We don’t have a right to their trauma
Or, why I’ll be the last person in the world wearing a mask
I’m angry. This is personal.
Countries around the world have given up on the pandemic. At the end of January, for example, Ireland lifted pretty much all its Covid restrictions overnight, a move that prompted Taoiseach Micheál Martin to crow, “This is a good day.” No more lockdowns, no more vaccine requirements. Ireland was done.
Following suit, Denmark lifted all of its restrictions this week. All of them. Masks, vaccines, distancing, you name it. Gone. In fact, Denmark went so far as to declare that Covid was “no longer considered a socially critical sickness.” This, mind you, right at the peak of its largest-ever wave.
You’d think we should be rejoicing. You’d think these choices would be cause for glee. The pestilent specter that has hung over our society for nearly 700 days has been declared over (notwithstanding the numbers, of course).
And, in fact, there’s been plenty of rejoicing—especially among certain sectors of the Covid conversation. The anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine, anti-public-health Telegram groups in which I lurk bleated victory, as if they’d just won the battle of Berlin.
