COVID Three Years Later

Almost as suddenly as COVID blew onto the scene in March 2020, it disappeared with barely a whisper by March 2023 as we reached the three year mark.

Few people continue to wear masks. I noticed more masks the other day when I made a late night run to Wegmans than I have in months. It reminded me of when Carin was on the oncology floor at U/Penn and the patients would leave their rooms after 8 pm when there were less people (and less germs) around. 

Every so often you find a label asking you to stand six feet away from others, but they are not obeyed.

In May, the CDC and the WHO declared an end to the COVID pandemic. We are going to have to live with it. Deaths are down sharply. Weeks go by without hearing about someone catching it. Most people are either vaccinated or have had COVID, or (like us) both. 

It is as if it never existed, and certainly that it was never a major threat.

Very eerie.

As we are on the other side of the pandemic (which I truly feel we can say at this point), I think back to the beginning when we tried to predict how long this would last. The original request was we all stay home for two weeks. Then a month. Then two months. None of which was realistic because some people (medical and food store workers come to mind) had to leave their homes. Some people were trapped away from home as the world suddenly shut down and had to fly home (we have a friend named Jeff who was in Italy, Wendy and Dave were in Indonesia, a friend's son was in Australia, but decided to stay). 

Three years. The end of Ashley's high school. The first two and a half years of college. I'll be eternally grateful the pandemic abated in time for her to study abroad. That it paused enough that Yoran could study abroad last year and live with us). As Ashley enters her senior year I am beginning to have hope that she will have a normal graduation from college, and accepting her high school will never make up for missing prom and graduation. How could they? She is fine. She never would have been able to attend with Anna (or another girl as her date).

I find it coincidental that the declaration ended on Lag Bag'omer, the 33rd day of counting the omer, which also celebrates the end of the plague. A bonfire is included. Well played.

And now we move forward and dream.