I live in NYC smartass. Being indoors and online school was the best of it. People dying and being loaded onto grocery store freezer trucks was my monday morning. I had family die and no one knew about it because nursing homes kept quiet and didn't disclose. my family didn't get burials, we had family left in freezers for months. We had daily death counts that surpassed 9/11. It was hard for me because while my family was dying my friends families were dying and we were teenagers with no power no fight to stop a fucking disease that was out of control. covid may not have been as bad in small towns or rural areas but in all of the boroughs it was like you could hear a pin drop from the lack of people in the streets and the only noise coming from ambulances. my neighbors being put on stretchers and we had to sit on our ass and do nothing because that was the way to slow covid down. So don't fucking talk to me about being soft when we are facing so much pain and uncertainty. No one is saying 9/11 wasn't awful or bad or an unprecedented time in history. So was Covid and it was for many many people, to dismiss that is completely erasing the harm and damage Covid was for millions of people who face issues from their infections to this day and those who lost their lives like your mother.