The topic of this post is distressing, but I ask my readers to take a deep breath and look further into the future than early fall.
Here in the United States, individual states are beginning to relax the restrictions put in place to try to flatten the curve. In response, people are flocking to restaurants, bars, and shopping areas, neither wearing masks nor social distancing. Of course, many people are maintaining the habits they established over the last couple of months. But others, overjoyed at the end to stay-at-home orders, are ready to return to normal. I get it. Even an introvert like me can get fed up with so much time at home, away from people I’d like to see face-to-face.
But epidemiologists have pointed out that we’re not out of the woods yet. And history backs them up. The 1918 flu pandemic was brutal, killing more U.S. soldiers than died in battle in World War I. It disrupted the economy. And it lasted more than a year, starting in the spring of 1918 in a relatively mild form and then coming back in the fall in a deadlier fashion. The pandemic came to an end in the summer of 1919.
There are a lot of unanswered questions around the coronavirus, and the U.S. changed a lot in 100 years. Just how much this pandemic will resemble that deadly flu remains to be seen. We don’t know if having the virus offers durable immunity, a necessity if we are to achieve herd immunity. We don’t know if the virus will mutate. Despite promises, we don’t know when a vaccine or cure will be available. Although the news is sometimes hopeful — as I write this, the headlines are proclaiming that there are some promising human safety trials underway for one vaccine — the fact is that vaccines normally take years to develop.
If it’s going to be a long haul, what can we do?
We often laud the parents of Baby Boomers — known as the Greatest Generation — for their willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good during World War II. Now is the time for us to imitate them and pull together, adjusting our attitudes and behaviors for the sake of those around us.
- We can heed the call of people like North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, who asked people to stop making masks a political issue. We can, as he advised, “dial up [our] empathy and… understanding.” Wearing a mask isn’t about being fearful. It’s about caring for others.
- Building on that point, we can stop seeing our choices as a matter of personal risk, and start asking ourselves how our choices are putting others at risk.
- We can develop patience and a willingness to endure hardship for the greater good.
- We can stay home — from work, from running errands, from social events — when we are sick. I acknowledge that there are people who have no paid sick leave and who may be putting their jobs on the line if they call in sick. So…
- As I’ve noted in this blog before, we can pass legislation that requires employers to provide paid sick leave for their employees, not merely for COVID-19 but for other illnesses.
- Employers can encourage employees to continue telecommuting at least part of the time if they are able to perform their duties at home. (Some large tech companies, including Facebook and Google, have already done this.)
- Democrats and Republicans can come together to provide better long-term relief for people who have lost their jobs and for struggling small businesses.
- We can exercise our creativity and look for solutions to problems caused or exacerbated by this pandemic, including unemployment, mental health issues, and domestic violence.
We must not allow a second wave to surprise us.
I will jump for joy if this pandemic comes to an end in the near future. But we shouldn’t count on that. We need to prepare now for the possibility that we will face future shut-downs, if not as a nation (something we haven’t done so far) at least in specific areas. We need to make sure we are well-equipped for a surge in hospitalizations. We need to expect that we may face further layoffs if a surge in illnesses causes more people to stay home — voluntarily or not.
Optimism can be a wonderful thing. When we enter a period of difficulty feeling sure that it will be over soon, that can give us strength to tackle our most difficult days. But we need to temper that optimism with a dose of reality. Sometimes difficulties last much longer than we would like. We need to be prepared to deal with this epidemic for many more months, even as we hope that we are wrong and that the threat will be over soon.