A Novel Virus and Insidious Ice Floes
The COVID-19 pandemic made our lives rigid and frozen. Now (maybe) those jagged edges will begin to melt.
Before any lockdowns, mask mandates, even before the spread of SARS-CoV-2 was labeled a pandemic, I’d paid attention. From the first mention I came across on Twitter, early in January 2020, describing an epidemic of infections from a mysterious virus, I searched for as much detail as I could find. Having a chronic illness and weakened immune system, I worried that the virus would soon spread to the U.S. My family told me I was too anxious, my mind hyperattentive to a remote danger. I went with friends to a bar for my birthday in early March 2020. I considered canceling entirely or just having people over to my apartment instead of wading into an overcrowded public space, but we ultimately went ahead with our plans. My city had only two confirmed cases at that point: someone who had traveled to Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak, and her husband. Community transmission in Illinois would be confirmed almost a week after that outing, which turned out to be the last time I ventured out into public, the last time I’d be part of a boisterous crowd, and the last time I would be anywhere outside of my apartment without a mask for a year (and counting) afterward.
One detail from the beginning of the pandemic that remains bright in my mind, alluding to…
