America’s Real ‘Long-Covid’

January 9, 2025

By Jim Towey

A virus from a lab leak in Wuhan, China reached America’s shores five years ago this month, but a lingering and more virulent strain of Covid remains. Beyond the wreckage measured by the death toll, learning losses for children, disastrous economic consequences, and the government’s shameful censorship campaign, there is a pathology afflicting young and old alike that demands treatment.   

This variant doesn’t weaken the immune system. It attacks the social connections we share with our neighbors. The Trump and Biden administrations’ fearmongering was a super-spreader of distrust and anxiety. We were told casual contact with others might kill us or them. Eye contact with strangers ceased. Grandma could no longer be hugged. People started bumping elbows instead of shaking hands.

Spreading isolation

The connectivity tissue that bound us together frayed as isolation spread. I wrote about this phenomena extensively here and here. President Biden spoke of a pandemic of the unvaccinated and said social media companies were killing people. What was one to do? If you didn’t wear a mask or get vaccinated, you were considered selfish and a public safety threat, but if you did, you might be the butt of jokes.  

A highlight memory for me took place at a Catholic mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Tallahassee in 2021. By that time, a great deal was known about how Covid infections, natural immunity, and the vaccines worked. But the priest, with the full support of federal government “expert advice,” was hellbent on instituting protective measures. He replaced the holy water receptacles at the church entrance with giant hand sanitizer dispensers (fulfilling Jesus’ warning about cleaning the outside of the bowl and neglecting the inside). 

One of his student assistants enforced the mandatory mask policy of the pastor. I was seated in the sanctuary a great distance from anyone, for the simple reason I didn’t want to wear a mask or spread illness. But that commonsense, effective precaution was of no interest to the young man who came over, during the liturgy no less, to order me to put on a mask. I asked to be left alone to pray and pointed out that I was not a threat to anyone. He said if I didn’t comply, I was trespassing, and he would call the police. He didn’t share my amusement at the thought of being busted during a church service. He called the police. Mass was over before a patrol car came.

I don’t blame the young man or pastor. When the Biden administration fanned fears into flames, this was inevitable. As Mark Zuckerberg admitted this week, Facebook was pressured by the Feds to censor any citizen who strayed from the party line. Real science was ignored by the so-called experts. The whole “social distancing” mantra that was broadcast in grocery stores and airports, carpet-bombed into our consciousness through taxpayer-funded mass marketing means, and mandated in all public settings, turned out to be fraudulent, and the inventor of it, Dr. Anthony Fauci, when pressed by Congress, admitted this.

More isolation

Thus, the virulent strain of Covid he engineered – the one that attacks our social connectivity – changed America. Remote work, isolation from others, and plexiglass windows at the customer service queue were normalized. Now it is common to not even acknowledge the person sitting next to you on a plane, subway or theater.

The poor, too, became invisible.  They had their shelters and soup kitchens closed by government order. I was at a soup kitchen in Washington in the dead of winter as the poor shivered outside waiting for a to-go meal. The warmth of compassion they knew from breaking bread under the gaze of Mother Teresa’s nuns was cut off. Can anyone today say that the poor, hungry, and homeless are even noticed anymore?  

Emergency measures adopted during the frightening beginning of Covid have been institutionalized. The doctor-patient relationship has not recovered. Telemedicine that was meant as a “necessary evil” to avoid Covid transmission is now commonplace and not just in rural areas where it might be justified. I was with a close friend who was in rapid decline from Parkinson’s. He wanted to see his neurologist but was instead offered a telemedicine option with a nurse practitioner. My friend sat in his assisted living facility room and poured out his concerns about his growing incapacity to the laptop in front of him. This was in 2024.

Restoring Trust

The five-year anniversary now upon us presents an opportunity to examine what we lost from Covid and why, and to hit the reset button. Habits forged by Covid isolationism pervade society, a reality that technology exacerbates. Many live in a Bluetooth world, oblivious to the outside world.

President-elect Trump can rehabilitate his 2020 record by restoring trust in public health and one another.  A good first step would be a concerted effort to re-humanize medicine and return to patient-centered, patient-directed care. Our elders need connection, compassion, cohesion, concern, and accompaniment. America can still shake the “long Covid” afflicting so many. What will our leaders do?

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)