Some things money can't buy in pandemic

This post was published in the Wilson Times May 15, 2020

Congress has appropriated more than $2 trillion to compensate for the loss of jobs and income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The spending is unprecedented, greater even than the recovery spending after mortgage markets collapsed in the 2008-09 Great Recession.

Among those receiving funds from Congress’ pandemic spending are laid-off workers, businesses unable to pay workers, individual taxpayers (at the rate of $1,200 each or $2,400 per couple) and big corporations, which lobbied Congress and the Trump administration to let them in on the largesse, too. Even state governments, usually tight-fisted and operating under a balanced budget mandate, have opened their coffers to provide funding to people and businesses insufficiently helped by federal money.

Now, nearly four months after the COVID-19 virus became a household phrase and shoppers panicked and cleaned shelves of toilet paper and other essential items, elected officials are wondering whether this unprecedented spending will be enough to compensate all (or nearly all) Americans for what they lost because of a virus neither they nor their government agencies could predict or subdue.

There are other losses besides the monetary ones. People are dying because of this pandemic. Earlier this week, deaths from COVID-19 topped 80,000 in the United States. No one thinks the virus will stop there.

Each death is a tragedy. Each needless death resulting from poor healthcare, lack of insurance, uncaring others who ignored precautions such as washing hands, cleaning counters, social distancing and wearing face masks, or stay-at-home orders is doubly tragic. Nothing can bring back those who were lost in the pandemic, and that leaves a vacuum felt for years by friends and relatives.

 

Pandemic rules make each death more tragic. Funerals are either limited or forbidden. No one can get a proper sendoff, a comforting farewell, a shared mourning because of limits on crowd sizes.

High school and college seniors are being denied the usual capstone of their studies, a graduation ceremony. Although high school and college leaders have provided recognitions of their graduating class, a neighborhood parade or a sign in the front yard just isn’t the same as that walk across the stage. Some college athletes are missing their last chance at stardom.

Even more disappointed are engaged couples who have planned a wedding months in advance, put down payments on reception catering and venues, plus honeymoon trips. Restrictions on crowds and uncertainties about travel will force them to postpone their ceremony and honeymoon.

Similarly, families who planned vacation trips a year in advance (not an unusual practice) have had to cancel their long-awaited travel, hope for refunds and deal with it if refunds are declined. For many, a 2020 trip was to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a bucket list item. It may be possible to shift some trips to a year later, but for some people, this year’s vacation loss is permanent. Several years ago, a friend with a debilitating and ultimately fatal disease scheduled a series of trips to check off his bucket list of places he had always wanted to see. In 2020, such once-in-a-lifetime trips won’t be possible.

For some people of a certain age, a dream trip canceled this year might be a last chance. A year from now, they might not have the mobility, strength or stamina for such a trip.

We all know that there are some things money can’t buy. There are some things for which no government stimulus can compensate: a life ended too soon, a life-mark ceremony postponed, a long-nurtured dream denied, a life-changing opportunity canceled. Stimulus money can’t make up for the disappointments, the postponements, the tragedies this pandemic has wrought.