If I decided to ask each person I encountered over the next few weeks how they spent 2020, I’d probably get the same answer, right? We were all in lockdown.
But were we? Certainly not everywhere and definitely not everyone. Who you are and where you lived made a big difference during the pandemic. The severity of your pandemic experience differed drastically from people living in other areas. Within an hour’s drive, in some cases, you could arrive in a surreally different landscape where local customs seemed unnatural. Even though we all lived through the pandemic together, our subjective experiences were more isolated and unique than we might realize.
This meme is funny ‘cuz it’s true; it sums California up pretty well. In Orange County, quietly disappearing behind the limelight of LA or San Diego, you might have been able to miss the pandemic altogether (if you didn’t happen to watch TV or visit social media). The sheriff from one of the South Orange County beach cities made a public announcement letting us know that state imposed beach closures and mask mandates would not be enforced. Walking down its trendy little street, seeing a number of shops and restaurants still open and very few masks, it felt similar to normal times. Yet only an hour up the 5 in LA people had to be vaccinated to do most anything. It was weird.
Albert and I visited Austin not too long “after” the pandemic. We still had to wear masks on our flights, but other than that, things felt somewhat normal. When we’d mention we were from California, people gave us this sympathetic look, saying they heard things were crazy over there. I suppose they’d spoken with the wave of California residents who had flooded into Texas. We’d just nod and say yeah, but I was secretly confused. We were from California and it wasn’t that bad. At the time, I had no idea how bad it had gotten in the cities. I hadn’t fully realized the severity of the bubbles yet.
Oddly, I ended up having one of my most ridiculous pandemic experiences on that trip, in Texas. We ducked into a little downtown coffee shop to grab a drink to go. The young lady behind the counter insisted (rudely) that we mask up. Not a problem. We grabbed masks from the pile available for customers and ordered our drinks. Note that three feet behind us sat a couple at a table, gabbing away mask free. After collecting our drinks, we left, tossing the masks in the trash. I left pondering the young lady; she was devoted to her fairy tale version of how air molecules work yet had no concern for the mountain of masks amassing in our landfills. Her perceived reality superseded the cold, hard reality that those masks will outlast us all. It was weird.
Rather ironic to have had my mask story unfold in Texas, where they made headlines throughout the pandemic for refusing to wear masks. Even for refusing to allow them. However, just a couple of weeks ago, Albert’s nieces returned to school in El Paso. With masks. With masks? How can a school in Texas still require masks while California is going back mask free? I hate to keep saying it, but this is weird.
It got me to thinking about how different our perspectives are regarding the pandemic.
Even if you’ve known someone for years, it’s difficult to be sure exactly where they might fall on the spectrum of pandemic fear. Geography and ideology coalesced during the pandemic, creating unique bubbles that defined perspective. We now seem to all be peeping out at the world through the soapy film of our local bubble. While physical location played the primary role in defining these bubbles, there were other influential factors such as political affiliation, whether you have children or not, whether you knew someone who passed due to the virus, or whether you were working from home or classified as an essential worker. But what if we ignore all that and just look at the data?
Data Speaks Louder Than Narratives
Data has been rolling in from around the world as well as from here in the states. If we look at a map (data from August 7, 2022) showing the cumulative cases in the states, we notice that California tops the list with Texas coming in second. In fact, looking at the top four states adds Florida and New York to the list; two red and two blue states. I mention red or blue not to get political, but to note that these states took very different approaches to masks, lockdowns and vaccinations yet still find themselves wading through eerily similar data. If we look at cases per 100,000 individuals, Cali still leads Texas: 27,523 to 26,978. The two states could not have managed the pandemic more differently, yet they have similar numbers. Hhmmm. Weird again.
Because we get emotional when thinking of home, let’s look abroad. Australia, for instance, had some of the most strict lockdowns and nearly contained the virus in 2020 and 2021. They also had pretty stringent vaccination requirements. Australia should have been a model for lockdowns and vaccinations; the omicron virus was essentially introduced to a highly vaccinated population. However, in 2022, Australia has suffered a boom in cases. The strange thing is that many of these cases (up to 85% in some states) are amongst the vaccinated. Only yesterday I came across that old video clip of Biden insisting that vaccination will prevent infection. Er, maybe the hide ‘till you get the vaccination then hide behind the vaccination (and the boosters) so you’ll be safe approach wasn’t super effective either?
On the other extreme, Sweden had rather lax shutdown policies. They approached the pandemic with the goal of balancing the threat of the illness with the impact on citizens and the economy. When we look at deaths per 100,000 citizens, Sweden comes in at 192. Considering their relaxed approach, one might expect this to be a high number, yet the data confirms deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. are 314, in the U.K. it’s at 273 and South Korea is at about 50. The U.K. had strict lockdowns, South Korea was able to avoid them by implementing their response framework: detection, containment, and treatment. All of this data seems to point us to the conclusion that when it comes to the whole pandemic thing, the experts might not actually be experts. It might not matter what you do. It’s a virus, it’s out there, and we will just need to live with it.
Data Schmata
Not that data really matters at this point; it doesn’t seem to interest people. Perhaps because there is so much data, they can simply look to find some that supports whatever they happen to already believe. Or perhaps the data is offensive. There hasn’t truly been a push toward improving health and decreasing obesity, although data suggests doing so may reduce severity of symptoms. Maybe the data does not align with corporate interests. Big Pharma has been generating big revenue (in the tens of billions of dollars) and they’ve grown to become such big boys! Perhaps the data is being ignored because it interferes with… whatever is going on here or here. Head Start, an early education program serving low-income children, is still requiring masks. These examples of data being cast aside to preserve a particular narrative or agenda are rather concerning.
One thing that the pandemic did so well was prompt people to abandon their logic. (Is this the one unifying force we’ve witnessed over the past few years?) At first, none of us knew what was coming. But after the data began pouring in, we learned plenty, yet we kept going on as if we had not. It’s the same as boiling a pot of water, letting it sit for two days, then still using pot holders to move it. It is not hot anymore, but if we apply pandemic logic, we’d still be using protective gloves when the water had long since returned to room temp. It’s weird.
We suppressed discussion of alternate viewpoints, even when they ended up having merit. Consider how people were treated if they questioned the vaccines on any level, yet now the CDC says vaccination doesn’t matter. They have quietly removed claims from their site touting the safety of the vaccines. I’m sure everyone who was kicked off twitter or youtube will get an apology before being reinstated, right? Then again, corrections and/or apologies are not of our world anymore. Accountability will probably be the next word that is redefined after recession.
Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…
Regardless of your personal beliefs, doesn’t all of this, at a minimum, cause you to take pause for reflection on what you were told and therefore what you based your decisions upon? Does this agitate any kind of response, such as anger or resentment, toward those who insisted they had the answers when we now clearly see they did not? Is it possible that once again fear has been used to manipulate us?
Fear has always been a catalyst for abandoning things of value. If a California inferno was thundering my way, I’d abandon whatever was necessary to survive. It applies to the individual and to the group. It was no different after 9/11, when we permitted the Patriot Act. It is not different now; however, we have yet to discover how much we’ve handed over this time. The pandemic hit us all differently, but we’ll all pay the price. In the real world, eventually.
But we might not acknowledge the consequences any time soon if we remain safely tucked away in the realities created within our local bubbles.
In that way, the geographic pandemic bubbles have managed to outgrow the tangible world and have elevated themselves into alternate realities. The mindset that was born from your friendly local pandemic bubble has become your new reality. Since these new realities are impervious to data, they seem unlikely to change. I can’t help but wonder if this fragmented country can ever return to a shared normal. Has some hungry creature gobbled up all our breadcrumbs, devouring any hope of us finding our way back?
We certainly have not been able to agree in the past. Perhaps it is wiser to allow the past to remain and simply focus on the future.
To stand strong and stand together, we must share some sort of foundation. This foundation has been eroding for some time; the division that swelled under the reign of Trump has sought refuge here along with the huddled masses. Our divided nation was further broken into isolated pandemic bubbles which have taken on their own identities. Some of us still covet the perceived safety of vaccine mandates, quarantines and wearing masks while we drive alone in our cars. Others are ready to burn every mask ever made while cursing the pharmaceutical industry and mourning the death of our once trusted institutions. Where will we find this common ground to build together?
It is a doozy of a question. The only answer I can see involves some pretty big pins needed to pop these pandemic bubbles. As long as you’ve reviewed and considered information from various sources to determine a point of view that you are not only able to justify, but are also ready to abandon should better data come your way, you’re doing your part. The best way to escape the bubbles we’ve been trapped under is with sharp, independent, critical thinking.
Living in Chicago has so many advantages for me, except for their overreaction to the pandemic. It's too intense for me to express how I feel on an open platform. At some point, I'd like to share my observations with you directly. My fear about all the significant changes happening now led me to start an additional newsletter called In These Interesting Times, but I've been too overwhelmed to even write about them. Irony, there.
I'm so glad you brought up in a very subtle and gentle way the topic of being trapped in these different perspectives.