2020 was arguably the worst year for humanity since World War II, and even now the pandemic persists. As of late April 2021, over 3.1 million people have died of Covid-19. In America — the country with the world’s biggest economy — 580,000 have perished, nearly 20% of the global death toll.
While the pandemic is still raging on, there’s reason to be optimistic about the future. The vaccines that have been rolled out have been largely effective. It’s quite possible that when summer arrives, people will be able to attend baseball games, concerts, parties, movie theaters and go on vacations again. We might have taken these things for granted in the past, but when the day comes when a bit of normalcy returns, we will savor it. But then, yeah, we’ll eventually reach a point where we’ll take it for granted again. But in the meantime, here are some things that we’ve learned:
1. Most have been willing to make sacrifices
Sure, there are those entitled Karens and…um…male Karens who blabber on about how masks are “muzzles” and blah blah blah freedom, but most people understand the seriousness of the situation and recognize that social distancing and the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask today will pay dividends in the not-too-distant future. Although super-spreader events made big headlines, there were tens of millions of people who did the responsible thing and put their social lives on hold in order to prevent more hospitalizations and deaths.
2. A deeper appreciation for frontline workers
The pandemic highlights just how essential doctors, nurses, teachers, meat plant workers, grocery store and restaurant employees, police officers, delivery drivers, social workers, and janitors are. They go to work at their own peril to make sure we’re fed, protected and cared for. They also have to put up with screaming Karens who argue about masks or the fact that their Chicken McNuggets took 20 minutes to make due to long queues.
3. Science has saved us yet again
Refusing to believe in science isn’t new. Notable astronomers were excommunicated from the Church centuries ago for proving the Earth rotated around the Sun. But scientific breakthroughs are why lives get saved. We owe a debt of gratitude to the researchers who developed vaccines in record time, allowing us to (hopefully) end the pandemic soon. Of course, there are cynical folks — especially politicians — who will exploit the uncertainty for their own personal ends. The fact is, even the most seasoned virologists will struggle when a new virus is unleashed upon the world. But their knowledge is improving by the day.
