An Open Letter to Covid Hypocrites
Y’all need some better perspective
To Whom It May Concern:
Hi, I’m Megan and I haven’t left my house for anything except going to the grocery store since March 2020. I have followed all CDC guidelines, I have self-quarantined when I feel under the weather, and I wear a mask properly when I do leave my house.
I haven’t been to a restaurant in a year. I haven’t gone to the movies in a year. I haven’t gone mini-golfing, bowling, or out of state in a year. I lost my job, I moved, and I’ve kept my mouth shut. Because Covid-19 is bigger than me.
I’m about as healthy as a 24-year-old kid can be. I don’t have any pre-existing conditions like asthma unless you count seasonal allergies. I would probably be okay if I contracted the virus. But seeing as over 480,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, I’m staying the hell home. And seeing as my husband, mom, and sister all have asthma and other conditions that put them at a higher risk, I’m staying the hell home.
I see you on Instagram and Snapchat. I see you preaching to others about staying home and wearing a mask so that you get back to your normal life. So how come you’re also the one who is travelling out of state for nonessential reasons? How come you’re the one who is going out to dine in-person at a different restaurant every weekend? How come you’re the one who has friends over all the time that clearly aren’t in your “bubble?”
It’s hypocritical and, to be frank, obnoxious.
I see my teacher friends moaning about how they haven’t seen their students in person all year, or how working from home is so hard and bad for their mental health. Valid points, I don’t disagree with you there. It was a huge adjustment for everyone in any field to begin working remotely.
However, you don’t get to preach to your hundreds of Instagram followers about wearing a mask to benefit yourself, yet break all the rules in the meantime.
I love working from home. Granted, I teach high schoolers and some older who don’t have too much of a problem with learning from home. I know I’m super lucky in that way. Being at home with my dog day in and day out has done wonders for my mental health. I feel safe and secure and love getting to teach my students while wearing rainbow sweatpants.
But just because I don’t mind staying home doesn’t mean I’m out there breaking all the rules. Because I recognize that this pandemic doesn’t have any sense of boundaries. Covid-19 doesn’t stop at your door, sweetheart.
Within the last week, New Zealand reentered lockdowns across the country because three people tested positive for Covid-19. I’ve seen videos on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram from New Zealand residents who are trying to explain to those of us in America why they don’t mind going back under lockdown for a few weeks.
New Zealand has been completely free of Covid for months now. They’ve had music festivals, they’ve had concerts, they’ve had no caps on gatherings: I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty fantastic to me right about now.
In the grand scheme of things, going on lockdown for a couple of weeks so that everything can get back to normal is a small price to pay. Meanwhile, in America, we are seeing more cases and deaths every day despite having vaccines slowly becoming available to the public. Because people aren’t following the rules. Not to mention our national leadership has been seriously lacking in the last year.
Even with the Biden administration, which campaigned with the promise of a national lockdown until we got Covid under control has underperformed. Instead, Biden announced a mask mandate on all federal properties. This is a start, for sure, but he was voted into office to help stop the pandemic everywhere, not just in federal buildings.
The bottom line is that we all need to get our act together. If we all truly want to “get back to normal,” then deal with the masks and not seeing our friends for a little bit longer and we might have our summer completely free.