By Colby Tortorici

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about all of the things that I would do once the world goes back to normal. I now know that the world will never be “normal” again.

Even though the entire U.S. population went ahead and decided that quarantine was over and just resumed with their day-to-day lives, the fact is that COVID-19 is not gone, people are still dying every single day from it. People still can’t get tested for it, and the world is still fully consumed in the pandemic, and assuming that everything will just be “okay” once we hit September is just false. 

The fact of the matter is that COVID-19 is here to stay.

Millions of people have had or currently have COVID-19, and hundreds of thousands have died, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Delaying your blockbuster movie two weeks isn’t going to help anything, and re-opening your bars and restaurants is certainly not going to make things better. And of course, the economy is in complete and utter shambles. People are losing their businesses, their livelihoods, and they’re powerless to stop it. 

Things aren’t going to blow over in a couple of months. The entire nation has proved that, no, they can’t stay inside, they can’t wear masks. Individualism is all well and good until the nation is tasked with doing the absolute bare minimum to keep a global pandemic from destroying everything, and fails. 

COVID-19 will continue to spread, and it will continue to mutate, COVID-19 isn’t going to leave, ever. It might eventually settle down and become somewhat like the flu, but regardless, things aren’t ever going to be like how they were before. The United States was entirely unprepared for COVID-19 due to a certain president’s unwillingness to do anything to try and curb it. We’re not even close to seeing how the pandemic will fully shake our nation to the core.

Will we ever get back to a point where a crowded movie theater will rejoice in harmony over a new blockbuster film? What about a crowded mall full of people eating, shopping, and just being around each other? Probably not, and if we do, it’s going to take years. 

As I sit here writing this article, I struggle with questions: What is the point? Why am I writing this story? And after a lot of thought, I think I’ve come to an answer: What else is there left to talk about? I'm consumed with these thoughts.

I am so utterly devastated that a global pandemic has turned into something political. Wearing a small face covering to protect others is considered to be “impeding on your freedom.” Millions of people do not even care enough to throw on a mask or to stay home rather than going out to eat. The smallest of courtesies are now treated as a threat to freedom. People would rather contract a disease that could kill them instead of keeping people around them safe. Because of those people, the world will never be the same. But hey, who needs a mask? COVID is just a Democratic hoax, remember?