Less than total recall
Why our brains want to forget the darkest days of the pandemic
Donald Trump is trying out a bold new slogan on the campaign trail: Are you better off than you were four years ago? His hope is that voters will look back on the final year of his presidency and remember halcyon days when the economy was booming, the streets were safe, and Americans were happy. Such memories would, of course, be utterly divorced from the reality of spring 2020. As the first Covid wave swept across the country, businesses shuttered en masse, with the U.S. shedding some 22 million jobs that March and April. Meanwhile, the weekly Covid death rate surged ever higher — from dozens to hundreds to thousands — despite then–President Trump's assurances that the country had "tremendous control" over the coronavirus and that "we're winning it."
When I cast my mind back four years, two memories leap out. The first is the 24/7 wail of sirens in my old Brooklyn neighborhood, as ambulances ferried a seemingly endless line of Covid patients to overloaded hospitals. The second, more arbitrary recollection, is of the evening when I looked around my cramped apartment and suddenly realized it was filled with desks. With New York City shut down, both my wife and I now had to work from home, which also doubled as a Zoom classroom for my 7- and 4-year-olds. Other memories seep through: crossing the street to avoid a passerby and possible pathogen-bearer, the chained and padlocked gate of the local playground, my wife stitching together cloth masks from old T-shirts. But as a whole, those early months of the pandemic seem like a blur. That's a natural response to a traumatic event — our brains often bury or scrub painful memories that could come back to hurt us — and I'm sure millions of Americans have the same fog. But if this election is going to be a referendum on whether we were genuinely better off four years ago, then we can't forget the painful reality of 2020.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Theunis Bates is a senior editor at The Week's print edition. He has previously worked for Time, Fast Company, AOL News and Playboy.
-
David Copperfield faces sexual misconduct claims
Speed Read Allegations by 16 women include claims the world-famous magician drugged them before having sex with them
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
The UK's food poverty crisis
The Explainer Austerity, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and high inflation have led to one of Europe's worst rates of food insecurity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Inflation eases, stocks hit highs'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Biden's hit a pothole'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
'The hard reality of an aging society'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Cohen ties Trump directly to hush-money scheme
Speed Read Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen implicates him in testimony about paying off Stormy Daniels
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Is it 1968 all over again?
Talking Points Why campus protests could spoil Democrats' hopes for November
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'Will growth slow, or is the economy about to fall off a cliff?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Trump pledged pro-oil policy to CEOs, asked for $1B
Speed Read The former president promised to reverse Biden's environmental regulations if elected
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Why would anyone look to the United States as a model?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Kristi Noem and the politics of puppy killing
Talking Point Revelations in Republican's upcoming memoir may have doomed her political career
By The Week UK Published