It’s been almost a full year since it started to dawn on most Americans that the world as we knew it was about to spin out of control. This week last year was eerily quiet. News from China, Italy, and Britain was alarming, but the virus was “somewhere else” – until suddenly, it was “here.” It had made it to the West Coast; then out of the blue, New York hospitals were filling up.
We were about to start scurrying about in an unfocused frenzy, crowding into stores looking for toilet paper, scooping up disinfecting wipes, and slamming our doors to ward off everyone except delivery people. We had no idea how the virus spread, or what to expect. All we knew was that this novel coronavirus was dangerous, deadly, and lurked among us. What should we do? Whom should we turn to?
Our politicians had no idea what to tell us, but pretended they did. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that mistakes were made. We learned that promised stockpiles of COVID tests, personal protective equipment and lifesaving ventilators didn’t actually exist. Our public health officials got up to speed quickly, but were muzzled by our politicians. By the time we understood the gravity of the situation, it was too late.
We know a great deal more about this virus now than we did a year ago. We know how it spreads, on tiny aerosolized particles that can remain suspended in the air for long periods, especially indoors. We know that a person doesn’t have to be symptomatic to spread it. We know what it does inside the body, commandeering our cells and turning them into factories for its own propagation, wreaking havoc or killing some of us, even if it leaves others unscathed.
We know that masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene work to curb its spread. And, on a much brighter note, we now have three vaccines that are highly effective, and can ultimately protect us all.
The groundwork for these vaccines was years in the development. The collaboration making them possible in such short order is to be applauded, not feared. They will be here for all of us – soon.
An end is in sight, but – and this is important – it is not here yet. The virus is still busy doing what it does best, multiplying and mutating every chance it gets into something more contagious, or even more deadly. And yet, our politicians are again bowing to political pressure to loosen restrictions, before it makes any sense to do that. Our president calls some governors Neanderthals. Honestly, from a public health perspective, I personally think that isn’t too strong a word.
Dr. Rochelle Walenksy, the head of the CDC, and our trusted Dr. Anthony Fauci tell us it’s too soon to reopen our economy. The more we listen to them and hang in there with masks and social distancing now, the sooner we’ll be able to put this all in our rear view mirror. Yes, we’re tired of this, but the governors who tell their citizens it’s fine to get back to normal are failing to see the COVID surge their orders will create on the road just ahead. If we think we’re exhausted now, just picture how we’ll be feeling then.
(Millie LaFontaine lives in Concord.)