Covid Reflections
Steve Rosencranz
April 8, 2021
As we emerge from a year of covid world- some reflections. We (Tricia and I) have now been fully vaccinated (two shots) for about six weeks and are beginning to emerge from the cocoon.
There are many things we have learned during covid- the most important being that having wealth and being white is a HUGE positive, while not having those characteristics likely means that the pandemic has been far more damaging, both in terms of short term and long term issues. I’ll try to lay out some of the things I’ve learned below- alternating between positives and negatives so that one gets neither too pumped up or depressed to continue.
Wealth is a wonderful thing to have- it insulates us from so many negative outcomes
Having a spouse and family close has made covid MUCH more bearable- as we haven’t suffered the isolation that many disconnected people have experienced
Low income persons have been much more likely to lose a job and income- and not have the resources to meet the needs of their families and have suffered far more from the effects of the pandemic
Louise and Henry have skyrocketed academically because they have engaged parents and grandparents that have both the time and the skills to meet their learning needs
Students with parents that are not well educated or have the resources to support their on-line learning have an even greater learning gap than they did before the pandemic
Our spending is 60% of normal because we weren’t able to travel, got to cultural events, or eat out. As a result, our wealth has increased
The gap between those with wealth and those without has increased dramatically as most of the job losses have been in lower paid professions like hospitality and construction and personal services—maids/nannies/trainers etc.
The social and emotional effects of the pandemic are largely unrevealed at this point as many of the negative effects of the pandemic on kids (and adult’s) mental stability have yet to manifest themselves
We have had people over during the pandemic- sitting 10 feet apart on the patio with masks on. We have also met with a group of 10-20 folks each Monday night at Quarantine Cantina in the church parking lot- with masks and social distancing. Tricia started Cantina a couple of weeks after the virus became an issue. As such, we have NOT felt disconnected from the world
The effect of the pandemic on the third world is even greater as there hasn’t been the capital to throw at the problem, as the US has done with several trillion dollars of additional government spending
The pandemic has also brought many positive changes to how things work—for instance, Zoom has made it possible for folks to continue to do business and most jobs (especially those at the higher end of the wage scale) have migrated successfully to be done from home
The extent of damage to low income communities will become apparent over the next couple of years. It will not be pretty!
The world benefits from occasional shocks that force people to re-evaluate how things are done. The pandemic caused much more change to happen than 9/11. Those changes have been both good and bad
We will be wise if we honor the positive learnings and work to ameliorate the negative consequences of the pandemic.
