THREAD:
We have failed one another, and ourselves. If COVID-19 was a test on how well we could adapt, as human history has had to do, and on how much we actually care about each other; our neighbors, complete strangers, our own family - then we have demonstrably failed.

I’m tired of reading articles from scientific experts that are just ignored by our leaders who have failed to lead. I’m tired of watching selfish people yell from the rooftops that their “freedom” to go mask free is more important than the freedom for people to live.

I’m tired of the damage this virus has done being pushed off as only affecting the old or immunocompromised, as if that in and of itself is even okay. Our elders are important beacons of wisdom, and the immunocompromised are not cannon fodder because they were genetically unlucky

or put at risk by environmental pollution.

I’m tired because I have watched my Mom for months struggle first with being sick with the virus. Struggling to breathe, struggling to talk to me over the phone, struggling to stay awake. Struggling to get well.

And I’m tired because it’s not over for her. After three months of sickness, she now has damage to her heart and will likely have to have open heart surgery soon. And all this makes me so, so tired.

I’m tired because I feel helpless. I wear a mask when I have to go out, and I struggle to breathe because I am pregnant with twins. I wear it for my boys, I wear it for me, I wear it for the people I pass by, I wear it for my Mom.

I wear it because I have read the scientific articles about aerosols. I have read the studies. I’m informed. I wear it because I care about other people.
I don’t have a happy ending here. I have worry, I have tears, stress, frustration. And I know I am lucky.

I am lucky my Mom is still alive. But I have questions. If a second wave hits, is she now a person with pre-existing conditions that that COVID-19 spike will prey on? Will we not be so lucky come the fall and winter?

I can’t shake these questions and these worries because I look around and see people that value drinking at a bar over the lives of others. Either they don’t realize that that one drink could kill someone’s Mom.

That one drink could mean that come fall when my boys are due, my husband may not be allowed in the room - it happened in New York.

I’ll leave you with what I wish. I wish that we were all better. I wish that we cared more for those we don’t know, and will never know. I wish that our leaders would lead and protect us. I wish for humanity.

END THREAD.