One year

It's been one year since the WHO declared COVID a pandemic.

One year ago I was getting reconstructive surgery for my face after skin cancer. I can remember waiting in line at the hospital to check in, no one yet wearing a mask. A lady in line coughed a few times and then said to everyone, "Don't worry, it's just allergies". We all laughed.

From there we went to waiting in line at the grocery store at the crack of dawn, hoping to find elusive toilet paper (which I didn't find until March 21). We learned to wear masks, though we didn't know what kind was best. My sister started working from home. And I began watching all the medical experts on the news to try to learn as much as I could about the virus. Thank you Vin Gupta, Michael Osterholm, Irwin Redlener, and Laurie Garrett. Because we couldn't trust what was coming out of Trump's Coronavirus Task Force.

And during this time, more than half a million people died of the virus.

Now I've been lucky enough to get the vaccine, and it seems most people will have that same opportunity in the coming months. Doesn't mean we're home free. There may be more surges of the virsu, the mutations of the virus may beat the effacacy of the vaccine, and no vaccine is 100% effective anyway. And we may well be doomed by the worst of human nature that makes people ignore the science. But at least now we have a competent and compassionate president and administration to help us with the problem.