Marisa Williamson

Pandemic Journal Entries:

“Due to all of the ways that things had to go differently, I honestly think that the spread of Covid was inevitable. Even in an ideal world, there was no way that doctors and scientists in China (or anywhere else in the world) would have been able to detect and determine what Covid was, how contagious it was, and instantly know how to stop the spread. Due to living in such a globalized and interconnected world, a disease like Covid is perfect for being able to spread around the whole globe. While the spread was inevitable, Covid’s impact and incredibly large death toll was not. People and specifically political leaders and those in power, need to listen to doctors and scientists. There is no reason that the US is getting close to 300,000 deaths and is projected to hit 1,000,000. It is honestly so depressing and disheartening that so many avoidable deaths have happened around the world, but specifically in the US. So many lives have been lost and will continue to be lost due to the incompetence, selfishness, and disregard of human lives of the president and his government.” (Pandemic Journal Week 4, 11/25/20)

Ever since the announcement that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have high success rates, it seems that everyone is starting to have hope again that life can go back to “normal” sooner rather than later. But this worries me, after reading so many articles about the long process of how getting vaccinated works, the idea of vaccine distribution, the only 90-95% effectiveness of the vaccine, and that many people interviewed say that they don’t want the vaccine/how politicized the vaccine is. This quote from a New York Times article, “From the headlines, you might well assume that these vaccines — which some people may receive in a matter of weeks — will protect 95 out of 100 people who get them. But that’s not actually what the trials have shown. Exactly how the vaccines perform out in the real world will depend on a lot of factors we just don’t have answers to yet — such as whether vaccinated people can get asymptomatic infections and how many people will get vaccinated.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/health/covid-vaccine-95-effective.html) really encapsulates the complicatedness behind the vaccines and effectiveness. (Pandemic Journal Week 3, 11/20/20)