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Pandemic Reflections
I Bought Into American Exceptionalism Without Realizing It
After we settle into a new normal, we shouldn’t forget the lessons of the past year
As I look back on the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I can’t help but wonder why many of us weren’t more unsettled at the start of it all.
In early January 2020, my editor messaged me about the reports of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness out of Wuhan, China. As a science journalist, I’m careful to avoid hype in my writing. I wondered if I’d do more harm than good reporting on the outbreak. But my editor had been a foreign correspondent for TIME magazine in China when SARS was first identified in late 2002. He had reason to be concerned. My initial reaction was not exactly indifference, but I wasn’t particularly worried either.
My attitude started to change when the city of Wuhan went into complete lockdown on January 23. The pictures of empty streets were haunting.
Still, like many Americans, I never thought a pandemic would happen here. Ground zero was thousands of miles away, and after all, we had beaten back other infectious threats — SARS, MERS, Ebola. I should have known better.
