From masks to mandates: Our pandemic poll of best and worst memories

It’s been a slog since the second week of March 2020.

Lockdowns and panic gripped the globe as dire news began to seep out of Wuhan then Italy as the virus quickly spread to both coasts with a Biogen conference here intensifying the fears locally.

SARS-CoV-2 was universally understood. Simply COVID is good enough today. The bad taste in your mouth for weeks, the splitting headaches, and worse has infected almost all of us — or worse.

Now the World Health Organization — never a bastion of believability — has downgraded the plague declaring it no longer qualifies as a global emergency. But all we went through will never be forgotten, at least not for a long time. What’s your opinion? Take the poll HERE today at bostonherald.com on the best and worst of the coronavirus pandemic:

BEST:

To-go cocktails

Restaurants and bars were shut down crippling those businesses so severely many have been unable to recover. In a rare smart move, the state Legislature did allow the purchase of to-go libations with takeout meals. Mixologists worked their magic helping customers cope with being cooped up. It was a shot of ingenuity.

Hybrid and remote work

Those who can still work from home, even for a few days, will probably live longer now that you won’t be so frustrated while stuck in traffic. Work friends are great, but your pets probably appreciate you being home more, too. The question is will working from home to some degree be here to stay?

mRNA technology

There’s been a lot of doubters, but mRNA (or Messenger RNA) is the wave of the future. Plus, ask the instant millionaires who got behind Moderna and Pfizer early enough to catch this wave. See the negatives below, but for a vast majority of us, this was a shot in the arm that took on those nasty COVID spike proteins.

Everyday heroes

Nurses, doctors, COVID testers, food-pantry workers, police, firefighters, EMTs, trash men, grocery store workers, truck drivers … the list is endless for those who deserve our thanks for bravely venturing out into the world when they were needed the most.

Anthropause

When we all went inside, wildlife went further outside. Dolphins were seen in harbors, white-tailed eagles flourished, coral reefs recovered, sparrows sang and we all noticed. Not all the news is good — animals are still being killed on highways — but we did give Earth a break from all the noise and pollution.

WORST:

Vax cards, mandates

Don’t toss that vaccine card just yet, some still push them. The whole idea of showing a vaccine card and adhering to a mandate in order to keep your job gnawed at our collective independent streak. Others rationalized abiding by it all was for the greater good. Still, nobody was crazy about the whole concept.

No wakes, funerals

Not being allowed to hold a wake and regular funeral for lost loved ones compounded the already depressing days that made the first year of the pandemic, at times, unbearable.

Masks

When and what masks to wear was handled poorly, to say the least. First cloth masks were sufficient, then all the talk was over N95s, KN95s, and KF94s. Those thin surgical masks still litter parking lots everywhere you go. Healthcare workers needed the top masks the most, for sure, but the rest of us? Kids? To some degree, experts say, they help. But this was never communicated well.

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Former White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci was first must-see TV then one of the most distrusted men in the White House. He’s still under attack for school lockdowns and all the stops and starts from the pandemic. We’ll let you vote in the poll on this topic. Does he deserve all the blame?

Washing groceries

How the heck did this ever gain traction? It was quickly proven that COVID-19 mostly spread through the air. Yet, this was just the tip of the iceberg on what the real problem was during this pandemic: fear. The grocery store workers who never got enough credit for sticking it out were the ones we should have focused more on.

Hoarding toilet paper

Selfishness was also on display. Shoppers hoarded toilet paper as if the end of the world was imminent. People grabbed more than what they needed and it wasn’t just toilet paper. Masks, hand sanitizer, meats, poultry, eggs … you name it. When others needed help, many turned inward and grabbed all they could.

Isolation

And, many suffered in silence. We’re social beings. Being alone is not all it’s cracked up to be. We need friends and family gatherings to enrich our lives. For many, households suddenly grew with grown children returning home to hunker down together. But for others, it was a lonely time in lockdown mode.

There’s plenty more that went right and wrong. Send your comments in a letter to the editor at [email protected].