This spring marks the four-year anniversary of a world-historical event. I mean, of course, our spontaneous global reading group on Albert Camus’s The Plague. I had read The Plague before as an allegory of the Nazi occupation of France. But like thousands who bought the novel in the wake of the pandemic, I could see, now, that
Thank you for this, Kieran. I liked how you captured that I-know-it-happened-but-did-it-really? sense I also have about COVID in 2020/21. It seems fitting that you mentioned PTSD—not that we have a collective case of it exactly but because of how trauma (and stress :) interact with and bend/distort/enhance memory.
I think the pandemic was an opening whereby we might have reflected on social inequality, injustice and our finitude. An opportunity that was lost as social distancing kicked in - made actually worse by technology.
Kieran, did you write about it and how major disruptions impinge on our notion of the good life?
Rose's book is really good! But Paradiso by her sister remains my favourite.
The pandemic really messed with my sense of reality.
It was the very worst time to have a chaotic and casually lying guy for president, insisting there were tests available for anyone who wanted them when there obviously weren’t.
But he did get vaccines fast tracked.
Then the WHO and CDC, who I respected until then, lied knowingly about key aspects of the pandemic. The press conferences with the panel of supposedly top scientists of the world and the U.S president...filled me with fear.
I learnt to really think probabilistically.
I basically followed Eric Topol and did what he said. And he wasn't even an epidemiologist.
I remember the absolute madness involved in getting through Austin City website for the vaccine. Could govt be more incompetent?
But the professional way in which Indian govt administered vaccines to over a billion people was super impressive. The tech was superb. Everyone got digital proof. It was all smooth. That messed with my sense of reality too. I thought THAT was the incompetent bureaucratic system. Turns out America is.
Govts everywhere tasted blood, as my friend put it. They saw how they could trap people in their homes.
I still don't understand how often we are supposed to take the vaccine. Does it prevent long covid?
Thank you for this, Kieran. I liked how you captured that I-know-it-happened-but-did-it-really? sense I also have about COVID in 2020/21. It seems fitting that you mentioned PTSD—not that we have a collective case of it exactly but because of how trauma (and stress :) interact with and bend/distort/enhance memory.
I think the pandemic was an opening whereby we might have reflected on social inequality, injustice and our finitude. An opportunity that was lost as social distancing kicked in - made actually worse by technology.
Kieran, did you write about it and how major disruptions impinge on our notion of the good life?
Rose's book is really good! But Paradiso by her sister remains my favourite.
The pandemic really messed with my sense of reality.
It was the very worst time to have a chaotic and casually lying guy for president, insisting there were tests available for anyone who wanted them when there obviously weren’t.
But he did get vaccines fast tracked.
Then the WHO and CDC, who I respected until then, lied knowingly about key aspects of the pandemic. The press conferences with the panel of supposedly top scientists of the world and the U.S president...filled me with fear.
I learnt to really think probabilistically.
I basically followed Eric Topol and did what he said. And he wasn't even an epidemiologist.
I remember the absolute madness involved in getting through Austin City website for the vaccine. Could govt be more incompetent?
But the professional way in which Indian govt administered vaccines to over a billion people was super impressive. The tech was superb. Everyone got digital proof. It was all smooth. That messed with my sense of reality too. I thought THAT was the incompetent bureaucratic system. Turns out America is.
Govts everywhere tasted blood, as my friend put it. They saw how they could trap people in their homes.
I still don't understand how often we are supposed to take the vaccine. Does it prevent long covid?
What exactly happened here?!