This is an open letter to all the people I’ve seen in Walmart, Target, Dairy Queen, and out and about just not caring one way or another about what is happening in the world right now, to the people I see on the news breaking social distancing, not wearing their masks right or at all, to the people throwing parties, going to private islands, hanging out with your family.
You are the reason this pandemic isn’t over….
You were of course helped out by a president who convinced millions of people that it wasn’t a threat over the last almost year, and by groups of anti maskers who said that masks were the real danger in this situation.
You, every single one of you saw what happened in China, and then Italy… and then in your own backyard, and you didn’t care, most of you still don’t unless someone you know and love has gotten it. Those who are still meticulously planning their thanksgivings, their Christmas parties, their new years celebrations, this is your fault.
You saw the rising numbers, you were warned again and again that masks were needed, that you should social distance, that you shouldn’t be around people with unverified medical status, but you didn’t listen and you took your children to the park filled with people, you went to a concert thrown by a band who doesn’t give a flying fuck if one of you, or all of you get sick.
You rallied, you protested masks and safety precautions without any safety precautions, and some of you got sick. I am not gleefully celebrating the pains and stress that you or your families must be feeling after one or more of you fell ill, I am not a monster, I am not going to mock someone for being sick.
I, and many other people like me stayed inside for six or more months just to hear that you went to a party, that you went to thanksgiving because “Why would my family be affected by this? They are all healthy”… You listened to every single incorrect fact that science proved wrong multiple times, you didn’t wear a mask when you went out.
You shook hands with someone, you coughed in a store, you brushed up against someone in line when you knew to stay back, you went to a wedding, and now you are all happily drinking wine at your Thanksgiving and Christmas parties not very far away from when I am writing this letter, you are dressed up and happy and you are thinking that this pandemic is a thing of the past.
I have lived this entire year in fear, I have a history of lung issues and asthma and I have been to the hospital multiple times on oxygen, if I got COVID-19, I most likely would not survive… despite the fact that you think younger people are immune or they don’t suffer as much, it is untrue, many young people have died, even as young as babies.
You talk to people you may not have seen in months, you make plans for new years, for next year, for beyond this… But as you stand there talking without masks, without social distancing, without care, it fails to register with you that there will not be a next year, there may not even be a next month.
Because it is your fault that the pandemic is still here, you ignored protocols, you ignored safety, you ignored the masks, the orders, the mandates, you complained on social media that your rights were being taken away while someone else's life slipped from their body because you shook someone else’s hand, because you couldn’t stay away from a halloween party that you didn’t need to have, a BBQ that could have been postponed, or a wedding that you thought would be safe.
There is a difference between mourning the events that we have lost, and being ignorant, the ignorance is why we still live with COVID-19.
You see the rising numbers, you see the hospitals struggling to hold together, you see nurses and doctors breaking down or even killing themselves… You see medical tents, and bodies piling up, and you still don’t care.
You are the reason this pandemic isn’t over.
