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| What many classrooms looked like since about mid March (Jewish Press) |
The light of Chanukah seems to be heralding the return from the darkness of the last 9 months. And it could not be happening soon enough. It seems like we are finally approaching the beginning of the end a darkness that descended upon us at about the time another joyous Jewish holiday was being celebrated, Purim.
This is a good a time as any to review the consequences of these last 9 months.
The most obvious consequence is the loss of life. Johns Hopkins University reports that - as of now there have been been almost 72 million cases of COVID worldwide. And over 1.6 million deaths.
Let us think about that for a moment. While it might be true that some – perhaps many of these deaths had a co-morbidity, there is every reason to believe that the majority of those that died would still be alive today if they hadn’t been exposed to the virus.
Sadly the Jewish community was not spared. Many Jews were among that number. And closer to home many Orthodox Jews died due to COVID exposure that would very likely still be alive today. Among them many prominent rabbinic leaders. So many of us have lost someone close to us.
And this doesn’t even touch the numbers that survived having experienced versions of the illness that were so severe, that neither they nor their health care providers thought they would make it. Nor does it take into account the long-haulers - those that managed to survive but are suffering long term serious after affects. Some of which may last a lifetime.
Although that is clearly the most significant consequence of the pandemic and one that is ongoing, it is by far not the only one. The negative economic impact on most of the world is surpassed only by the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many successful businesses have been permanently shut down. Leaving the owners and their employees without an income. People with good jobs have lost them.
Long story short these people are no longer able to pay their bills, including mortgages or rent. They are in danger of being evicted from their homes. And that doesn’t even begin to address other important expenses there won’t be enough money for. Like utilities, medications, and in some cases even putting food on the table for their families. People who were once self sufficient and doing fairly well now rely on charity.
In cases where one can work from home, there is the new family dynamic of being cooped up in your home with family 24/7. Families are being stressed to the limit. Boredom and depression have been more common since the pandemic began. Issues between married couples have been magnified and exacerbated by that. Accelerating a path to a divorce that might otherwise have been avoided given more time and treatment with marriage counseling.
Another victim of the pandemic is educating our young. Online learning is no substitute for in person learning. Recent studies have shown that the failure rate of students has skyrocketed since the pandemic began.
All pretty depressing stuff. Will we return to normal once enough of us get vaccinated? For many of us, the answer might be - more or less. But for a lot of us, the answer will be no. certainly not for those of us that lost loved ones to the virus. And not for the long-haulers. They will still be struggling. As will their family members.
People whose businesses closed may not be able to re-open them. The damage done to families whose problems were magnified because of living together 24/7 may not recover either.
One of the more significant victims of this pandemic that will have difficulty recovering are students. They have gotten used to the lack of structure they had over the last nine months. Getting back into a classroom structure after 9 months of that is probably a lot harder than it looks. Especially for adolescents in high school.
Last but not least, there is this. I have noticed a concern in the Charedi world about exposure to technology that was largely forbidden or severely limited until the pandemic hit. At that point many in that community felt they had little choice other then to embrace it for their children as the best alternative to in person class participation. It was hardly a substitute for that. But it was a ‘better then nothing’ alternative to which they had to concede.
The internet is now been used more freely for that purpose. The fact that everyone is stuck at home for a great many hours in the day has caused many families to rely on that medium to keep them from complete boredom. That has increased exposure to material that had heretofore been blocked from their homes.
The fear is that once young people have had a taste of the forbidden fruit, they will see how sweet it is and want more. The fear is not only about porn. Although porn addiction can be a serious problem, I think the bigger problem are the websites filled with skepticism about the existence of God. I don’t know if any studies have been done. But it wouldn’t surprise me if the rate of going OTD has been multiplied many times over during the last 9 months.
That is a legitimate fear. ‘How ya gonna keep them on the farm after they’ve seen Paris?’
This is one consequence that could have been mitigated in my view. Ironically via the lesson of the vaccine. If I understand correctly, the way vaccines work is that a safe version of the virus is injected into the body so that it will react by creating antibodies. Which will then protect the body from the more deadly version of that virus should they come into contact with it.
The one thing that will not work with this virus is trying to isolate ourselves from it completely. That should be obvious by the fact that isolation is nearly impossible. Even if it were scrupulously being tried by the public. Which is far from the case. Half the country isn’t even trying.
The same thing is true with the internet. The isolation that the Charedi world insists upon doesn’t work either. Exposure can happen anyway at a time where exposure to the internet in our day is almost impossible to avoid. And now during COVID exposure is all but assured.
When isolation from the interent is the preferred choice, there is no protection when it is encountered and found to be very sweet frobidden fruit. Had there been careful exposure with parents and teachers properly prepared to deal with the unavoidable chance encounter with objectionable material, there would in my view be a lot less young people going OTD. Young people would be better prepared to deal with questions raised by those chance negative online encounters.
Perhaps one lesson that can be learned from the COVID experience is that isolationism only works in a vacuum. Which in the 21stcentury is no longer realistic. As has been shown to be the case in 2020, the year of COVID.