New Cases: 449,212 (⬆︎ .45%)
New Deaths: 9,656 (⬆︎ .45%)
USA
New Cases: 152,244 (⬆︎ .59%)
New Deaths: 1,897 (⬆︎ .44%)
Vaccination Scorecard
Total Vaccinations: 19.3 million
Total Priority Population: 16.9%
Total Population: 5.8%
It's the uncertainty that really gets you.
WaPo:
‘When covid is over’ sounds like ‘when I meet Harry Styles’: The new pandemic meme, explained
“When covid is over … ”
How many times have you uttered that phrase during the past 11 or so months? We all have such grand plans, when covid is over. Some of us want to get back to packed concert halls, while others want to relax comfortably at our favorite restaurants. Some just want to be able to visit our mamas again. Whatever it is, nearly everyone has a plan for when covid is over.
But the thing about pandemics is they tend to drag on. Though we finally have vaccines, the wait to return to normalcy can feel interminable.
It can also bring to mind other painful waiting periods — so vividly, in fact, that in the past few days it’s become a meme to compare the phrase “once covid is over” to other events that might never arrive.
As YouTuber Alex Elmslie tweeted, “ ’once COVID is over’ is starting to sound a lot like ‘when i fix my sleep schedule.’ ”
Some users compared the feeling to things we say we’re going to do — but often don’t get around to.
One tweeted, “ ‘when covid is over’ is starting to sound a lot like ‘we should hang out sometime!’ " Another tweeted, “ ’When COVID is over’ is starting to sound like, ‘when I’m all caught up on laundry.’ ”
In one particularly relatable message, comedy writer Camilla Blackett tweeted, “ ’when covid is over’ is starting to sound a lot like ‘when I lose 10lbs.’ ” Another user suggested that the end of the pandemic is about as likely as finally making a budget.
Others chose unlikely pop culture phenomena, such as “when One Direction comes back,” “when grey’s anatomy ends,” “when I meet harry styles” and “when black widow comes out.”
Or in a particularly spicy tweet: “when Amy Adams gets her Oscar.” She’s been nominated six times, after all.
Some compared waiting for the end of covid to hoping for new material from their favorite artists. Many people are wishing for a new album from a variety of musicians, including Paramore, Hozier, Twenty One Pilots, Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers. One “Game of Thrones” fan tweeted that the phrase sounds like “once George R.R. Martin finishes The Winds of Winter.”
Others tended toward their professional sports dreams, as in “when the bears get a good quarterback” and “when the cowboys win the Super Bowl.”
People have long used memes to make sense of the senseless and to fight sorrow with a touch of humor, which has been especially true throughout the pandemic. One of 2020′s more popular memes was a short video clip of a troupe of Ghanaian pallbearers who dance as they carry a coffin. Another, colloquially called “2020 Bingo,” was an image of a bingo card with (usually) horrible things listed in each little box — horrible things that actually happened, like “murder hornets” and “stock market crash.”
It’s all a form of gallows humor, dark comedy meant to make palatable something that’s too terrible to contemplate, and it’s been increasingly popular online since last March.
Still, as Quartz journalist Karen Ho said in a series of tweets, perhaps the phrase “once covid is over” is useful in helping us navigate utter uncertainty without losing our marbles: “ ’Once covid is over’ is an optimistic but non-specific way for people to look forward to or plan for the future and try to avoid disappointment when timelines change due to various circumstances.”
I keep thinking that this era is like WWII, in duration. Didn't live it but both my folks did and taught us about all the things that Americans had to live without, and for a very long time. Granted they weren't isolated but picture this country with most of the men just gone, for years. Security protocols were rigid and rigidly enforced. The big difference now is the plethora of media, social and otherwise, with different agendas. Alvin Toffler wrote of this era of fragmentation in his book, The Third Wave. We are living through a time of extreme upheaval and some pretty dystopian stuff related to that fragmentation. The virus will end at some point but we will be different then. It's our fate, apparently to ride this wave and try to be as tough as those that came before us. It still sucks though!
ReplyDeleteMuddle thru and stumble forward.
DeleteI've said more than once that this country is done for, and all we're doing lately is arguing about who gets to do what with the corpse. But while the tendency to slide back into authoritarianism is always a real threat, there's something kind of eternal about wanting to do better.
You make good points, Rock.