The CP Edit: 24 months of COVID

This week marks the second anniversary of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in Michigan. It’s been a long, strange and painful ride. The incalculable loss of human life, the economic devastation, the collapse of comity among Americans, the abject failures of our political leadership — all of it has left us shell-shocked, tattered and torn.

The good news is we finally may be seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Case numbers are dropping precipitously. Mask mandates are falling away like autumn leaves on a blustery day.

It feels like we are in the home stretch, but we have to wonder if we are setting ourselves up for yet another dangerous variant, yet another spike that again overwhelms our hospitals. We’ve been here before and had our hopes crushed, so let’s not plan the pandemic closing ceremonies just yet.

Worldwide, the official estimate is that 6 million people have lost their lives to COVID-19, but the true numbers are undoubtedly much larger. A recent review by The Economist estimated the global death toll at 14 million to 23.5 million. Here in Michigan, nearly 35,000 lives have been lost, but many more continue to suffer the consequences of the disease.

What have we learned over the past 24 months? That’s a tricky question because it’s clear that a significant swath of Americans learned absolutely nothing. Drowning in misinformation and parading the righteous indignation that stems from a dangerous combination of ignorance and defiance, scores of our fellow citizens remain convinced, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the pandemic is a hoax, that COVID-19 is no worse than the flu, and that it’s all part of a conspiracy by Democrats and the Washington deep state to divide our country and turn everyone into compliant sheeple.

The pandemic brought out both the best in America and the worst. The list of heroes is long, starting with our frontline healthcare workers — nurses and doctors and EMTs and support staff — but it also includes the everyday workers who drove the trucks that kept critical supply chains moving, the grocery store workers who did their best to keep the shelves stocked, and the food service industry personnel who put up with unappreciative and sometimes abusive customers while putting themselves and their families in jeopardy by working in close contact with the public.

For the first 18 months, we were deeply impressed with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s resolve. We’ll follow the science, she said, and she did. At least until she embraced the political winds that counseled pulling back on statewide mandates if she hoped to have any chance to win reelection this year. Of course, we want her to win. The Republican alternatives are a disturbing mix of Trumpian tools and self-aggrandizing, nouveau riche weirdos running vanity campaigns that pump up their inflated sense of their qualifications to run state government. Still, we think she could and should have stayed the course, saved more lives, and won reelection by standing firm on her principles. 

The executives leading our local healthcare systems were another disappointment. It is beyond our comprehension that neither Sparrow nor McLaren proactively required their employees to get vaccinated. Of all the people who conceivably could and should be required to get the jab, hospital personnel who are charged with caring for the sick — not making people sick — top the list.

Where do we go from here? Early in the pandemic we were told we could achieve herd immunity after a certain portion of the population was vaccinated. Omicron pushed that day farther out due to its incredibly high transmissibility and because our immunity evidently doesn’t last very long.

As a result, some experts now say it will take better than a 90% vaccination rate, plus those who have acquired immunity by getting a COVID infection, to conceivably reach herd immunity.

Experts also say that COVID will soon transition from pandemic to endemic, slowly fading into the background but still claiming victims like other diseases we don’t think about very much.

We’re sure it will be a thrilling if misplaced validation for the COVID deniers when the ailment is finally declared to be no worse than the flu. Of course, this means that lots of people will continue to get sick, and the most vulnerable will continue to die, just like the flu.

Sadly, the pandemic will never be over for those with the misfortune of acquiring the mysterious and debilitating long form of COVID. Significant resources need to be dedicated to studying why it happens and how to treat it.

We also need to recognize and redress the disparate impacts of the pandemic on communities of color by pouring some of the billions in federal aid into support for families and children who continue to struggle with the aftereffects of the economic meltdown. Some of the heaviest burdens of the pandemic fell on the youngest among us as schools and families struggled to cope with massive disruptions in the educational enterprise. They will need our support to get back on track emotionally and academically.

In the meantime, the rest of the world is still a giant incubator for new variants that could be mild, but maybe not. That’s why it’s imperative for the U.S. and our global partners to accelerate distribution of vaccines and treatments around the planet.

As we hopefully approach the end of our long national nightmare, let’s do everything we can to close the door behind us and ensure that this tragic and senseless chapter in our nation’s history is never repeated.