I understand that after 9 months of this, a lot of people are just plain tired of wearing masks. And are finding all kinds of rationalizations not to wear one. I am tired of it too. But being tired of protecting oneself against disease has never been a reason to stop. Until now. I continue to be flabbergasted by – not only the number of people refusing to take these relatively simple precautions seriously enough, but by the caliber of people doing so.
The same thing applies to the COVID vaccines. I don’t know if it’s the same people. But there are those like me that can’t wait to get vaccinated. And there are others that think I’m crazy for even thinking about it! And they are doing their level best to convince others of that. High caliber people on both sides. Which both surprises and saddens me.
I am not going to rehash my views on these issues. Suffice it to say that I am strongly in favor of following all the preventative precautions and strongly in favor of everyone getting vaccinated as soon as possible. (With the exception of people that have vaccine allergies).
What concerns me here is what it will be like once we have this thing licked. We are all looking forward to that time. And we all hope and pray that it will get here yesterday! This horrible pandemic cannot end soon enough for me. Or anyone else, I imagine. Enough people have died. Enough people have gotten sick, survived but with permanent damage. And enough people have said Kaddish for a parent lost to COVID. I can’t wait to get back to normal.
But normal may not look they way it did pre-pandemic. A lot of things will change. Sure. Eventually we can all just throw away our masks and re-engage with each other once herd immunity kicks in. Going to Shul, eating out at restaurants, going to school, attending weddings and banquets in all their pre-pandemic glory will someday return. It may not be until the end of next year or even a bit later. But God willing if the civilized world can achieve herd immunity and drive this virus into the ground, this will happen.
The question is how we will see each other then. My fear is that the divisions that have materialized because of this pandemic may very well never be fully repaired. And that would be tragic. People that were once good friends may never see each other that way again.
Much as I will try, I don’t know whether I will ever be able to see people I formerly respected and admired the same way I used to if they treated the precautions casually or worse… or are opposed to vaccinations.
These are just some of the thoughts that come to mind as I think about what normal might look like post COVID. I think the most serious challenge will be for all of us to forgive those that have disappointed us on COVID - and still are. I hope we can all do that. Because if we don’t - once normality returns the casualties of this pandemic will be much greater than we thought.