The Six Levels of Pandemic Concern
As the calendar turns to February 2022.
I’m heading to Los Angeles next week to write about the Super Bowl. This is the first time I’ve been to California since the pandemic hit, and I’m elated: I have many friends there and have missed them very much. But any time you make plans to see someone for the first time since the pandemic began, you have to be aware that this pandemic has taught all of us a lot about ourselves and the people around us. People have changed during the pandemic, but they have also, in many ways, become even more of who they already are. At this particular stage, with Omicron starting to ebb but still roughly 2,500 Americans a day dying of Covid-19, it’s important to clarify exactly where you stand on face-to-face interactions right now … particularly when you’re seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time.
So allow me to come up with a chart. I’d argue there are six different viewpoints, ranging from lockdown to it’s over, and it’s vital to know which of them you are, and which of them your friends are. So here’s a rough sketch. This is not a judgment of any of these groups. It’s just an attempt to classify them.
- The lockdowners. This crew, often based in places like New York City (where people didn’t venture out much past a four-block radius even before the pandemic), believe any…
