We Are All In This Together, But …

I have heard “we are all in this together” several times to describe the experience of COVID-19 that is occurring globally this year. Depending on the country you reside in, it can be a very different experience. Within that country, whether you live in a town or a city, are rich or poor, are able to work from home or became unemployed or your business shut down or your business is managing fine or having an amazing year, have universal healthcare or not, have a national coordinated effort to fight the virus or are just winging it, this is NOT the same for all of us.

There are countries and regions within countries that have been largely spared the virus. There are countries and regions with countries that are hotspots. There are responses to the prevention of the spread of the virus that are able to control the virus until an effective vaccination can be made, tested, and provided. There are responses by individuals of defiance, disbelief, and refusing to wear a mask as a preventative measure when in the presence of other people you did not quarantine with.

The U.S.A. is one such country that is famous for the division over the handling of COVID-19. There is no national directive to guide the nation at such a crucial time. Each state and city and smaller areas within the state are making up their own rules. There is much division, confusion, and animosity. The inconvenience of wearing a mask is much like the inconvenience of wearing a condom to avoid spreading STDs and AIDS. There are those who would rather take the risk and not wear one, despite the risk it poses to others.

Other countries are also divided, often when the leader of the country is ambivalent or not willing to take a hard stance. There are the business and economic ramifications of the shutdowns that many countries imposed at the beginning of the spread of the virus in their countries. Controversial decisions that were thrust upon the public, often without safety nets in place to protect their livelihoods, homes, and choice in the matter. Thus making it hard for the public to have to choose between possibly dealing with or dying from COVID-19 or dealing with or dying from poverty and hunger.

There were those saying how this was easy because all you had to do was “stay at home”. Well, for some that was easy. Some people had well stocked pantries, sufficient funds to go without working or managed to work from home, had wifi and other comforts, as well as knowing that they would not be threatened with evictions. This was not the case for millions of people around the world. Some lived in fear from the moment the lockdown was imposed. Some were afraid of the enforcement of the lockdown, which was severe in its punishment for any violation in some countries. Some did not have the means to shut everything down for an indeterminate amount of time and still be able to have a job, paycheck, or a home.

We are all in this together, but definitely not experiencing it the same way. Then there are the essential workers who have been in this fight since the beginning. They have had to work regardless of the risk to their health or that of their loved ones from whom they had to quarantine from or clean very carefully before returning home. The healthcare workers were praised as heroes and clapped for nightly at the end of their grueling shifts from March to May. Then the clapping stopped in many places.

The essential workers include grocery workers, delivery people, warehouse workers, cleaning staff, postal workers, sanitation crews, as well as healthcare workers in hospitals, nursing homes, and other caretaking positions. They have been dealing with companies that provided masks and other preventative measures as well as to ones that provided no protection. So businesses were forced to close because of the infections of its employees while others were ordered to remain open.

There were arguments about the age ranges and their vulnerability or considered fairly immune to it. There were those who were willing to sacrifice older and immune compromised individuals in order to open the economy. The care offered for those who were hospitalized with the virus differed. Some were sent home without being properly treated, while others were admitted and treated. There were the nurses and doctors pleading for sufficient PPEs (personal protective equipment), only to not get them, while others got PPEs they did not need.

There will be some who were traumatized by the loss of loved ones, others ravaged by the virus that has refused to heal (long haulers), and still others who will come out of this time nearly unscathed and untouched by it. This virus is not the equalizer that it has been called as the disparities of wealth, income, access to healthcare, employment, and other necessities cause the inequalities to be readily apparent.

Once this virus is vanquished, whether by vaccine, medicine, or it goes away similar to the Spanish Flu in 1919, hopefully those inequalities will be addressed before the next virus or virulent flu strikes. May the world learn the lessons of COVID-19 so that the deaths and illnesses of those who got it as well as those hit economically or otherwise will not be in vain.