Covid Times 2/2

It was the worst of times, and we may never be the same.

There is little discussion today about the trauma of the Covid times. While we have no problem embracing concepts like intergenerational trauma, blood trauma, childhood trauma, conflict trauma, post-traumatic stress, when it comes to talking about the shock to our whole system, a shock that deeply affected every single one of us, there’s an odd kind of silence.

How terrified were we? Pretty terrified. We were being told that every one of us was a potential source of contagion, sickness, even death.

Of course we know now that sterilizing groceries was baseless and crazy. Most people had a sense that the science about masking was at best uncertain. For sure it was being poorly communicated. Journalists and doctors poked their masked noses into everything with false confidence, muddying the waters. And we went along with it all, even while our confidence in media and science and political leadership was disintegrating.

The real effects of pandemic hysteria are starting to be assessed. Last week Tara Henley interviewed researcher Kevin Bardosh, who is trying to unravel the costs vs. the benefits to Canada. In the minds of many, what really happened was more about compliance and control than it was about a genuine physical threat. (Read more about Collateral Global and their research.)

Also this month, the Guardian published a very good (imho) piece on the Covid aftermath by David Runciman, likening the social, economic and political effects to long-Covid.

Personally I took it all seriously (listened to the news, stayed home, travelled almost not at all) and did my part (masking, 4 vaccinations), but that doesn’t mean I didn’t find some fun it it. My friend Jack, then in his 80s, was truly terrified. I couldn’t help myself when his birthday came around. No party was possible of course, but I did send him a card.

Less funny, pretty much humourless drawings were part of it too for me.

So has poor March been forever stained by this tragedy? Certainly this year, four years after the pandemic was declared, there’s been a fair bit of reflection. We are finding the pandemic to be no stranger to at least two other characteristics associated with this awkward, cold, grey, in between-ish sort of month: the madness of March hares and the treachery of the Ides.