Today marks a year since the first traceable corona case. As of today, there are 11.6M total American cases with 250K deaths and 55.6M global cases with 1.34M deaths. On November 16, 2020, there were 1,724 new cases on America soil alone. A 55-year-old from Hubei, China is the closest that we have to the first corona case. Although, we aren't even sure on this and it could have easily originated elsewhere earlier. Scientists are sure it started in the pangolian bat, but which human had it first and how is still uncertain. The 55-year-old's case was already more than a month prior to the first corona cases documented by doctors in December. There were up to five to sixty new cases every day in that one-month time period.
I bring this up as a reminder to myself, and consequently others, of the current situation. Online, I see many people that have simply...given up on quarantine. People are taking vacations, having weddings, going to parties, etc. And I get it, it's summer and this whole thing was meant to be over back in May. But it didn't end. Covid is still here, killing hundreds every day, and the vaccine we have is still in the testing phase. It was slowly getting under control, but because of a reckless summer, it's spiked again. My state and several others are going back into Phase 1 with no signs of progressing any time soon. Prisoners are being hired to bury dead covid bodies
And no, I'm not saying covid is the end of the world. Honestly, it shouldn't be. But it very well could. With a 99.7% recovery rate, it really should've been as simple as to control the spread and get a vaccine. Once herd immunity is established, we can go ahead and start treating the virus like the flu. But because of how stubborn and reckless this country can be, here we are. A new spike, a new thread, a new statistic. And everyday I fear more and more that this might become our new way of life. There are babies who were born in March who are now approaching nine months. Nine-month-old infants who have lived entirely in quarantine.
Eventually the virus will die down, yes. But this is generational trauma. More Gen Z and Millennials will be afraid to touch, afraid to go out, afraid of another outbreak. Yes we joke about it, but we're all so scared of losing lives to it. Even those who pretend it isn't there, their whole shtick is "don't let covid control your life." The fear of not living has pushed them to risk even being alive. But the way I see it, we've already lost everything to this virus. We've already lost an entire year--no way it'll be resolved by March 2021--and we're on the projectile to lose more. The world is operating completely virtually in some places. Who's to say it'll ever go back? The reliance on electronics and wi-fi has skyrocketed, but people are getting comfortable with their screen time nearly tripling. If we are ever free again, would we really want to go back? How many kids would go back to school? How many with options to work from him would start going into the office? How many clubs or extracurricular would re-set themselves up physically?
Humans are notoriously lazy creatures and have spent the past thousands of years gradually making life easier. In the past few decades we've seen a decrease in actual human contact with all the other options available. While I don't mean to whine about how terrible phones are, it's undeniable that they've transformed how we socialize. I know it's changed how I socialize. And I truly fear that if I get comfortable with an entire relationship being over a screen and never be able to fully feel an intrapersonal bond again.
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CDC | 8 Things to Know about Vaccine Planning
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