For
most of the country, this is about the time COVID-19, two years ago,
when cases start turning up. To date, we’re closing in on
950,000 deaths in the U.S. and nearly six million globally. On this
anniversary, I still maintainthat tens of thousands of these deaths
were preventable and that irresponsible government officials need to
be held accountable.
We
know about pandemics; they’ve been circling the globe for
centuries. We even knew this one was coming. We know how viruses are
transmitted. We know that masks (any mask) and isolation are
deterrents to viruses. Yet we still are acting like neophytes as
people continue to die.
The
country is seeing a slight dip in COVID-19 cases. Mandates are
dropping. So what do people start doing? Flying. We are about to see
a repeat pattern of just before the Omicron variant hit. We know that
the longer viruses are not put in check, the more likely mutations
will happen.
We
know that this pandemic has affected us in ways that we don’t
even understand yet. We’ve learned a lot about one another
during this crisis.
We
know that the virus has been politicized along racial lines and party
affiliations. We know that some people will try to kill someone for
wearing a mask or not wearing one, depending on what your political
views are.
We
know that people living in pro-trump counties are three times more
likely to die from the virus than those who in counties that voted
for now-President Biden. We know that folks who believed the hype and
refused to wear masks or get vaccinated are among the dead.
What
we know about unvaccinated people is that they have wreaked havoc on
the health care system and put our frontline workers at deadly risks.
We know those workers are overworked and traumatized. We know they
have also been victims of the virus and many have died.
We
know that about 200,000 children have been orphaned by the virus by
losing parents or their main guardians. We know that the human and
societal cost of this fact is incalculable.
We
know that our mental health has suffered because of anxiety,
isolation and depression. There’s now a COVID-related term for
this; psychologists call it languishing. We know that drug use
increased over these last two years, especially opioids. Drug
overdoses surged. We know that suicides increased for people of color
and young adult males.
Virtual
learning? We know that there’s virtually no learning happening
in most urban public schools. We know that the achievement gap grew
and that an educational crisis is looming in the future.
We
know that COVID-19 has decimated the economy, sending tens of
millions of workers from the tourism, hospitality and the service
industries into the unemployment ranks. We know that many small
businesses, particularly restaurants, will shutter permanently.
As
lay people, we know a lot about COVID-19 now, thanks to
epidemiologists and other practitioners of science. How will we take
this knowledge that we’ve learned through fire and create a
more humane, more rational, more loving, more just world for 2022? Or
will have to endure another year of ignorance and selfishness hiding
behind patriotic slogans as white folks talk about their individual
rights being violated at the expense of Black and Brown lives.
Let’s
see what progress we can report on next year as to how we tamed this
beast and have been able to move towards our higher selves.
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