I am going to make a prediction: the pandemic is never going to truly end. Sure, it will get less bad, but it will never truly be over. It will dial back in intensity for a while, only to surge back up, worse than before, again and again and again. And why will it never go away? Because of people.
There has been a major push as of late to get as many people as possible vaccinated, so that we might achieve herd immunity. The problem with that is one of numbers; in order to achieve herd immunity, we would need at least 80% of the population to be immunized. (That's the minimum - some diseases require at least 95% immunization to be bested.) How many people are actually getting vaccinated?
I got my vaccine today, and it was a struggle to achieve that. I had tried reaching out to groups distributing the vaccine, only to be met with silence and unreasonable schedules. I work second shift, and as such, anything taking place in the morning is off the table. How many other people face the same struggles, and have given up?
Putting aside scheduling difficulties, how many people won't be getting a vaccine because of personal beliefs? Or because they lacked a way to apply for a vaccination? How many people just won't bother, reasoning that enough other people will get the vaccine, so they don't need to? We're not going to get the 80% (or higher) we need.
People are being careless. How many times a day do I see someone not wearing a mask, or wearing a mask, but incorrectly? I remember hearing how some studies concluded that wearing a mask would not help to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I wonder, how many of the people involved in those studies were failing to wear a mask properly? By properly, I mean that the mask is covering the nose, mouth, and chin simultaneously. All too often, I see people with their masks pulled down, leaving their noses exposed. Even worse, some people have to pull their masks down even lower, such that their mouths are partially- or fully-exposed. I agree, that a mask won't help you or anyone around you, if you insist on wearing it incorrectly.
People don't take the pandemic seriously. Case in point: coronavirus parties. I rather doubt that back in 1918, people were holding "influenza parties". How many lives were needlessly lost because a bunch of idiots thought that the disease plaguing the entire world was just a media hoax? Too many.
The pandemic is real, and it isn't over just because you want it to be over and you're tired of isolating yourself. And yet, people still insist on crowding together when possible. When Florida reopened its beaches, thousands and thousands of people flocked to said beaches. Immediately afterwards, the infection rate in Florida skyrocketed. It didn't have to be that way. Are you really so desperate for social interaction that you would risk not only your own life, but the lives of those around you?
We all want the pandemic to be over, for things to go back to how they were. There is no going back, not now, probably not ever. Too many people want a quick, easy fix for the problem, and refuse to accept that no such fix exists. The only fix will be long, slow, and difficult to carry out, made even more difficult by people sabotaging it with their own selfish, short-sighted behavior.
Now, having said all of that, I would like to issue the following challenge: prove me wrong.
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