The Real Cost of COVID ~ One Year Later

Is there a way to calculate the real cost of COVID ~ one year later?

For weeks this topic continues to swirl around in my mind as we close in on the one year anniversary of the 15 Days to Slow the Spread campaign (March 16, 2021). Last year when the NCAA cancelled March Madness on March 11th, the dominoes started falling all over society. In one of our two main local hospitals, the first case of COVID showed up on March 12th. By this day last year, it felt as if the world was beginning to unravel.

A global pandemic. One year later, the virus from an unknown source in Wuhan, China still rages. Many states have begun to open up some as new case rates continue to decline as natural immunity increases (almost 30 million reported cases) and vaccinated immunity increases – moving us closer and closer to herd immunity.

But again, is there a way to calculate the real cost of COVID ~ one year later?

I do not think we will know the real cost of COVID for years – if ever. However, we can begin to see the cost in these areas: personal, familial, spiritual, economic, political, and societal.

Personal Cost

Recently I likened one year under COVID to the feeling of the deepest winter where the chilling temperatures make your bones hurt. The sense of the burden of COVID has settled into the bones of the average American. No one personally signed up for it nor could they do anything to stop it. But neither of those things make it no less personal.

Possibly you are like so many other family members, friends, coworkers, and Americans around you who are emotionally spent. You deal with fear, anxiety, and worry on the daily. Seeking to be sensitive and loving to your friends, family, and neighbors, you follow the recommendations handed down from various officials throughout local, state, and federal government. As a result, you have personally lost freedom, opportunities, and so much more.

For some of you, your concern extends to your own personal health. Depending upon your age, general health, and other various factors, you may have significant concerns about contacting the virus. I know so many who have functionally quarantined from everyone for this entire year. Several of them see no end in sight. This comes at a real cost.

Since last June, multiple reports detailed concerning cost of individuals’ worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation. Studies indicate that the current rate of depression is at least seven times higher than normal (potentially over 25%). Further, significant increases in suicide, opioid use, alcohol, and other coping mechanisms are shocking.

Truth be told – we simply do not know the real personal toll COVID has thrust upon us as a individual people.

Familial Cost

Like you and your family, my family has suffered under the COVID virus. We continue to be separated from so many in our family. We simply cannot answer the question of when we will see some in our family again. These past twelve months lay heavy on us when we think of those we still cannot see. But that is just the beginning.

So many family and friends have died over the past twelve months. Over half a million individuals have died since February 6, 2020 in the United States – not half a million numbers but half a million people. Spouses. Dads. Moms. Granddads. Grandmas. Brothers. Sisters. Uncles. Aunts. Sons. Daughters. Friends. Coworkers. Pastors. Teachers. Employers.

Again, the deaths and inability to see each other only begins to tell the full story. How many family members have suffered to such an extent that we do not know the final toll on them? When this global pandemic passes, the scars on families and friends won’t be seen for ages.

Add to this how so many have quit inviting anyone over to eat, hang out, play games, swim, cook out, or whatever. Americans enjoy community. These things have been stolen from us.

Spiritual Costs

Spiritually, Americans continue to hurt as well from all the losses.

Spiritually, we need each other. God made mankind in His image and for community. Spiritual life and growth includes others in its very essence. God’s plan for spiritual growth includes the rest of the body of Christ. In one sense, you were never meant to face life alone on an island spiritually. Instead, we depend upon all the other members in our local churches to help us face the daily pressures of living life in a broken world.

Furthermore, the personal interaction with those whom we love, know, and care, and by whom we are loved, known, and cared for, benefits each one of us. Hugs. Handshakes. Smiles. Proximity. Conversations. Laughs. Tears. All these things make life more livable. The personal interaction with others in the body of Christ provides flavor, a touch of sweetness, and a bit of joy. The ability to share a burden, express a prayer request, and rehearse a blessing provides deep connection. These things for many are missing.

Churches continue to struggle to know how to respond. How is a church supposed to balance all these things? The church leaders understand the necessity of all the church provides but seek to remain sensitive to local, state, and national recommendations, mandates, and law. Furthermore, the law of love even exacts more than the law of the land. Every church seeks to find the right balance between loving God, loving people, and respecting government.

Economic Costs

No one knows the total cost of the pandemic to the economy. However, many estimate it already having cost the US over $16 trillion. Imagine that. In addition, the Congress just passed the third stimulus package which together represent $4 trillion of borrowed money. The long-term debt and effect on the future economy cannot be known.

Small business owners all over the fruited plain have closed shop, laid off employees, and some have lost everything. Dreams. Investments. Financial security. All gone.

Individual employees have not fared much better. So many have lost jobs, had hours cut, been forced onto unemployment, and fought the anxiety of not knowing what was coming next. The individual lower and middle-class workers have suffered while some of the richest have gotten richer. In certain fields, the financially rich have only become richer. Although a function of normal business, this is not lost to all those who have suffered.

Political Costs

Do you want to know the cost politically to the US? Look no further than Washington D.C. and many state capitols. One year ago, President Trump was on an easy path toward reelection as president. The Republicans had a shot at the US House and were going to keep the US Senate. However, COVID changed all of that.

President Biden ran simply on COVID. Over the course of the election, COVID was his message. Anti-Trump. Anti-Virus. Nothings else really mattered in that discussion. And it worked.

We now have a Democratic President and Congress as a result of the pandemic.

You can determine if you like or dislike this particular cost. If you are a Democrat, Democrat-leaning, or Anti-Trump then your opinion of this cost to President Trump, the Republicans, and those who are Republican-leaning will certainly be different than those who would disagree.

For now, that does not matter. I simply mention it as a reminder that COVID created much political change as well – regardless if you think that is good loss or bad loss.

Societal Costs

The societal costs continue to rise. Although social media interaction struggled before COVID, it seems the past twelve months have taken its toll on the interaction between people. Cancel culture. Assumptions. Rudeness. On and on it goes.

My concern stems from the level of broken interaction between people. Rather than conversations, people often choose to sit in a silo of their own opinion. As they do, they condemn, judge, and demand that others agree with them in totality. In this area, many things have changed over the past year.

The failure of the past months to rise above self and graciously serve those around us instead has taken a significant toll on all of us. On the society-level, the Gospel is the only thing that can make significant change. Related to fellow followers of Christ, our attention to each other, the Gospel, the principles of God’s Word, and seeking to love each other as Christ will bring about needed change. Patience. Endurance. Mercy. Grace.