The only glimmer of silver lining to the COVID mishandling was that the children who are forever affected by the lockdowns serve as evidence that Silicon Valley's fever dream to have us all live in VR helmets is not a replacement for actual natural socializing, therefore a terrible idea, and ought to be nipped in the bud.
And that's the only good that came out of it all. Botching social capital and goodwill has made us that much less prepared for the next once-in-a-century pandemic.
Interesting point. I agree—and will add that I’ve noticed that those dystopian VR goggles Apple released several months ago have not become a hit. We really require face-to-face interactions. We are social beings (which is why the isolation imposed during the pandemic was so destructive).
I agree with you Mari. Covid was such a missed opportunity for real leadership in the U.S. As you say, if people are lied to, especially by the government, and especially if they're suspicious of the government anyway, they lose even more of their trust and stop believing the truth. Covid could have been a pull-together moment for the U.S. and instead it split the country even farther apart. I'm not sure if the solution was fewer restrictions (we disagree on that, but I see your point), but more truth, or even...all truth surely would have helped. Nice column!
It is a tragic missed opportunity, and I can only hope that in the next pandemic we can do better. And Switzerland did have restrictions—which I supported whole-heartedly. In particular, at the start of the pandemic no one knew anything, and so it made sense to be extra careful. But what Switzerland did particularly well was changing the rules in response to changing conditions, instead of digging in and keeping all the rules in place long after they were needed, just in case.
The only glimmer of silver lining to the COVID mishandling was that the children who are forever affected by the lockdowns serve as evidence that Silicon Valley's fever dream to have us all live in VR helmets is not a replacement for actual natural socializing, therefore a terrible idea, and ought to be nipped in the bud.
And that's the only good that came out of it all. Botching social capital and goodwill has made us that much less prepared for the next once-in-a-century pandemic.
Interesting point. I agree—and will add that I’ve noticed that those dystopian VR goggles Apple released several months ago have not become a hit. We really require face-to-face interactions. We are social beings (which is why the isolation imposed during the pandemic was so destructive).
I agree with you Mari. Covid was such a missed opportunity for real leadership in the U.S. As you say, if people are lied to, especially by the government, and especially if they're suspicious of the government anyway, they lose even more of their trust and stop believing the truth. Covid could have been a pull-together moment for the U.S. and instead it split the country even farther apart. I'm not sure if the solution was fewer restrictions (we disagree on that, but I see your point), but more truth, or even...all truth surely would have helped. Nice column!
It is a tragic missed opportunity, and I can only hope that in the next pandemic we can do better. And Switzerland did have restrictions—which I supported whole-heartedly. In particular, at the start of the pandemic no one knew anything, and so it made sense to be extra careful. But what Switzerland did particularly well was changing the rules in response to changing conditions, instead of digging in and keeping all the rules in place long after they were needed, just in case.