Covid-19 and the 5 Stages of Grief

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

Acceptance.

These are the five stages of grief in the Kubler-Ross model. I have no idea about the scientific evidence for such a model but anecdotally, having been with many folks (more than the average) dealing with grief, I find this model fairly accurate.

People move through these stages differently and not always sequentially. Some stay one stage longer than another, each person finding one stage harder to push through, but most experience each of these in some for or fashion if only for a moment as they grieve.

Covid-19 is a time of collective grief. We will be at different stages and different times. We will not always go in order, but each of us will have to deal with it.

Acceptance is the key to moving forward.

The sooner we as a society as accept things are not going back to the way they were, the better off we will be. I know, that is hard to take for some. It seems like capitulation.

i would frame it differently, but I am accepting this is a new virus to humanity. Every human is susceptible to it. Sure some will have a harder time with it than others, but literally, no one is immune.

Until there is a vaccine there it will continue to spread. That is a virus's only ambition, to replicate and spread because once it stops spreading it dies.

So can we at least be honest with ourselves? This is going to take a long time. Not weeks, months or even a year. I am ready for some straight talk.

I read somewhere, the fastest time a vaccine has ever been made (it is really hard to make a vaccine) is four years. Four! If you believe technology and the singular focus of the global scientific brain trust would shatter the old record, I think it optimistic to hope for one in 2 years.

COVID-19 is here to stay for the immediate future. Acceptance will be key to moving forward.

Acceptance will allow us to collectively begin to imagine new ways of doing human things. This creativity will spark a new and productive norm, but it will not look like what we knew. Just accept it

The way we did things last summer will not be the way we do things this summer. You can be as defiant about it as you want, just acknowledge where you are in the stage of grief. You won't get to acceptance until you get out of denial.

Until there is a vaccine, it will never look like it did even two months ago. I suspect, even after the vaccine, many of new routines, rituals and ways of doing things will have taken root. Some things are dead and will not return. Some things will come back but altered.

Acceptance, whenever that comes, will be the key to moving forward.

I am tired of sales pitch and false hope.

Things will be back to "normal" in mid-May,
or this summer
or this fall.....

It is not! This is a virus. Let's accept it and start the task of creating our new norms which we may discover are better than the some of the old one's we had before.

Anyways, that is my thought. What about yours? Which of the three scenarios in the article below do you think will play out or is there alternate scenario you believe will happen?

Finally, I would love to start the process of imagining and creating newness. What will you do over the next 2-4 years that is new in this Covid-19 world?

Three potential futures for Covid-19: recurring small outbreaks, a monster wave, or a persistent crisis