It's here. Vax day. It feels historical and monumental and shivery all at once. What a life-changer this last year has been. Remember the first days of mask-wearing and the other-worldness of stores and streets full of people wearing masks? Now I startle when someone is not wearing one. Ugh, anti-maskers and all the political undertones. Past TV scenes of large groups together not wearing masks stirs an ache in me. Wow, it used to be like that... we could do that without ramifications.
I am super-curious of what we'll learn in the years to come. Why do some people who get COVID-19 end up on ventilators while others suffer only mild symptoms? Shoot, why do some people have a stronger adverse reaction to the vaccine than others? I hope some investigative journalist will canvas this virus's path and write a book like Randy Shilts's, And the Band Played On, chasing down every thread and weaving together the psychology of how Americans reacted to the threat of this virus. There are definitely parallels between this pandemic and the AIDS epidemic: people who want to deny the bad news, people who don't want to change their lifestyle if it doesn't directly threaten them - or even if it does. Then there are the ones who understand early, and try to get out ahead of the virus, the champions for reason and health and science. In both epidemics, Anthony Fauci is/was a key player. In both, the reaction to the virus became highly-politicized. Which saddens me. I wish humans could be more objective about health issues.
And I think where I have been with this... super-scared at first. I remember going back to WI in March the week that "Shelter-in-place" entered our vocabularies. I was shopping at Home Depot with my elderly father (who is already vaccinated, yes!) and was making sure I was the one touching items and not him and trying to hurry through the store to get him back to the safety of his van, receiving texts from family members warning us that the virus could live on surfaces for days and that we should wipe down everything... To fights with my Quarantine Partner over how safe we needed to be... To now where I barely worry about surface spread, but wear a mask whenever I am indoors with other people. To now where I am comfortable being at school with half of our students reporting each day, and look forward to feeling safe when 100% of them are in person. The dream of 100% in-person was unthinkable until vaccinations.
That is the other piece. The students through this. Some have played a yearlong game of hooky; others have reached out to their teachers and are thriving academically. Most have found a way to get their social fix - whether it be in the Zoom calls with me (!) or connecting with cousins or friends. Tiktok needs a medal. It gave students a place to be goofy - or glamorous, as they presume. In either case, it has connected kids. And we will need to reconnect many of them to academics. What will this look like? I'm ready to figure it out.
Rolling up my sleeve and ready.
