Finding lessons in the pandemic in sister cities in Germany and Virginia.

I know the headline is supposed to be inspirational, but the story really isn’t.

Am guessing we’ll never recognize the immense price so many paid to, essentially, protect old people. Yes, long Covid (which seems rarer than first reported), and sometimes younger people do in fact die. But statistically, neither of those is very common.

Basically, we asked the people least able to bear it and the least-affected by Covid to miss many of the most important parts of their lives to make sure that over-70s didn’t die. Asking “Was it worth it?” is the wrong question. “Worth” is not a valid measure of what occurred here, as that presumes these were the only choices available — again, the false dichotomy that is so common.

That we could’ve done something different is the truth of the matter, and that we did not is something we’re not supposed to realize or to talk about.

It’s a bit staggering to think about how much was sacrificed for all too many who will refuse to get vaccinated and still die anyway. It should not have gone down this way.