“Trust the science.” That’s all I’ve heard from well-meaning do-gooders since the Covid-19 pandemic began to grip the States last year — and I agreed with their sentiment! It was definitely preferable to people who were saying “fuck the science.”
However, now that the science is beginning to work more and more in our favor, the same people who insisted we should trust it are suddenly letting their emotions overtake them instead.
We see this when vaccinated people are chastised for openly socializing, for example. The argument usually goes, “Vaccines aren’t foolproof and we’re still in a pandemic!”
Well, yes. But no vaccine is foolproof, first of all. It’s not meant to be foolproof to begin with, though the Covid-19 vaccines appear to be especially effective, a real triumph for human beings.
Second of all, the negative effects of a pandemic aren’t limited to the actual virus — they can include stress, loneliness, and paranoia, to name just a few serious issues that can and do affect our health. Adults can weigh the risks and decide what is acceptable. They’ve done the responsible thing, which is to get vaccinated in the first place. Doctors and scientists agree that now it’s time to let people get back to their lives.
“Don’t socialize even if you’re vaccinated!” is not a public performance that’s meant to be helpful. Instead, it’s a stress response dressed up as virtue. This is why the same people who claimed to have trusted the science are now demanding what science cannot deliver — which is perfect, 100% safety.
Recently, Lauren Walker caught some heat for tweeting this:
https://twitter.com/ActNormalOrElse/status/1379044386395320325
While she was absolutely right, her critics went as far as call her “ableist” for expressing this sentiment. After all, how dare anyone criticize rule-followers in need of approval?
The thing is, it’s not actually ableist to point out that people’s neuroses and obsessions can cause them to be unpleasant. Neither is it ableist to point out that the pandemic could be very validating for those of us who are afraid to leave the house.
You know how I know this? I’m one of those people who is sometimes afraid to leave the house! I have chronic post-traumatic stress, and while it is very well managed, there are times when I still want to, even need to, hide from the world. If you see me at a social gathering, you might never know. I can be extremely fun at parties, I am told, and not in the ironic way either. But still, I understand the lurking, ever present anxiety, mostly stemming from the idea that someone may want to kill me (because people have wanted to before, hence my condition) that causes one to withdraw. I know what it’s like to fight back tears while I’m trying to cross the threshold of a house I’ve been to many times. It’s OK — it happens to a lot of us. Admitting it is better than puffing out our chests and claiming that “WE’VE JUST BEEN TRYING TO BE GOOD PEOPLE THIS WHOLE TIME.” Admitting our anxieties would actually be good for us.
Another great example of people who “trust the science — except not really,” are those of us who continue to disinfect their vegetables. We’ve known for a while now that you’re not going to catch Covid-19 from an avocado. But tell that to the woman who recently accosted a friend of mine in New York when he was merely touching avocados in order to figure out which ones were overripe.
“There’s still a pandemic!” she hissed at him.
He brought up the World Health Organization’s exact statements and read them out loud to her from his phone, in order to convince her otherwise. She was unmoved. Yet I am willing to bet that at the start of this whole thing, she had been a fierce science supporter.
The typical tactic of science supporters gone rogue, as I like to call them, is to point out that doctors and scientists have been wrong in the past about this virus. Dr. Fauci was wrong when he initially said that we don’t need masks, they say.
Fair enough! But this was also at the start of the pandemic, when we didn’t know a whole lot. And while surprises are inevitable in all aspects of life, and I’m sure that Covid is not done surprising us yet, we do know more than we did before.
Our overexposed, social media-centered lives certainly don’t help when it comes to our quest for perfection. We want to be perfect in everything, everywhere. It’s not healthy, and when it comes to weathering a pandemic, it’s especially exhausting.
And this is where I must say that a little fatalism is good for you. No, science isn’t perfect. No, the world isn’t perfect either. Can this be tragic and scary and unfair? Absolutely. Trust me as someone who is currently helping her father grieve one of his favorite cousins, a titan of a man, felled by Covid when we were so close to ending this damn thing.
But part of growing up, moving on, and, most importantly, healing is accepting reality and being grateful for all of the other things it has to offer. This is why when you see vaccinated people hugging each other — don’t scowl. Be happy for them. Happiness is a precious resource.
Image credit: Belova59