Washington Post: "Remember: You’re not a failure" just because you caught covid.
It's a message to all the good little Karens out there, the ones who followed all the rules and did their very utmost to shame everybody else into going along.
Aline, who requested to be identified by her first name only for privacy reasons, is still puzzling over how she got the virus — was it because she wore a cloth mask rather than a medical-grade one? — and worries that the cough she has now could worsen because she has diabetes. That’s not the most painful part of the ordeal, though: “I feel very embarrassed and dumb,” she says, and upset that she’s causing her family stress. “It’s eye-opening that I feel so much shame from it. I’m realizing how much judgment I was secretly harboring against people who got it before.”
Secretly harboring judgment? It's OK!
Keep in mind that you can’t control what others do or think. “There are some people who are going to act like jerks, and we all have to live with that,” says Jonathan S. Abramowitz, a professor of psychology in the University of North Carolina clinical psychology program. “See it for what it is. By all means, don’t say, ‘Well, this person is making me feel ashamed, so therefore they’re right and I should feel ashamed.’” And if your friends are making you feel bad about your diagnosis, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the company you keep, Abramowitz says.
Practice self-compassion. Perhaps easier said than done, but it’s important, especially given that you’re also dealing with a serious virus. First, if you’re ruminating over everything you wish you had done differently, flip your perspective and consider: “It could be that you’re very diligent and very conscientious, and that’s why you’re taking this so hard,” Varma says. “That just means you’re a thoughtful, considerate, caring human being trying really, really hard.”
Yes, you're a thoughtful, considerate, caring human being. And after all, it is really all about you.
Bufka follows the FacesOfCOVID Twitter account, which shares photos of and stories about those lost to the virus. “It makes me cry almost every single time because these are somebody's loved ones who died,” she says. Yet it’s easy to start wondering: Was that person vaccinated? How and why did they get sick? Bufka reminds herself: “That’s not the point. The point is, somebody had a really terrible illness, and they died from it.”
In other words, let's not dwell on the failure of imposing vaccines, masks, and lockdowns while denying the existence of effective therapeutics. There are still millions of unvaxxed who can be vilified and denied health care services. There are still a few Mom and Pop stores that haven't gone out of business. Jeff Bezos wouldn't mind another few billion so let's heed the message from his public relations arm, The Washington Post, and stick to the lockdown game plan.