One Year Later

A Year Of Lessons

It was March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and nine days later when Governor Andrew Cuomo banned all nonessential gatherings in New York State.

Some responded to the shutdown with abject fear and hoarded toilet paper and canned goods. Others believed that the shutdown was an unnecessary and disproportionate precaution for an overblown threat — and they responded by hoarding toilet paper and canned goods.

Now, New Yorkers are one year removed from the initial lockdown, and 22 percent of the state’s population has received at least one vaccine dose. Our essential workers have held the line, and others have adjusted to work-from-home life.

Both the doomsayers and those who failed to take the danger seriously have had occasion to feel foolish over the past year. We persevered, avoided the worst-case scenario — hospitals being overrun — and did not descend into food riots. But that in no way lessens the impact of the pandemic: We have lost nearly 50,000 New Yorkers and more than half a million lives nationwide.

The smuggest COVID deniers lost the argument long ago that the novel coronavirus is no more dangerous than the flu. Even with social distancing and shutdowns, COVID has been 10 times deadlier than a terrible flu season. Without these measures, the doomsayers would have been proven right in unthinkable ways.

Most of us would have struggled to believe a year ago that the return to some semblance of normal life would be coming some time after Independence Day 2021, according to the White House. While waiting that long to resume normal business and indoor gatherings may sometimes feel untenable, it’s important that we remember the lessons of the post-holidays surge. To mix a couple of sports metaphors: We are now in the home stretch, and this is not the time to drop the ball.