A Sad Anniversary

Today is the 1-year anniversary of the World Health Org. announcing that we were then in a full global pandemic due to COVID-19. So much death, hardship, and anxiety since then in the world. Finally a year later we're definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I have to note that I have been very fortunate in the last year as everyone in my family has stayed healthy and I am still employed. But wow what a year it's been.

On Feb 9th, 2020 I sat in a seat at Symphony Center in Chicago watching a Jordi Savall concert. Wonderful show and he played to a packed house. Little did I realize then that this would be the last real concert I’d attend for over a year (and counting).

On Feb 25th, Nancy Messonnier from the CDC did a press briefing in which she noted that there was already community spread in various countries and we were close to meeting the criteria for a global pandemic. She also noted that she was preparing her family for what was coming. That scared me, a lot, and that’s the point I started preparing my family as well by starting some trips to Costco for supplies before everything started to get crazy and boy did things start to get crazy.

March 9th was the last time I was in the office. I was scheduled to work from home already on the 10th and by that point things were starting to get scary, and everything started to shut down. March 11th the WHO declared the global pandemic and here we are today.

What upsets me the most is the completely bungled response by the Trump administration here in the US. There is no reason there had to be half a million people dead because of this. The thought of so many lives lost, so many families impacted in terrible ways, is almost too much to bear. The constant lies, the politicization of masks, the whole lot of it.

But at the very least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The vaccines are working well and are going out in ever-increasing numbers. We've got a government full of competent, empathetic people again. We will be getting back to normal sooner rather than later. And when we do I'll be looking forward to sitting in Symphony Center again watching a live concert surrounded by people in a packed house.