Millions of us were going to die quickly. Masks would be a permanent part of life. No one would ever shake hands again. Cruise ships would cease to exist.
Many things were predicted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked its five-year anniversary last week. Some weren’t as bad as forecast. Some were worse.
But as we look back, it’s worth asking ourselves, “How well did we handle it?” If we’re being honest, the answer wasn’t always great.
If you can’t change the wind, they say, change your sails. Consider then how the world changed in the immediate aftermath of COVID’s arrival:
Schools closed. Children began something called “remote learning.” Parents freaked out if another child sneezed. Even toddlers wore face masks.
Certain businesses were doomed. Any place that relied on crowds in close proximity — nightclubs, bars, concert halls, sporting events — shut down, wondering whether they’d ever open again. Musicians and stage actors were suddenly out of work.
Other businesses boomed. Toilet paper was in high demand. Hand sanitizer manufacturers hit the jackpot. Peloton bikes went through the roof.
Meanwhile, social practices were severely altered. Weddings were canceled. Church services erased. Holiday gatherings were discouraged, if not against the law.
We stopped seeing each other’s mouths. Our very sense of space was flipped. We went from a society that bro-hugged and smooched to one where you had to stand on little stickers, 6 feet apart.
And anyone who refused to wear a mask was an anarchist.
Lessons were learned
We behaved bravely, and badly.
The brave were the first responders, doctors, nurses, ambulance workers, etc., who risked their health — and in many cases their lives — to treat patients with care and dignity. And the scientists who worked feverishly to develop a vaccine in record time.
The bad were the panicked and the shamers. The people who reported on their neighbors for having an extra family member at Thanksgiving. The people who wore masks while riding bicycles, then screamed at others walking outside maskless. The media, who, instead of reporting, lectured and scolded, while endlessly piquing ratings by running numbers of the dead on their screens, (even though we later determined that some people listed as dead from COVID actually died of something else.)
We fired people for not getting vaccinated. We shut down doctors who dared to suggest alternatives. We denied social media access to contrarians, some of whom might have been correct.
And our leaders were less than transparent. President Joe Biden and others wrongly stated that the vaccine would keep you from getting the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo was found to have grossly understated COVID deaths in New York nursing homes.
Fear makes us small, and many of us, in behaving fearfully, behaved smally. We pointed fingers at Asian Americans. We fought in supermarkets over shortages. Our leaders shut down businesses that really posed no threats (like lawn care) yet were photographed partying or eating maskless at restaurants.
And, perhaps worst of all, some of us lied and cheated to grab chunks of federal money meant to help others. Billions were lost. The fraud and abuse of COVID funds stands as one of the more shameful behaviors of this American century.
Right and wrong
Yet here we are, five years later, still standing. True, certain industries haven’t fully recovered. The airlines, quick to take bailouts and to lay off staff, still have shortages that aren’t being met. The restaurant business has yet to bounce back. The car business struggles. Commercial real estate is sitting with a glut of half-empty office buildings. And both the government and the private sector are battling the new entitlement of stay-home-and-work mentality.
But for all that, the most dire mortality predictions never happened. Cruise ships are still in business. Concert crowds are fine (note Taylor Swift’s tour). Sporting events are sold out. People hug and kiss. The handshake is back.
And a little over a month ago, during the last week of January, more Americans died of the flu than of COVID.
“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative,’’ H.G. Wells said. We didn’t perish. We did adapt. We are likely still adapting.
But the one thing experts all seem to agree on is that we will face a pandemic again, probably sooner than we’d like.
If so, there is much to learn from what we did right this time, but even more to learn from what we did wrong.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.
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