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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Today, the first day of December 2020, I began addressing Christmas cards. In a year marked by disconnection, distance and divisiveness, I feel that it is doubly important to let friends and family members know that they are held dear and greatly missed. Spreading hope, cheer and affection during this dark, unique time in history is vital. Hopefully, loved ones currently tethered by pandemic restrictions will be heartened when a holiday card bearing a handwritten note arrives in their mailboxes.
December 2, 2020
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How has the coronavirus pandemic affected how you feel about yourself, others, or the world?
As a researcher who is interested in how people understand health risks and make decisions about their own behavior, I'm fascinated by the parallels between Covid and the AIDS epidemic, particularly the stigma and the denialism. An acquaintance is a professional runner and Olympic hopeful who wrote an op-ed for Runner's World magazine about why she hasn't raced during the pandemic. She holds a master of public health degree and has felt that racing is too risky. A number of the comments on her article called her "paranoid" and "self-righteous," and these commenters felt she was giving into fear and propaganda. I remain extremely angry at the lack of presidential leadership that has sowed misinformation and distrust of scientists from the start of the pandemic. How many more thousands must die because of ignorance?
January 2, 2021