Is The Pandemic Over??
So, it’s finally been a little over a year since quarantine started in the U.S. Now that we’ve had a good 12ish months to process everything that we’ve gone through, I wanted to analyze where we’re at right now. We had first started hearing about the “coronavirus” cases around November in 2019, and of course we shared some laughs when the memes started floating around. Living on the border to US and Mexico provides a unique set of bicultural humor that makes memes rife with opportunity for the LOLs. This moment of blissful ignorance only lasted a few months. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought the US would be immune to the virus. How could we get hit with this virus, especially one that we made a mockery of with our endless memes? Then quarantine was ordered here. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do very well with the news that I was about to be forced to make a major lifestyle change. The scariest part about it was not knowing how long we’d have to keep it up.
At the time that quarantine started I was living with my parents. The problem? That my four siblings were also living there. My first thought was: Close quarters + big family + forced to stay home = Loonyville. Looking back, I saw a lot of “problems” with quarantine. However, my family took it upon ourselves to roll up our sleeves and try to understand the virus as best we could. We did our research and due diligence, and decided to convert one of our outdoor storage rooms into a decontamination room. We went through the steps of establishing our vetted bubbles. We did our best to avoid social gatherings et cetera et cetera. Unsurprisingly, my social circle suffered a lot because yes – even though zoom was a viable alternative, no – I wasn’t ready to convert my entire social stimuli to the screen on my phone. A couple of months in, my mental health took a toll and I had to seek some counseling. It seemed like everyone had their own ways of coping, i.e. baking banana bread, creating a tiktok profile, etc. One thing was across the board though, there was no “correct” way to deal with this pandemic.
And then, all of a sudden, a weird thing happened. Things started going back to normal again. We can call it quarantine fatigue, or lax restrictions, but it almost seems like we’ve gotten over the worst of it. I’m no health expert to give you the green light to go galivanting around the globe. But I really do believe the distribution of the Pfizer, Moderna, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines have given people the confidence to return back to normalcy. So, it begs the questions: Is the Pandemic Over?? It may feel like it, but as of March 17, 2021 only around 33.4 doses of the COVID-19 vaccination per 100 people in the U.S. has been administered, according to Statista.com.
While the pandemic may not be officially over, in the sense that the virus strains have been completely eradicated, I don’t think we’ll ever get to that point. However, the vaccination rollout is promising and has given us hope that we can slowly return back to normalcy. I’m proud to announce that my nuclear family nor I have gotten sick. I think if we remain mindful about our activities from now on, in no time we will be able to talk about the COVID-19 Pandemic like a thing of the past. I’m looking forward to it!
Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash
