking a risk by eating outside of one. Maybe someday Iāll be able to casually sip an iced latte in a coffee shop while reading to pass the time again. Maybe someday I will be able to go to concerts or conventions or crowded outdoor festivals or indoor parties or board game nights or even ride the bus without having to ask myself if itās worth the risk and without having to wear a mask. But with the infection rates weāve been seeing that feels far off and most people donāt seem to care about making that world a reality.
I hope that there will be some treatment to finally end covid-19 and its numerous lineages that continue to mutate and spread across the world like wildfire. I feel like thatās one of the only hopes. We had a chance to end covid in other ways but our government leaders and greed from corporations failed us. Yet even with that, I know that if a treatment using some kind of super effective antibodies or such is developed, itāll probably still be kept from many people by corporate greed. But still I hope for the future even if that hope is dim.
Until then Iām largely housebound. And I will forever be changed by this pandemic, largely not for the better. Iām not sure Iāll ever be able to trust people in general again. Iām not sure how I would cope if covid suddenly disappeared from the face of the planet, like with magic. Maybe I would just completely lose it. Maybe Iād bounce back completely in a few months. (Unlikely. Iām still disabled and chronically ill from pre-covid times. My life would still have big challenges.) But Iām pretty sure it wonāt disappear suddenly.
