Flags are at half-mast across the country this weekend, as we cross the unthinkable threshold of one million souls lost to covid-19. This photo by Jim Lo Scalzo,
reprinted in the
Guardian, captures the continued insouciance of a land which thinks it has already moved on. For a deeply humane account of the irresponsibility, and the cruelty, of this insouciance, I recommend Ed Yong's recent essay for
The Atlantic, "
The Final Pandemic Betrayal," which reminds us that each soul lost to covid left an average of nine close family and friends bereft, and these nine million have had no opportunity to mourn. Instead the dead are blamed for dying, the grieving for grieving.
Deaths from COVID have been unexpected, untimely, particularly painful, and, in many cases, preventable. The pandemic has replaced community with isolation, empathy with judgment, and opportunities for healing with relentless triggers. Some of these features accompany other causes of death, but COVID has woven them together and inflicted them at scale. In 1 million instants, the disease has torn wounds in 9 million worlds, while creating the perfect conditions for those wounds to fester. It has opened up private grief to public scrutiny, all while depriving grievers of the collective support they need to recover.
Deaths from COVID have been unexpected, untimely, particularly painful, and, in many cases, preventable. The pandemic has replaced community with isolation, empathy with judgment, and opportunities for healing with relentless triggers. Some of these features accompany other causes of death, but COVID has woven them together and inflicted them at scale. In 1 million instants, the disease has torn wounds in 9 million worlds, while creating the perfect conditions for those wounds to fester. It has opened up private grief to public scrutiny, all while depriving grievers of the collective support they need to recover.