There’s a Reason We Can’t See the Future

If someone would’ve told you exactly 1 year ago that a mask would still be hanging from your rearview mirror in March, 2021, from which bridge would you have immediately jumped?

I wouldn’t have jumped off of a bridge — partly because of my fear of heights — but seriously, I’m not really sure what I would’ve done.

For me, it has been the most surreal experience I have ever had.

It’s been long.

It’s been frustrating.

It’s been exhausting to worry about family and friends — and even a little bit about myself from time to time.

No, it would not have been good to have known 12 months ago that we would still be here a whole year later.

This is why life comes at us one day at a time instead of in big chunks. This is the reason crystal balls and fortune tellers don’t exist.

We couldn’t handle the truth, as the old movie line sort of goes.

In the early days of the pandemic, nobody even knew what the truth was going to be.

A year ago this week, the White House coronavirus task force said that between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, “certainly seem to be within the reasonable framework.”

To date, the US deaths are nearing 550,000 with almost 30 million cases. 

In the beginning, officials predicted deaths to peak in April — just a month after a pandemic was declared.

That prognostication was only off by 10 months. 

According to data from the New York Times, deaths peaked on Feb. 5 of this year.

Here’s some good news, though.

You probably haven’t had the flu.

An article on WebMD published Feb. 25 said, “Public health labs across the US reported a grand total of three cases of flu in the US last week, out of nearly 16,000 samples tested.

“Clinical laboratories, which tested nearly 25,000 sample, found just 14 flu cases,” the article said.

To me, that’s no coincidence.

It seems obvious that the precautions most of us are taking to stay one step ahead of Covid are also keeping us from spreading other infectious diseases.

Here’s another tidbit that sounds promising. 

It seems the technology used to make the Covid vaccines, called messenger RNA, can be used to treat cancer cells.

Health officials have said messenger RNA could be approved for cancer treatment within 2 to 3 years.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to memorialize those who died during the pandemic.

Maybe it’s the change of season, but as I go through my day-to-day routine I have started to notice people having a little more hope. It seems like things don’t seem quite as strained.

I hope this isn’t merely a case of us letting our guard down.

We have reason for hope. Thankfully, the curve has dropped significantly since its peak only a month ago.

This month has even had two days when nobody died so far. The last time that happened was last May.

We can thank vaccinations. We can thank each other for doing our part.

And if we continue to do our part, the trend will continue and one day this whole nightmare will be history. 

If we don’t, we’ll be right back where we were this time last year.

Let’s not go back.