Have you noticed that every time you have learned and shared a bit of good news about the coronavirus plague, someone pointed you to a news article explaining the good news away?
It doesn’t seem to spread outdoors, it became clear by late spring. “If you think you’re safe from the coronavirus just because you’re outdoors, think again,” wrote a doctor in an online journal.
It’s not really affecting children, we realized by the summer. But it’s causing long-term unseen harms in children, we were scolded.
And now, with two vaccines appearing to be nearly 100% effective, anyone who celebrates the news will get a haughty chuckle from some reporter quoting some doctor explaining that nope, you still have to wear your mask, you still can’t go to the beach, and you definitely can’t have Sunday dinner with the extended family.
Why so invested in doom?
The usual suspects are at play, of course. You’ve got politicians and government officials who see every crisis as an opportunity — specifically an opportunity to gain more power over people’s lives. You’ve got a media filled with editors who know scaremongering gets clicks and reporters dealing with something over their heads who think let’s err on the side of caution. You never can be too safe.
It’s the same reason that the media drive moral panics about poisoned Halloween candy.
There’s another layer of irrational negativity when it comes to COVID-19, though. It comes from public health experts who simply don’t trust the public with information. That’s led to this wave of “the vaccine won’t really stop the virus” stories.
“Many may also be nervous that vaccinated people will stop wearing masks and social distancing,” David Leonhardt explained in a New York Times newsletter, “which in turn could cause unvaccinated people to stop as well.”
There’s another explanation for the perpetual doomsaying, though, which is at once simpler and more baffling: Some people get a thrill from the pandemic. The lockdowns, the new rules, the outward signs of inward virtue (masks), the scolding of violators — all provide satisfaction for a certain type.
And if you’ve been on Twitter, NextDoor, Facebook, or a neighborhood email list, you see people who are clearly proud that they haven’t seen their parents in 10 months or that Bobby only sees his friends from across the street. “Some experts seem almost spiritually invested in forestalling a return to normalcy,” the New York Post’s Karol Markowitz noted. They brag about worthless sacrifices, such as no fishing or tennis.
It’s a secular Lenten sacrifice or self-mortification. If you object that giving up fishing or tennis doesn’t slow the spread, they ask why you can’t get into the spirit of sacrifice. Notice how they invent new rituals, such as grocery washing.
This isn’t about germs for some people. It’s about giving up oneself for something greater. The coronavirus, for many in our secular culture, has provided something to believe in.
