No moral high ground in this pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic poses basic questions to us about what it means to be human. Not only are we asking ourselves how to stay alive but why. I believe that, for many people, the need to see one’s friends and family is as deep as the need for food or sleep.

I dislike the equation that seems to have developed that if you are “good” you won’t get COVID-19. Because the corollary is untrue and unfair – that becoming sick with COVID-19 or infecting one’s family is somehow a sign that one was reckless or “bad”, an indication that one is immoral or selfish.

Our needs as human beings are multifaceted. After a year and a half of this awful pandemic, can one really criticise a grandparent that needs to hug her grandchild? Or two siblings who sit down to a meal together to mourn the loss of their shared business and life savings?

COVID-19 has forced some of us to make very difficult decisions. Decisions that outsiders can easily criticise, especially as some choices have terrible, far-reaching consequences. I don’t know where the balance lies, but I don’t dare judge.