Reading through that list was incredibly somber for me and reminded me of all the patients I interacted with who had Covid or died from it. The first month or so of Covid was weird, like it seemed like maybe the U.S. might actually pull it together and through it. And then it's like a switch flipped and people started going crazy, I had people accosting me while I was at work in public and asking me insane conspiracy questions. I wish those people who didn't and don't believe Covid existed or whatever could have had my perspective for a day.
I worked on an ambulance for the entire duration and I still remember the sounds of a patient begging for help because they couldn't breathe and were going home on hospice and there was nothing else the hospital could do for them. Or what it was like to walk into a house where both 30-something roommates just inexplicably dropped dead after having Covid. Then having to work them both and contact the families. Spending 100 degree summer days in trashbag-ppe gowns and your face hurting from wearing an N95 all day while you worked on patients in the back. The whole while we went from "heroes" to villains for people, foot soldiers of some grand conspiracy which didn't exist.
I dunno... I think sometimes things got like that because a lot of people were forced to confront their own mortality for the first time. Realistically though, I learned that people are just selfish and self-centered assholes whose only concern is themselves. I remember being scared before Covid finally hit and we were doing daily briefings and these crazy videos were coming out of China and Italy. I was and still am immunocompromised, and was given the option to go and do admin work. My family and doctors were all worried that I might get and die, even. But I made the decision to stay and said I wouldn't run from doing the right thing. But to look back at it all just 4 or 5 years past, I'm just disappointed. All that work and to witness all that suffering just have society at large tell you you're a liar, evil, a murderer. To hardly have even the government behind your back during a pandemic. When another pandemic hits, I'm not sticking around again. I've been through it once and that was enough for me. I'll sit at home this next time around.
My uncle died from Covid in those early days. He was 52 and healthy, but he was in a rehab center after major surgery (he broke his back mountain biking). They wouldn't let him out. They wouldn't let us in. Half of the facility were vulnerable, elderly residents, and when Covid came, it spread like wildfire.
It feels like purple have no memory of those early months. The pre-vaccine days.
I talk about him quite a bit. He was like a brother to me. More than a few times, when I mentioned how he died, people have said, "Yeah, but what did he really die of? No one died from just Covid. They lied to us about that. I hope you didn't get the vaccine...."
It's been 5 years and history is already being erased. Those of us who still grieve feel dismissed, gaslighted, angry, and so so disappointed in our fellow Americans.
Wish you were still here, Uncle Ron. No one deserved to die like that.
seamustheseagull on May 24th, 2025 at 19:26 UTC »
Look at the date. COVID-19 was barely two months old as an official pandemic and there were 100,000 dead in the US alone.
JackP133 on May 24th, 2025 at 20:31 UTC »
Reading through that list was incredibly somber for me and reminded me of all the patients I interacted with who had Covid or died from it. The first month or so of Covid was weird, like it seemed like maybe the U.S. might actually pull it together and through it. And then it's like a switch flipped and people started going crazy, I had people accosting me while I was at work in public and asking me insane conspiracy questions. I wish those people who didn't and don't believe Covid existed or whatever could have had my perspective for a day.
I worked on an ambulance for the entire duration and I still remember the sounds of a patient begging for help because they couldn't breathe and were going home on hospice and there was nothing else the hospital could do for them. Or what it was like to walk into a house where both 30-something roommates just inexplicably dropped dead after having Covid. Then having to work them both and contact the families. Spending 100 degree summer days in trashbag-ppe gowns and your face hurting from wearing an N95 all day while you worked on patients in the back. The whole while we went from "heroes" to villains for people, foot soldiers of some grand conspiracy which didn't exist.
I dunno... I think sometimes things got like that because a lot of people were forced to confront their own mortality for the first time. Realistically though, I learned that people are just selfish and self-centered assholes whose only concern is themselves. I remember being scared before Covid finally hit and we were doing daily briefings and these crazy videos were coming out of China and Italy. I was and still am immunocompromised, and was given the option to go and do admin work. My family and doctors were all worried that I might get and die, even. But I made the decision to stay and said I wouldn't run from doing the right thing. But to look back at it all just 4 or 5 years past, I'm just disappointed. All that work and to witness all that suffering just have society at large tell you you're a liar, evil, a murderer. To hardly have even the government behind your back during a pandemic. When another pandemic hits, I'm not sticking around again. I've been through it once and that was enough for me. I'll sit at home this next time around.
AhavaZahara on May 24th, 2025 at 20:35 UTC »
My uncle died from Covid in those early days. He was 52 and healthy, but he was in a rehab center after major surgery (he broke his back mountain biking). They wouldn't let him out. They wouldn't let us in. Half of the facility were vulnerable, elderly residents, and when Covid came, it spread like wildfire.
It feels like purple have no memory of those early months. The pre-vaccine days.
I talk about him quite a bit. He was like a brother to me. More than a few times, when I mentioned how he died, people have said, "Yeah, but what did he really die of? No one died from just Covid. They lied to us about that. I hope you didn't get the vaccine...."
It's been 5 years and history is already being erased. Those of us who still grieve feel dismissed, gaslighted, angry, and so so disappointed in our fellow Americans.
Wish you were still here, Uncle Ron. No one deserved to die like that.