Post Covid

This Thursday, May 11, 2023, marks the official end of the COVID-19 health crisis. In the United States, over a million people were lost, and many more continue to suffer from the after-effects, or “long COVID” as it’s known. In Michigan, over 38,000 people died from COVID. Most of us lost someone we knew, and for all of us, it marked a change in how we respond to health emergencies. Many of us still wear a mask when we are out in public or carry alcohol-based hand wash with us at all times.

It seemed as if every time we thought this health crisis would end, the virus mutated into a new form that was more resistant to the vaccines we’d already been inoculated with. Now, it’s not that the virus has stopped mutating, but rather that we’ve adapted to the fact that it’s going to continue changing its form and we simply have to live with it and the changes we’ve made to adapt to it.

Keeping COVID-19 test kits in your home has become common place. Anytime you wake up feeling somewhat off, you quickly take a COVID test to see if that’s what it is. It’s a new life and things will never be the same again.

We are so good at adapting. I’m glad the crisis is over, but I’ll never forget the friends who lost their lives to the virus. And I hope we never become as complacent as we were before COVID. I think we’ve learned something from the experience. The lesson I took from it was that heroes are still alive and are still saving lives each and every day. Although the COVID crisis was a harsh lesson, I think it reestablished our faith in humanity again too. Thank you, first responders. Thank you nurses and doctors, and all the health care workers from medical professionals, lab technicians, janitors and cafeteria workers and anyone else who stepped forward to help out. You were there when we needed you. I guess the old saying is true…whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Take care.