The COVID-19 Blip

Has it Really Been Four Years Already?

I was working earlier this week when a thought occurred to me; I have been working remotely now for what amounts to almost four full years, originally initiated by the Coronovirus shutdown of 2020. Not much has substantially changed for me in the four years since it started and two and a half years since everything opened up again.

Without question, COVID-19¹ (named “19” because 2019 is when it was first discovered) has redefined how we work, travel, go to school and just enjoy life in various ways. However, I don’t think I am alone in saying that it hasn’t felt like four years and that the cultural stagnancy so many of us continue to feel remains playing out in different ways. The two years of the pandemic seem almost non-existent now as if nothing happened and the world was just on hold, while the two years since we’ve tried getting back to normal even though it will never be as it was before.

In light of that, I thought it was a good time to look back and reflect on where we were in 2020, and what has transpired since.

Patient Zero

The actual origin remains hazy, but there is no doubt that the source of the pandemic was Wuhan, China, at either a biological laboratory for infectious diseases or at a wet market nearby. The first cases came about in December, 2019, and by early January China had shutdown the city and mad mandatory isolation orders. What made COVID a particularly vicious threat is that 1) it affected your respiratory system very quickly, 2) it spread like the flu, and 3) was extremely contagious. In the early stages of the epidemic, the fatality rate was 100% and death usually occured within weeks of transmission.

On January 21, 2020, the United States recorded its first case of the COVID pandemic. On February 3rd, the US declared a national health emergency and five weeks later, President Trump declared COVID a national emergency and everything began being shut down. The speed and breadth of how this all occurred was astonishing to everyone; never before had we experienced something akin to this in our lifetimes. Within weeks, it was found in every state in the country and deaths started to skyrocket.

Everything except for a “necessary business” (grocery, gas stations, hospitals, etc) were closed. In areas that were open, you had to be masked and “socially distance” from one another. A few things were immediately evident. First, everyone hoarded toilet paper.² Another was the mad rush to get N95 masks or some kind of equivalent that you could wear. But mostly, with work, schools and life being moved online, people bought from online vendors, they upped their subscriptions, they downloaded programs and never left the house. People remained glued to CNN or FOX getting the most recent updates, death counts, watching the spread across the country and wondering when things will open up again. Originally, it was thought a couple weeks; it soon became apparent it would be longer than that.

Businesses were hurt and shuttered. The government started distributing stimulus checks just to keep many americans afloat. Many in turn, flushed with cash and nothing to spend it on with everything closed, rolled those checks right into meme stocks like GameStop and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin creating huge bubbles that eventually declined. The whole phenomena, including COVID’s impact on the economy, was portayed by the film “Dumb Money.”

The Misplaced Anger at Dr. Anthony Fauci

All eyes were fixed on daily briefings. Some states like New York with Governor Andrew Cuomo, reguarly promoted what they were doing. Trump would occassionally give a press conference,³ but to his credit, most of the time and technical announcements he would defer to the head of the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the head of the White House response team, Dr. Deborah Birx.

Initially, the focuses were on decreasing the spread of the disease, which was quickly exponential.

Hospitals were overwhelmed and there were only so many ventilators to treat critical patients. Social distance and isolation were key early on as there was no vaccine to fight the virus. After initially peaking in May at 2200 deaths a day(!), these preventive measures worked.⁴ This led to many areas of the country to prematurely open, as anxious and cabin fever fueled loneliness prompted many to seek out connection again. Starting in October, the rate spiraled out of control to a whopping 3500 deaths a day and ver 400k deaths from the disease total to this point.

People blamed the most visible people for it; Dr. Birx and especially Dr. Fauci. People were getting sick and dying and all they could say was “wear a mask and socially distance.” But help was soon on the way; in January, 2021 Moderna became the first company to announe a potential vaccine and Pfizer soon followed. Trump’s greatest achievement of his Presidency, one that he now disavows and wants no credit for whatsoever, was “Operation Warp Speed,” an effort to streamline vaccine creation, approval and distribution. Once vaccines became readily available in February and March, 2021, the transmission and death rates plummeted. There had been 500k deaths to this point, but it looked like the worst was over.

The Anti-Vax/Ivermectin Crowd

In many southern and rural states dominated by right wing media, a new movement sprang up. This was an anti-vaccination, anti-mask, “I’m going to do what I wanna do” movement. Following the steep drop that accompanied vaccinations in the spring, this crowd apathetically neglected all of it and went back as if nothing had been closed the last 18 months. Alternatively, prompted by snake oil salesmen like Joe Rogan promoting a horse drug called Ivermectin, the idiot crowd opted to use that than proven medicine. As anticipated, the rates skyrocketed again accompanied by a new variant of the virus that required an additional booster from the original vaccine to be effective. The rates were what you would anticipate.

“Opening up” became a regional/local thing, and in places which should have stayed closed due to high COVID rates, people no longer cared to remain sheltered. The rates spiked again, precipitated by dangerous new variants. Following the election of Biden who re-prioritized COVID vaccines and precautions, the rates came back down. By the end of the pandemic, over 1 million Americans had died from the disease. We still see people in masks from time to time at airports and spots/circles on some grocery store floors which once identified how far apart you were supposed to be. Other than that, things feel normal.

Economically, Americans emerged from the COVID pandemic better than most all other countries on the planet, yet stymied by inflation caused by overstimulus. Since then, as everyone now works remotely, cultural stagnation caused by closed productions,⁵ few major changes to the way people live since the start of the decade, people just feel “stuck.” From a political standpoint, I get how many can look at the Biden years and despite the successes feel like nothing has been done; it’s because nothing has progressed as a society since then. But as we start a new year, a new campaign season, the widespread launch of AI, and more entertainment, events and things to look forward to get rolled out, I have no doubt it will feel like America has finally turned the corner into a new age.

PurpleAmerica’s Cultural Corner

Once it became apparent that theaters weren’t going to open anytime soon, studios and platforms began to tinker with streaming as a means of distribution. “Trolls World Tour” became the first major movie to be released via streaming and was a huge hit. Disney+ soon released “Mulan” and other new features with an added cost and in the fall, the major film release of “Dune” originally occured on HBO/Max. Ultimately, direct to streaming was not successful and the studios took a bath on it, though they did help launch some of those platforms. However, with productions shut down and few content being created, people were getting restless for new material.

One of the things though that made life somewhat interesting over the COVID shutdown was what some content creators were doing with their freetime. For instance, here is Post Malone giving an incredible Nirvana concert from his home basically for the hell of it. It was AMAZING and remains (at least to me) the best thing he’s ever done.

A long awaited Goonies Reunion happened via Zoom call organized by Josh Gad.

Probably my favorite of the pandemic, Chris Martin and the Radio One Live Lounge All Stars made a great version of Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” which included Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and a host of other singers.

Speaking of Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl, the pandemic is when we learned of a percussion obsessed little phenom named Nandi Bushell who challenged Dave Grohl to a drumming competition.

Grohl conceded defeat and she’s since gone onto play with the Foos from time to time, including the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.

That’s on top of all the zoom happy hours, book clubs, and socially distant zoom gatherings we all took part in, just to keep in touch to say hi to one another and let everyone know we were still doing OK.

What about you? Do you have any favorite Covid Era entertainment you want to share? Place it in the comments.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

March 13, 2020 was likely the day that COVID hit home for most people. Within an hour from one another, The NCAA announced it was canceling March Madness, Trump announced that everything was going to shut down temporarily, and actor Tom Hanks announced he and his wife had contracted the disease while filming “Elvis” in Australia.

According to Penn State’s analysis of American attitudes on the Pandemic, it was that third item, Tom Hanks announcing he had COVID, that shaped most people’s attitudes about it.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

Despite declining in number, COVID is still endemic and continues to impact thousands a year and generate new variants. In the 28 day period from November 20 to December 17, 2023, the WHO reported that 850k new COVID infections occurred and resulted in over 118k hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. COVID will be around forever, just like influenza, and will likely require annual vaccines much like a flu shot.

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. I may need clarify some terms here. The virus itself is called “Coronavirus-19.” The disease is called “COVID-19.”

2. I remember going to the store and the whole aisle of toilet paper and napkins were empty. However, if someone were to just turn around, there were whole shelves of tissues one could purchase, of which I bought 20 boxes that first time.

3. I’ll say that when he didn’t adhere to this, he usually backfired miserably, such as the comments about hyrdoxychloroquine, which was useless against the virus and a verbal gaffe where he implied injecting bleach was a good idea.

4. Many now argue in hindsight that because kids seemed to get the disease less, that it was unnecessary to close schools. But everyone who has a kid knows that they are little germpots and schools petri dishes; when one kid gets something, they all get it, and then give it to their parents. Schools are a primary source of contagion and spread.

5. This was exacerbated with Writers and Actors strikes