I realize it's been 5 years but how is it no one remembers the early days of the covid pandemic and how scared we were? I was waiting for medical doctors and epidemiologists to do their thing and save us. I welcomed the vaccine after I almost died. Does no one remember how bad it was?!
I had a religious vision after three days of feverish coughing and it was so weird going back to work afterwards.
I was going through chemotherapy in those early months and it’s entirely possible the Moderna vax saved my life, because I did get Covid and guess what: it was a mild case. Thanks, science!
Survivorship bias Nothing more
My family does, which is why we still mask.
Every right to be scared. A novel CoV virus in the same family as SARS-CoV (1% mortality rate) and MERS-CoV (30% mortality rate).
I remember. My husband started chemo and radiation therapy for cancer in the first part of April in 2020. It was very scary.
A country that didn't even remember how hideous his first presidency was? Yeah.
Yes. Horrific to look at USA from Australia too. 2020, talking to 90+ mother, we were v worried. We reassured each other. I said, u've lived through the Depression, WW2. We masked & vaccinated. Lived. (She took mask off at church post service, caught covid 2024. Thankfully ok, thx to vax.)
It was great for the capitalist class
i think we choose to forget, but the bottom line about today? We have incompetent people trying to impress a traitor dictator in the White House, they will lie to us about thedistribution of a current vacine created to save lives. TRUMP and RFK jr want most of us without favor, DEAD OR SO it seems
I am with you. My Mom died from it. My brothers almost didn’t make it. I will be getting my booster soon.
Yes. I’ve stayed as boosted as possible, but yesterday I could not get an appointment for the latest in MA. Thanks Robbie-Donnie.
Our media helped memory hole it but yes I remember.
I remember being so happy to stand in line for the shot, telling the Guardsman afterwards how grateful I was to get it. That was when the National Guard was called up to serve in a real emergency.
Yes, I had forgotten about the National Guard being there. A valid use of the Guard, unlike the show they're being forced to participate in now.
I lost my aunt four years ago this month. It still pisses me off and makes me sad. She refused the vaccine and when she got sick refused to believe she had it. Heartbreaking what religion can do to a person. God was protecting her, she said.
Americans have very short memories.
#Covid #CDC People forget many people died ...
Someone remind Kennedy!
The right were rebranding lockdown as a failing attempt to stop infection (as opposed to a desperate measure to SLOW infection rates and allow swamped ICUs to cope) from day 2, because they recognized a building voter bloc of useful idiots.
What I see is the evidence that the supply chain breakdown was a useful tool for profiteering companies. Evidence? Can't get the less popular pre-packaged one-serving cereals in my locale. Boxed cereals are so expensive I do not buy. And when did the boxes get thinner?
Everything is getting smaller and more expensive.
I got Covid before they knew what it was. The lung guy kind of had to say 'good luck'. I was so grateful for the vaccine
I remember being pleasantly surprised, initial, at how people did seem to pull together and help each other out. Look after each other a bit. Then, that went down hill fast ..
That’s what’s so puzzling, it was only 5 years ago but people act like it’s a hazy something their grandparents experienced around the time of the Johnson administration
Funny thing about this comment, it was basically 6 years ago. Yes, the world shut down on March 13, 2020, but the initial whispers about it started in December 2019 and grew from there. Memory is tricky.
TBF for a while there, it seemed like there was a chance it would get stomped down and hit us in the supply chain rather than personally.
I was definitely like "this has the components to get really, really bad" by early February, though. And then in late April I was like "OK, we're pulling together, normal is gone but we can do awesome"...so it's the humans that really bother me, not the virus.
Yes, I live in Europe and fell ill on February 1 st 2020.
I would say it was February of 2020 when it was really obvious it was going to go global. While, the first reports were out of China in December, it wasn’t a given in the following January that it really was going to spread globally. Also, the world was focused on how Australia was on fire.
Yes February was when it started to stop feeling like rumors and speculation I remember shopping for supplies and pulling Kiddo out of school several days before they officially closed everything
I remember pulling my principal aside the day we were shutting down “just for 3 weeks”. I warned that my public health friends say we likely won’t reopen in person for the rest of the school year.” She was stunned, then quickly pivoted to make time for a “routine pre-vacation locker clean out”!
That's when I started stocking up on supplies before shelves where emptied. Did not want to use coffee filters for butt whipe.
I said, back in December 2019 when we heard the first reports: "that's coming here". It was so obvious to me I don't know why others didn't see it.
Well, that level of stuff is near constant. A couple of times a year, there would be reports of people sick from something weird, but nothing comes of it. We see it with h5n1 flu over the past 30 years, cases, but it never breaks out. Why yes, I did read The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague way back.
I was aware, and for my household, we had a mid February discussion about when we'd pull the kids from school and make excuses to be fully remote. I was wearing a P100 full face respirator for grocery shopping by the end of February.
The difference, though, is that I didn't say those others were going to spread here. Those were obviously not going to spread much.
there was a guy on the old Twitter posting lots of pictures from China in December, maybe even November.....they were very scary....then Italy got really messed up and it was obvious it would soon get here, what with air travel and all
I saw the initial footage from China and then began following that man and his wife stuck on the cruise ship. I started buying food and supplies. I already had N95’s for the fires. I told anyone who would listen to prepare. I agree that it was very obvious if you were paying attention.
Well, Trump who was President at the time, said COVID didn’t exist. Once they admitted it was real after thousands had already died here, Trump refused to do anything about it, but said you can inject yourself with UV light and disinfectants to combat the unknown virus. That man is still dangerous.
Uhhhh the Trump admin was responsible for Operation Warp Speed. Lefties said “I won’t take a vaccine that this administration speed-runs.” Then it became political once the vaccine was produced and distribution started, mandates for employment, travel, etc and the sides flip flopped their opinions.
What I remember is being disgusted at the uproar about fast tracking which came from the vaccine denying hysterical right.
This lefty and friends said no such thing. We were surprised he finally did something right.
Our office got sick mid Dec into Jan, and we were out for a week or two, each! We didn’t have tests then. Then my coworker was on this cruise ship. His wife was secretly escorted into our hospital through the back door and tested. She the 1st in our county. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/m...
I remember that cruise ship stranded in the early days! We were so glad when the test became available, too. Now, people act like taking the test is pointless and I don't understand why.
Because THEY don’t want to be inconvenienced. Meanwhile, they spread that shit around and the rest of us are inconvenienced (at best). My 28-year-old lost 2 years of his life to, Dr diagnosed, long COVID. He wasn’t able to much besides get to the bathroom and sometimes make simple food for himself.
I'll bet that was hard for you, too. I'm sorry for you both. I hope he is improving.
It was mostly just difficult to watch him be in pain. Thankfully, I have a partner who is truly a partner and so with the both of us stepping up to help care for him, it wasn’t a too much of a physical drain.
He's lucky to have you both!
The first confirmed case in the USA was 21st January.
That makes sense then. She was just the first in our county. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
It was earlier than December 2019 because I got really sick with flu symptoms in early November and my doctor told me that something was going around and that I should expect it to linger for weeks. They made me check in, via the phone, every other day and just told me to treat the symptoms.
The fact that they knew in November that it would linger for weeks means that it was around a lot longer than December or November 2019. They diagnosed me with influenza of unknown origin and gave me really strong cough medicine with codeine. The WHO lied about human to human spread of Wuhan virus
No. That is absolute rubbish. Stop with the stupid conspiracy theories and the lies. No one is fooled.
Oh I remember alright. Can’t help feeling that another one is just around the corner. 😩
Yes, I do remember. I have covid in late January and early February, 2020. Before it had a name. So sick! Went to see the doctor twice, no help. Three weeks of hell and another week before I was able to leave my house.
Yes, I was soooo relieved when I got my first shot 💉
And for the record we volunteered to be vaxxed first and have had ZERO problems with it. Hubs got a case and it was mild. As far as I know I have never contracted Covid even though I have been exposed. I am in one of the reddest counties in Tx we were hit hard on the delta wave. Really hard.
I got my vaccine 4 days after it was approved, everyone in my medical office did. And I was relieved, as I am high risk, My mother who lived with me was too. The two times I have caught it ( plane travel, airports) it was not fun but mild
I believe it saved many millions of lives and I refuse to argue with anti vaxx anti science folks anymore. I am too tired. My grandchild is being vaxxed but this summer was the longest ever because she was not old enough for measles yet: thankfully made the 1 yr now.
My husband works in healthcare. The person responsible for helping keep hospital bed available at all times. He lived at the hospital for basically two yrs straight we didn’t get to do shit. Back then he was a hero. Now everyone has forgotten. Being in healthcare during a pandemic was a nightmare.
He’s still a hero .
He really is in my eyes. He worked three weeks straight when it hit to install cameras in the Nic Unit. Personally. So parents could see their babies 24/7. It was Hell on those parents without them. People who didn’t live it just have no idea. He or I are changed completely from the whole thing.
There's a new strain coming through in Tennessee right now of Covid. The difference between then and now is Trump doesn't want any pieces of our government talking about what is going on negatively in this country.
Yes, Stratus variant. It’s spreading in many states right now.
By the way, thank you for sharing the name of that strain. I reshared it
Thank God WHO isn't run by Trump and his groupies, huh?!
If Fox doesn't tell them then it's not happening.
It does seem like a dream sometimes… I remember being in grocery stores that had been picked over for almost everything edible and watching people fight over packs of toilet paper. Then there would be the people with really productive coughs that would send everyone fleeing the building.
I left Public Life a month before the big announcement... saw the Info on COVID, 12/31/19... posted my 1st post about it on 1/2/20.. telling people it was headed this way.. got called a fear monger.. COVID was world wide before the noticed the death spike in China.. It hadn't went full killer yet..
bsky.app/profile/gayf...
I remember, I also remember that it was trump who dismantled 75% of global pandemic centers and then lied to us about the severity of COVID.
I remember and now I’m deeply terrified of a resurgence here going forward. Secretary brainworm has decided only those in his age bracket should get the vax, but I’m sure his and MAGA’s thoughts and prayers will be enough to keep us safe.
I certainly do.
I remember. The anxiety, the helplessness. I also remember the videos of Italians singing in their homes, the police in Málaga entertaining people as they patrolled by playing guitars, the respect our key workers finally got for their work, now long forgotten...
I do. I quit my teaching job as my husband was high risk. We rarely went out. The highlight of the week was groceries/Lowes. Went for walks but crossed street if we saw anyone else. Husb had panic attack due to relief as we sat in the car, in line at the hospital, for the shot. Will never forget
Oh, I remember. It was surreal.
Time heals everything buddy
Not if it kills you.
I was pregnant and then first time mother so yes yes yes I will always remember
That had to be so scary for you.
Collective amnesia. It’s wild.
I remember patients in hospital corridors, patients sharing ventilators (50/50 chance of getting off the ventilator), refrigerator trucks for morgues, health care workers wearing garbage bags... Yeah, it was a nightmare.
Here in Ireland getting my covid booster shot in September along with flu vaccine shot
I screamed it. When asked if I was better off than four years ago, I said I hadn't been to a Zoom funeral in 4 years. I will never ever understand. People couldn't bury their dead. People died alone. Noone has been the same mentally since.
Mostly Republicans can't/don't. Unless, of course, you bring up Dr. Fauchi. Their hate for intelligent people runs deep.
I will never forget, nor will I ever forgive those who chose not to prevent death of our citizens.
Not only do I remember, I want to remind everyone that during the deadly Spanish flu of 1918, the most vulnerable population was healthy 20-40 year olds. “Thoughts and prayers” if they are not given access to a vaccine going forward.
Selective memory…
People who lost their children to covid fervently defended Dump's awful response. There's no reasoning with cultists.
Like it or not, the vaccine is what produced herd immunity and saved us. It's the only thing that can save us again. And jerk off RFK Jr wants to take it away from us.
Only brainwashed cult members don’t remember because they can’t think unless an orange blob tells them what to think.
Probably not bc thanks to Donnie a lot of people stopped believing in the vaccine n COVID.
I had it before it was popular, lol. I was down for like ten days in February before the lockdown, and for three of those days, I was in some of the most excruciating pain I've ever experienced. It seemed to just emanate from my bones, and it was a true struggle to get through every minute.
Thanks to my daughter, i discovered audiobooks available from my library online, and Tartt's The Secret History took my mind off of it as best as could have been hoped.
Not everyone had the same experience. Most of us experienced a lockdown, but not everyone was scared or even welcomed the vaccine.
I do.
I do. I was working from home and actually felt quite safe on my little horse farm. Very little interaction on a daily basis but not immune to what was happening. I lost a very dear friend to the virus.
I’ve had 6 vaccines for COVID and I’m glad I did.
I've had 5. Currently waiting for the newest one.
👍
I had the 1st two plus the first booster....then Omicron hit and it had so many mutations I just decided to always mask instead and I continue to do so
I remember everything. My Aunt died from Covid 2021, my brother and I had to dress in “space suits” to see her in the Covid ward. We were allowed to keep the N95 masks because supply finally caught up, nurses were reusing theirs for a year due to shortages.
I've had COVID 2x that I know of. Both times I had unbelievable chest pain. Like someone was kicking my chest wall from the inside while it was on fire. I have asthma so that was probably why.
I was in college at the time and I remember gunning it for a vaccine. Appointments were constantly booked. Finally snagged one and BOOKED it to the armory on campus. I got in line just in time. It was the last vial they had on hand.
I remember! Except for my husband, nearly all my family and friends are acting as if it never happened (and is still happening!).
I was saddened to learn that a coworker succumbed to the disease. Overall, it seems COVID-19 was 10–20× deadlier than a typical seasonal flu on average, especially before vaccines. This is imprecise since influenza may be more severe for younger patients, but Covid was worse for older individuals.
Yep! even now, people are coughing out their guts on public transport, and without the care or consideration to wear a mask to help prevent spreading germs. 🤦
I still recollect when 13 elderly residents died within a few days when delta variant COVID spread through their residential care facility back in 2020. I mask up when I go shopping, and I have dramatically curtailed my social life.
I do. In Toronto, Ontario, we queued up for vaccines, joined chatgroups to follow availability at clinics, masked, distanced, isolated, worked from home, the works. We were desperate for the vaccines, and so grateful when they were released.
I certainly do, and to this day I still tear up, when I remember getting that first vaccine. How far we have fallen.
Because most everyone stopped masking too early, got covid a bunch, and it causes brain damage. I remember. I still mask. 🤷🏼♀️
I remember it well as I was considered essential and all I had to protect me was a mask against those who refused to wear one , and when it was approved I had to wait my turn to get the shot and it all was so overwhelming knowing the shot was out there but I had to wait and wait and wait.
After the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, the so called “Spanish Flu”, people didn’t want to talk about it, and it turned into a collective amnesia.
I had never heard of it until the late 1990’s when I watched a documentary about it, even though I later learned some relatives on both sides of my family died, including my father’s older sister.
My father didn’t even know he had had a sister until he was in his late 50’s. No one ever talked about her.
My father had a cousin back in Norway who was very into genealogy and put together a well-researched and detailed family tree, who told him and sent my dad a picture of his sister. www.history.com/articles/191...
the fear and the silent streets
My mother of 89 went into self isolation the moment it hit, I was her sole contact -through a glass door - for 9 months and she lost so much capacity in that time. And then had a stroke, went into a care home and died of COVID. I was the one who braved the shops and it was *scary*
And I remember the day the stay at home order was due to kick in going into the office and clearing the fridge, turning the Aircon off or down in offices I felt may never see another working person, turning the qooker off, writing a farewell on the office noticeboard.
Oh yeah…..
You think you were scared during last pandemic, wait for the next one. With this lunatic in charge of HHS, we are going to be on our own. 
With the CDC changes, leaving the WHO and defunding of, essentially, all health and research programs... I have no hope. If we have another pandemic, it will cripple us due to our own ignorance. A hundred times worse than COVID.
Yes. But hang on to a *shred* of hope.
For now it's one of those things the public consciousness would rather erase from memory. Even plays, films and TV shows about it aren't doing too well. Give it time; people will come back to it when they're ready.
*plays, films, TV shows and books, obviously. I missed one.
To be honest I never had any issues or knew of anyone who did. Different people had different experiences. This isn't a great argument for not getting rid of vaccines, the fact that getting rid of vaccines is completely retarded is a good argument for not getting rid of them.
I do. How quickly people forget.
I remember seeing the freezer trucks used as morgue.
I remember. Rushing to get an appointment for the shot. Thank you, NANCY NOLAN..we went together for all of it!!!
Covid was a buncha deep state woke stuff.
Huh?
😉
My cousin, father and best friend died. I won’t ever forget.
My parents had died a couple of years before covid and I was glad because it would have killed them too. I'm sorry for you.
Yes, my parents were very conservative. If they had still been alive when Covid arrived, they would have died from it. The people at Fox News have a lot to answer for.
Some people still claim that it never happened. My younger brother's best friend in high school died from it earlier this year. And he was a white guy - I make this ridiculous statement because a lot of white men hold to the allusion that their superior genes insulate them. I know a guy who lost 80.
As a white guy I have to say that is some stupidass whiteness BS. But hey I'm all for thinning out the macho nacho super alpha beta males of the redhat heard.
I agree. These men have proven themselves unfit, and ostensibly because of white male privelege, unwilling to grow. They would rather end the great American experiment in self governance by acts of nihilism and genocide rather than humility, enlightenment, inclusivity and love. To hell with them.
“Dark ages is in when we have no knowledge, or apparently when we ignore the knowledge we have, so the vacuum is filled with deceptions. Curious to find ourselves in such a place in an era of instant communications in, ostensibly, a highly educated society. It would appear that the end is upon us.”🥴
It's true tho.
How did the whole COVID-19 pandemic become a black vs white thing? I don’t live my life by WHAT WHITE PEOPLE DO or by any group think based in immutable characteristics. People have to find a way to make everything about race🤦🏾♂️
SOME PEOPLE say we didn’t land on the Moon. Probably not the same people BUT we shouldn’t listen to what SOME PEOPLE say because SOME PEOPLE are just 💩 posters. SOME PEOPLE may not want to talk about it but it happened and we must never allow that kind of govt control again.
My cousin died from it. We were the same age.
I'm sorry.
Yes I remember.
I remember not sleeping for nights on end because I was making vaccine appointments for family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances.
We do. They don't!
i remember the all too brief show of support for healthcare workers...before people started figuring it's all a conspiracy and masks were unbearable (like...how do brain surgeons work without getting enough air to breath? an eternal mystery...) i remember when we uniformly respected teachers..
this is like pregnancy. People forget because it’s painful. And that subconscious feeling becomes fear and fueling Maga insanity. Nazi 2.0 uses fear and self loathing to manipulate people into nazi meat puppets into taking actions which will end their lives. It’s not logical. It’s all emotional
And to think if RFK Jr had been the Health Secretary there would have been nothing to worry about!
Worse when you realize the virus is STILL around and constantly mutating...
Who wants to?
I want them to.
So do I, if for no other reason, that the next one could be worse and we need to be better prepared. I don't want more time wasting on another mask debate
My then 17yr old daughter was in the ICU with a "mystery illness" in Sept '19. She had a 5% chance of recovery. She did recover. Turns out it was covid. It was here well before Trump let us know & it almost killed my kid. She's left w lymphedema, lung & adrenal damage. Vaccinate.
Honestly I feel like we are still in it. It has severely impacted ppls mental health. Now with trump back in the WH it really feels like we are still experiencing it & our public health is in danger yet again. This administration is truly a death cult. Trauma isn’t an event, it’s an experience.
The pandemic was a collective trauma experience. Stress/chronic stress/trauma can shutdown parts of your brain and restructure your nervous system. Your memory center goes offline. Ppl get timelines confused between present/past. The pandemic can feel like yesterday for some not.
It's still bad.
More than 200 deaths per week still today.
There are all sorts of cultural reasons for the collective amnesia, but an additional, noncultural reason may be brain damage from COVID, especially to the hippocampus. Or rather hippocampi, because there’s 1 on each side.
bsky.app/profile/atra...
This is an excellent point.
I certainly believe that. My brother had scary asthma as a child and was always very preoccupied with his health. He had a cupboard full of vitamins and spirulina and made his own yogurt. Now he’s had Covid “he thinks” 4 or 5 times and does not care at all. I know for sure his brain changed.
There are a lot of anecdotes like this. It’s creepy. I’m sorry about your brother.
I wonder if attacking the brain is deliberate on the part of the virus? If the goal is survival, maybe the virus is deliberately making people (vectors) "forget" the dangers. Toxoplasmosis is an example of an infection manipulating an animal.
Well, viruses don’t have minds, but if you’re asking, would it confer an evolutionary advantage to evolve the capacity to make hosts more reckless? then the answer would be yes. I was pretty dismissive of this line of argument earlier on, because cultural stupidity can explain a lot. But …
there’s a mounting body of evidence suggesting that the virus messes with memory, emotion, and also executive function, by damaging specific brain regions.
Toxoplasmosis has one host species - the common cat. But, it has to get from the soil to the cat and scientists have shown that mice that become infected with it will stop being afraid of cats. The parasite affects their fear response and the cat eats them!
Exactly. It all reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s classic short story, “Fever Dream.”
I've read a good amount of Ray Bradbury but I'd never read Fever Dreams! I found it online and just read it. It was great and spot on!
If they ever find out covid does something like this to make people stupid, remember me!!!
Years ago I came across a thread which was some doctors chatting about what on earth is wrong with the MAGAs to be so fixated on Trump and immune to reality. They were speculating that it might be toxoplasmosis.
I guess I'm not the 1st. Oh well. Great minds, though, right?!
I’m sad that so many think it’s gone away…. Tell that to people who are still dying from COVID or those with debilitating long covid.
I lost two older in-laws to Covid. I remember.
We remember. People with money just think that they’ll live forever. What a surprise when they find out they’re wrong 😑
It’s kinda true that the privileged have better odds. When trump contracted he was whisked off to Bethesda in to be treated by six physicians dedicated solely to him then used his recovery to say “see, it’s nothing”. Try hours on an ER hallway floor waiting for treatment and see how you fare! 🤬
I remember that the worst neighborhoods in terms of not masking and crowding into restaurants were (and are) the ones with a well-off white population Especially men Saw so many couples with masked wife and barefaced husband
I was primary caregiver for my wife with dementia at that point. I definitely remember how scared we were.
Covid was very traumatic for a lot of people. Sometimes when really traumatic things happen people can't face the full impact. They minimize the experience or totally disassociate from the experience, like it never happened. Where trump started downplaying Covid it was easy to go along with him.
Not for me. Learning from experience is essential to survival.
Oh, I remember!
Nobody knew what was going on in the beginning of the pandemic. People dropped like flies all over the world. No wonder the scientists got some things wrong and pushed some wrong descisions. But I still have a lot of confidence in people like Fauci & others. In the end they saved millions of people.
The problem with it is it caused a lot of people to lose their memories.
1,000+ people were dying a day in NYC. They were putting their bodies in mass graves and meat packing trucks just to make room in hospital hallways.
The crazy thing is, people in FL who got it and just felt sick for a week think that’s all it was for everybody, that only a few sickly people died, that the many dead in New York were from socialist medicine or Cuomo’s locking up nursing homes - while in FL, common-sense policies saved the economy
The cognitive divide is just weird. But I think - aside from nutwing propaganda- people who had it & weren’t hospitalized, & lost nobody have a hard time believing/remembering that it got really bad in some places and for some people.
I am still masking and I have no plans to stop. The pandemic is not over, and people are still dying from Covid, although I don't trust anything this administration does with respect to tracking and reporting so it's hard to obtain numbers. Based on what is available, it's at least 1,000 per week.
We had friends die all around in K12 schools while we waited for the vaccine.
memorialforeducators.weebly.com
We are shamefully, very short of bad/sad memories. We want to forget it all.
I haven't forgotten: I had anxiety so bad it nearly killed me during the COVID times, and I never felt anxiety before in my life. If you had asked me before COVID happened if I had ever felt anxiety,I would have said yeah.But because of COVID, I know I would have been wrong. (I'd been stressed B4)
Yes, we remember the fools who denied its existence, we remember the fools who drank bleach or took ivermectin, the selfish people who would not mask. We remember the refrigerator cars and fatigue of medical personnel. And I hope people are ready for its newest wave, already in California.
And, weirdly, MAGA people and their anti-science sorts point to the things that didn't work or the things done in desperation as proof of evil intent, while everyone reasonable understands that it was literally everyone trying their best to be doing the right thing and not having answers yet.
We remember. The trump owned legacy media is trying to make us forget.
speaking for myself- it was traumatic and I find I’ve compartmentalized it. Memories are very hazy
I remember the fear of not knowing what could be done to save the world then the vaccine was developed by a concerted worldwide effort of professionals. I was so grateful we would have a chance to live despite Covid.
I remember😪
I remember the first wave in Italy in late Feb. We began to prepare with food, paper products & N95 masks. I advised family, friends & acquaintances to do the same. And then in NYC when funeral homes were beyond capacity and cooler trucks were used as morgues. Hospitals put up MASH units. I remember
I remember crying with relief during my first Covid vaccine (we are elderly so were in the 2nd group to receive them).
Personally having lived within the panini and also thru some traumatic but more singular events, id chalk it up to the desire to actively not think about fear and distress/seek comfort thru denial
No because they've been being told it wasn't that bad ever since
Got 1st Covid shot in April 2020, two weeks later got Covid from daughter who worked in hospital. Quite sick for 10 days, the cough and fatigue were the worst. To this day still wear a mask.
A lot of people view that as an overreaction because they were ultimately fine, rather than a reasonable response and an important part of keeping casualties lower. Also, feels like a dream.
Yes. As a physician, I was able to get the vaccine in November or December in 2020 and I went to get it immediately. There were refrigerated morgue trucks outside the hospitals and LA had to waive air pollution standards so crematoriums could operate 24 hours. Healthcare systems was collapsing.
I do. It seems the idiots who did not die think it’s “no more dangerous than a cold” because THEY were not personally impacted. We have become a race of selfish, uninformed idiots.
I do. It was awful.
People didn't remember how bad the first Trump run was. Is it the brain hides trauma thing? I got covid after the vaccine, no big deal. I'm sorry your experience was not as good. I remember those days, and I remember how criminally bad Trump handled it.
It’s weird. Streamed “The Morning Show”, much of which is set in the Me too/pandemic years, and was surprised by how much I had compartmentilized the whole thing. In contrast, my son’s fiancé, who was a newly minted ICU nurse in 2020, still has nightmares and has left nursing. It was bad.
Yesterday August 28 2025, as we admitted another patient to ICU struggling to breathe with COVID pneumonia, I welled up with tears realizing the world had learned nothing. Healthcare systems in the US are failing, government structures are being dissolved, health care workers are watching in terror
I am amazed by those that could compartmentalize it. I am a teacher, and my husband works in public health and emergency response. We were both so stressed all the time. And then our son was working retail, when he returned to work. It is still felt in so much of our worlds.
Please try to remind others what it was like. I fear we are forgetting history and will be forced to repeat it.
She left nursing! That's so sad. But, I remember doctors committing suicide during the pandemic. She was on the front lines.
She’s recently decided to return to healthcare, but never again to the ICU. Our son made it very clear we are NEVER to ask her about her experiences during Covid. Even they don’t talk about it between themselves. I worry about her long-term mental health.
I bet she was severely traumatized. They were on the front lines and it was an endless stream of sickness, death and the unknown! I’m so sorry. 💚
I truly hope she'll be ok. I was an EMT in undergrad. I am still impacted by what I experienced.
There was a person who started a website to count the doctors and nurses who died from Covid because nobody else was tracking it. They had counted over 1,000 deaths by the time the vaccine arrived, but that was certainly an undercount. They were just googling every day looking for stories and obits.
I did the same for school personnel in the Southeast. Shared it and could sense people werent thrilled that it was being noticed. 2021. memorialforeducators.weebly.com
Many doctors and nurses avoided their families to avoid the risk of exposing them.
Yes, I remember stories of them sleeping in their garages and not interacting with their families.
Death of physicians during Covid was studied later, and the *good* news is that the excess death rate among physicians was lower than in the general population, despite their daily exposure. Why? They understand infection control protocols and got vaccinated. www.ama-assn.org/practice-man....
Exactly. Medical staff were masked 8-12 hours a day. It is a shock that they didn’t die from breathing carbon dioxide.
Rebreathing all that dihydrogen monoxide will get you, first. www.dhmo.org
The first Covid death in my hospital was a social worker. Doctors and nurses died, but all sorts of other health workers and mental health workers did, too. 😞
Excellent point. There was a brief moment (lasting several months) when vaccine supplies were limited and rationing strategies were discussed a bit. This problem was eclipsed by the problem of convincing people to take the vaccine. 💉 uchv.princeton.edu/news/ethical...
I lost 2 coworkers who chose to pray instead of getting the vaccine. Not all people in healthcare make good choices.
She was in combat, of sorts. I hope she has the means and the luck to find a good therapist.
Lots of people left healthcare it’s why the field is so short staffed. I retired Aug 2018 as NP. I felt guilt around not being able to help but I have autoimmune issues so chances are I might not be posting this. I had prev colleagues struggling emotionally at the time. 😩
One of the scariest times ever.
I agree.
People can't remember what happened yesterday
Because of covid.
Some do. Others are blinded by racism and white christian nationalism and prefer lies and fear over truth and hope. If Covid had begun in the ‘country’, rather than in the cities people love to hate on, the reaction would be different.
Yes and I also remember historically vaccines go through rigorous protocols before they're put out it's kind of convenient that that one came out so fast without the same protocols so how about they put out a vaccine that is thoroughly tested and is not so controversial and actually works
I was just talking about it with my wife. Recalling how crazy we were about cleaning EVERYTHING with hand sanitizer. Between baked Cheeto sending in troops, to his lackey Crunchy Cheeto talking about ending vaccines, I almost long for those days
A lot of people, unfortunately, never accepted or believed it was bad when it was first happening. Combined with our general goldfish memory, I'm not surprised we are where we are now. (I'm not pleased by it, but not surprised.)
some remember, some think that those that died deserved it and they survived because they are better. some didn't get sick so think the whole thing was a scam. the rest are like geese---wake up in a new world every morning
I remember.
I lost both of my parents two years apart. I'll never forget
i do. i couldn’t hold my granddaughters for months. we visited on the porch, talking thru the windows. the newborn wasn’t old enough for a vaccine. coworkers lost relatives. friends lost their elderly parents. people died.
and people are still getting very sick, some dying, some suffering with long Covid…
I got the vaccine, myself and my family, all boosted as well, none of us ever got Covid-19, to this day.
The only time my husband and I got it was when we were late getting an updated vaccine, so we will be getting the new one as well
Now, Trump makes you get a DR.'s Prescription for it, if you are under 64! No more just booking it thru a pharmacy, or walk-in clinic!
It depends on what state you live in. Here in Michigan we can just schedule it at a pharmacy. In some other states you do need a prescription. I scheduled mine and my husband’s for next week, no prescription required.
No, you still can, unless you’re in a state that requires prescriptions Just self-attest that you’re “high risk”
A friend is an ICU nurse. She told me that her ward was filled with middle aged men who were nearing death. The sad thing is that they were begging for the vaccine. She would have to explain that it was too late for that. Most died and without their families. People have short memories. 🤷♀️
Easily manipulated MAGAs, including those directly affected, have been told that COVID is just the flu, the response in 2020 was excessive and unnecessary shut downs were done simply to hurt Trump. They don’t believe the vaccine helped, even if it saved their life. Their memory has been reprogrammed
You’re right! Their memories have been reprogrammed. MAGA’s brains have been reprogrammed with the cult behavior & lies told by Trump & the GOP. He has them wrapped around his finger. Some unpleasant reminders of 2020/2021, before vaccines, might help but not likely. Trump loves the uneducated.
Some are uneducated and some are willfully ignorant. They CHOOSE to believe conspiracies over their eyes, ears and reasoning. They grab on to any explanation that supports their culture war, religious beliefs, hate and victimhood. It’s crazy to watch them convince themselves that the absurd is true.
There's also a weird memory loss with covid - family i know, one of adult children was saying how never caught covid, and fam turned round, said "What? You were in hospital in Intensive Care for 2 weeks with covid last year!" And adult child said, oh, oh yeah, yr right. Person isn't maga at all.
I remember. The schools locked down March 15. I predicted they’d be closed for months. Coworkers said “we’ll only be out a couple of days”. The stress was real. Also I could walk down the middle of the street playing pokemon go because nobody was on the road.
I remember.
Ppl have selective memory. I will never forget what happened in Italy in the early days. And the freezer trucks brought in to NY city. The fatality rate of those early strains was really scary. I guess ppl want to forget.
They remember how mad they were to miss Applebee's happy hour.
I do. In fact I was talking about this today. I almost ran to get that first vaccine shot as soon as they were available. I had just retired so staying inside was not a problem but I did wear a mask when going out. Still do sometimes and I still get my COVID boosters every few months.
I was retired and isolation was already pretty normal. About the only places I was around people were the store and the gym. It occurred to me pretty early that a gym full of people was not a place to be so I suspended membership. That very weekend, our governor ordered all of the gyms closed.
What I remember most about the early days is news reports that China was building something like 1500 temporary hospitals at a breakneck pace and everyone wondering "what do they know that we don't?"
Dr. Michael Osterholm had written a book years before about how unprepared we were for a pandemic, not enough PPE and that Americans would push back on the austere measures needed to survive it. He was spot on.
Osterholm is still around and if you're looking for information on infectious diseases now that Trump and RFK Jr. have destroyed the CDC, here's a link www.cidrap.umn.edu
Thank you!
I remember the early days when it was just a bit of rumbling. My mother and I were still going to Disney regularly with each other and decided to be extra cautious and mask up. We knew something big was rumbling, just not how bad. That disease killed a few vendors my employer worked with too.
I remember. It was a chaotic, terrifying time compounded by having an idiot in charge. Friends and family members died. A teacher colleague (a Covid denier) died one month after her daughter gave birth to twins. I was texting her in the hospital the day before she literally took her last breath.
I’ll never forget. I was one of those “essential” red shirts.
I lost two cousins and friends due to Covid.
I do.
Many don’t. The most vivid memory for me is the refrigerated trucks they had to use to store the dead that was horrific. Watching at the time from Australia where we had very strict rules that did save many unfortunately that lead to the rise of conspiracy lunatics who still persist today.
My first memory happened early on. An Italian family from Freehold NJ had their Sunday dinner and by the end of the following week, many of them had died. I knew then that it was going to be much worse than the flu
Yes, I remember. We are dealing with a lot of people who have PTSD from it.
A lot of people wouldn't even acknowledge it EXISTS while it was at its worst. Many people will believe whatever narrative gives them permission to feel most comfortable without doing anything, even if that means material danger.
I worked inpatient hospital during the first big wave in the Detroit area in late winter and spring of 2020. Will never forget the suffering I witnessed. I woke up screaming many times.
I remember. Which is why I'm wearing my @flomask.bsky.social as I accompany someone in the ER. The vaccines help keep you from dying, not from getting sick over and over.
I certainly do It sucked badly
It looked like a medical terror
My daughter in law had a serious health scare. Life altering scare. All we could do was drop off food and gifts. All we WANTED to do was hug her and my son. I was scared for everyone I loved, and I lost four elderly relatives. I won't forget.
Covid killed far more republicans than any other group, but obviously not enough of them for the rest to notice or care
I’ve had so many Covid vaccines I’ve lost count and my head is yet to fall off 😉 I got Covid once when flights to NZ opened. Mildly compared to so many others and it was awful. I have never had it since thank goodness despite working with the public.
I remember.
Absolutely- me too. And had such respect for the scientists who brought us the vax so quickly.
I remember thinking how glad I was to live in a country with a strong medical community working to stop the virus. That's gone now. That's what scares me today.
I do think the AMA and other professional organizations are trying to fill the gap. Those who believe in science and the Hippocratic oath will not stay silent.
I remember and now I am worried it’s going to get so much worse.
And let us not forget the refrigerated trucks parked along the roads outside hospitals and morgues and filling up with so many Americans lost to Covid! 🥺
I remember. I was one of the first sent home to work. I didn’t hug my child for a year. I’m single so I was on my own. I cried myself to sleep almost every night. Now this stupid country put the murderer in office. Tell me again someone why I shouldn’t despise the ground every red voter walks on?
I live alone and I made my kid come over before and after work to make sure I hadn't died. I just hated the idea of being dead and undiscovered.
My daughter called every evening. I loved hearing her voice or seeing her face on FaceTime but at the same time that’s what started the tears. I will never forgive people that voted for that murderer. This bleeding heart has no forgiveness left.
I lost six people that I loved. Three were health care providers, two of whom were infected while caring for covid patients. The other was working at a Charity hospital in New Orleans. She committed suicide after telling me 'she'd seen so much death' related to the virus. I am still mourning.
My friend who committed suicide-she reached out. She said that she couldn't sleep because dealing with so much death got inside of her head. She spoke of the refrigerated trucks parked behind the hospital that were used as morgues. She reached out. Five hours separated us. We were locked down.
I’m sorry for your losses
I'm sorry. Hugs (unless that offends you) I work in health care, and it was the scariest time ever. My best friend's son, who was 4 months younger than my own, died of Covid on Thanksgiving that year. He was 41.
Thank you! 41 is to damn young!
My scarred lungs and damaged heart won’t let me forget. Not to mention the loss of friends and neighbors. 💔
I remember being housebound with my husband for months and having difficulty getting bread, meat, paper and soap. And watching the daily pressers as Trump fell into insanity with his cult.
Americans have memories like goldfish. 2 minutes of Faux News and they forget they even had parents.
I do.
Everyone remembers. Everyone knows the issues. The rest is politicking. Life risking, politicking. Stupidity of the highest magnitude. Just sayin'
People have the memory and attention span of an autistic goldfish.
I fucking remember. My Dad, a lung transplant patient with an autoimmune disorder, had just gotten engaged. He watched Fox News, and wouldn't cancel their cruise. June 2020 they left for Alaska. Thanksgiving was the 4th anniversary of his miracle. He was hospitalized at TGH (worst💀) Died 1/8/21😣
I'm so sorry. That's got to be hard.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Him finding his grimy way back into the White House after destroying the last few years of my time with my Dad and then killing him was the hardest. Although, as I suspected early, and the numbers are showing, the man didn't legitimately win this time either. So remains a tiny hope for the future.
I don't think he really won either. My parents used to say they were glad they were old and when they said that, it made me sad and a little angry. I'm glad I'm old.
Ditto. I sadly celebrate every day closer to my last, though with far less laissez-faire attitude now that I have a surprise child, age 7.
Oh no! So sorry for your loss. Sending hugs to you.
I’m so sorry. Those of us with autoimmune disease are so vulnerable. Fox News killed thousands.
I have an autoimmune disorder and I take immunosurpressants. I'm so afraid of this stupid shit killing me!
Right there with ya.
It would seem that memory is like an old vcr tape that you record on and then when there is no more room, you record over what you recorded before. Sometimes a little shows through but it is very grainy.
Brilliant analogy!
The Trump administration regards people who fall ill as weak. They want them to die so that only the 'strongest' survive. This is their interpretation of the survival of the fittest, so they can achieve a population of white, strong people, matching their idea of white supremacy.
I do. I will never forget.
I always remember the great uncertainty that Covid sprung upon the human race. It will be a period I will never ever forget. The pain, the death, the uncertainty I lost my mum during the Covid period & was unable to travel for her funeral I remember clearly the death counts, it was uncertainty
It’s not over!! 😒
Yep I remember making 800 mask with 4H kids later on I spent 3 weeks in the hospital because of Noems super spreader that my kids went to and brought to me. I was healthy
3 weeks in the hospital is major. You must have nearly died.
Yep took me like 4 months to totally recover
Yes!! We lined up for that first shot on the day President Biden was sworn in.
It is amazing how soon people forget. That was the first time in my life (63 years) that I saw death as an immediate consequence if I went out or invited any of my close family over. We have a dysfunctional group of people that now think living is a privilege and they control who lives or dies.
I do. I also remember the Violent Anti Vaxxers attacking Healthcare workers.
I do.
i recently went back and watched some old news broadcasts and documentaries from during the pandemic. it really amazed me how just how traumatic it was, and by just how much i’d forgotten.
I grew up with MAGA people who fled screaming covered in the blood of strangers at the massacre in Las Vegas who then doubled down on gun rights.
This is the stuff that makes my brain hurt. I can't even process that kind of thinking.
I remember that it required some MAGA people be dying on their death bed to reconsider their stance and LOTS of people who died never changing it.
Yes, it was frightening. (Even after vaccines were available, and I had mine, I still ended up in ICU w/ Covid.)
In the ICU! That's terrifying!
It evolved into severe sepsis, nearly died. Later my husband said, "You didn't know it, but people were dying all around you." I'm grateful & lucky to be alive. And pissed off at this administration & that moron RFK Jr.
I'm sorry that happened to you! And your husband because he must have been terrified.
Yeah but then it was Easter and we couldn't all drink each other's backwash and so it was time for COVID to be over.
I remember my daughter texting me in April 2020 I think asking me to sue the NHS if she died. They had totally inadequate PPE. Fortunately she managed to get some FFP3 masks and goggles. She is an anaesthetist and was working on the covid wards. I will never forgive those politicians who made this
I remember the PPEs ordered for our local hospital were confiscated at the airport....how's that for supporting healthcare workers
That's horrific.
it really was.....I remember one of the governors on the east coast ordered a shipment from somewhere(China?) and I think had National Guard standing by to prevent them being taken on arrival....the crap that the drumpf people did to prevent people from being protected was absolutely despicable
Wow that's terrible.
all so much worse than it needed to be. And I hate the people who kept saying it was just a cold. I will never stop despising them.
The problem is that the same people who are hating on the vaxes and working to get rid of them are the same people who stated their freedoms were being infringed upon for having to mask and said the vaxes were installing tracking devices (or something) and didn't want the vaxes mandated then either
I wanted the vax the moment it was available. My only concern was that I'm allergic to eggs and needed confirmation there was an eggless vax (mrna vaxes are!). But I wasn't allowed to get it even though i lived with immunocompromised people until it was available for my age group. I begged for it!
I remember all of it. When it struck me most was going to my hairdresser, after a couple of years of public avoidance, and she telling me that her adult daughter had died from COVID. I got to know her daughter just through my hairdresser. We always talked about her. She was her only child. 😢
💔
