Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of September 7

I certainly can't speak for all of America, but from my perspective, my country has simply given up. I don't know if we ever even had a chance in the first place.

This whole pandemic has revealed how selfish, impatient, and conflict-addicted we are, and neither those nor COVID are going away any time soon. We don't have an exit strategy for this pandemic save for a vaccine. That won't be here for a while, and it's clear we're incapable of waiting it out. This is as much a structural flaw as it is a character one. America was not set up to handle this institutionally, much less individually, and certainly not collectively.

I had an appointment with my doctor this week, which I'd originally postponed from back in March when things first shut down. We spent the majority of the time talking about COVID, of course, and he said that I should prepare for the idea that we will be doing mitigation through masks and distancing for a long time -- possibly years. He said that I should expect that people I know and care about will get it. He said that I should come to terms with the reality that I will probably get it at some point.

He wasn't trying to be an alarmist; he was simply managing my expectations. I appreciated it, and what he was saying makes sense. In the US, we have had consistent continual infections for months now. Why should that suddenly change? Why wouldn't he base his predictions on the months worth of irrefutable data we now have? Even with a low statistical chance of getting infected on any given day, the longer this persists, the higher the aggregate chance. And because it has already gone this long, signs at present point to it going a lot longer.

I appreciated his predictions because the entire time this has been going on I've been troubled and, honestly, a little bit infuriated by seemingly everyone's short-sighted optimism. Since this started, there has been a sort of rolling horizon that seems to only extend out a few weeks, past which there's a compelling illusory belief that COVID-19 will just sort of be "over", somehow, magically. We're now half a year in and many people still seem to think that. They don't envision a COVID Thanksgiving, a COVID Christmas, or a COVID New Year's Day. My coworkers look at me in surprise when I say that I don't think we will return to full in-person schooling not just this calendar year, but this academic year. I think we'll be in masks and separate desks until June.

I'd love to be wrong about that, but I'm surprised at how few of them have thought that far out. Too many people still can only see that close horizon and the empty promises beyond it. I wonder if part of the reason we're giving up is because that illusion is starting to fade. We're starting to realize that safety isn't just a few weeks away. How many more can we go, hoping for a relief that never actually shows up? How long until we collectively realize there isn't a return to normal waiting just around the corner? The only thing around the corner right now is an existential threat patiently watching us let our guards down, whether out of ignorance, malice, or fatigue.

I'm tired of this. I'm an introverted homebody through and through, and even I am starting to feel the limitations of this lifestyle. I'm also not in control, which is maddening. It's not about what I do, but what we all do. I stayed home for almost six months -- SIX MONTHS -- only to be pushed back into a building with my coworkers and, soon, students. I did everything right for myself, but now my outcomes are dependent not on me but on them.

Back when governments were looking at reopening bars and restaurants and other gathering spaces after shutting them down there was a lot of talk of phases and meeting certain benchmarks before we could move forward. If the data didn't support it, then we didn't reopen -- simple as that, but that's all gone now. There are no metrics or data guiding the reopening of schools. We just gave up and said "fuck it, send the kids back", basing our decisions not on public health but on the calendar. "It's August: back to school!" Yeah, but what about the pandemic that's still going on? "Doesn't matter; it's August!"

I once described the US's response to coronavirus as being like a group project that we failed and that we were trying to force a passing grade for, even though we didn't deserve it. I think the analogy was true for the time that I wrote it, but I don't think it's true anymore.

Now it feels like we've stopped caring about passing in the first place. We've given up. And I get it. This isn't accusatory. I feel like giving up too. I don't know if we ever even had a chance in the first place.

I posit the over-saturation of coverage in the media may have had something to do with COVID burnout.