Alas, Poor Karen

In midsummer of 2020, the virus showed a vicious resurgence after many quarantine restrictions were lifted in several states, including Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. We reopened far too quickly, as predicted. Governor Newsom no doubt caved to lobbyists and business leaders pressuring him to address the tanking economy, to let people return to work.

Robert Wachter, chair of the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Medicine, told The San Francisco Chronicle:

“When it comes to fighting a pandemic, we suck…what happened now is human, we let our guard down, we believed ‘Look how great we’ve done, the virus didn’t hit us like New York, we got lucky, we dodged the bullet, it’s time to go out and live our lives.’ And that’s where things went off the rails.”

Civic pride? Or entitlement? You be the judge. Actually, skip that. If you’re Anglo-American, you’re almost certainly biased. We all are. Hashtag sorry.

Other countries like South Korea and Italy flattened their curves, for the interim. We were nowhere near flattening the curve. It spiked at its highest point yet. We wanted to go out to eat. We were tired of indoor confinement, the lack of daily variety, and we missed human interaction outside our immediate households.

Jacqueline Gollan, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, coined a suitable phrase for the phenomenon that sabotaged much of the American public: caution fatigue.

Gollan compared social distancing motivation to a battery: when initial lockdowns were ordered, folks were charged with the drive to flatten the curve as recommended, but weeks and months went by and the weight of solitude and general disruption to everyday routines eventually taxed people to the point where they stopped making as strong of efforts required to implement an efficient quarantine, and started taking more recreational risks outside of essential outings. Strictly speaking, we couldn’t maintain the discipline other countries managed because we felt it was taking too long.

The class of 2020, be they grade school or high school or college, were robbed of a standard coming of age propriety, mourned throughout the nation by graduates and proud parents alike. Some few counties and school districts went ahead with them nonetheless. Wise people made do. Less wise people took the dartboard approach. It was a shame that collegiate level of adaptation didn’t overlap with the retail aisles of our stores.

A simple, Sesame Street comparison:

“I can’t breathe.” – George Floyd, a knee on his neck.

“I can’t breathe.” – A Trader Joe’s Karen, refusing to wear a mask upon entry.

One of these things is not like the other.

What was the deal with white girls having public meltdowns about pandemic protocols?