If COVID Were A Video Game…
Every single day, when I need a little perspective, I think to myself, “Thank God the death rate for people who have COVID isn’t higher.” If the death rate were 15% or worse, and nearly 2 million had died in the United States alone, would people still be refusing to wear masks, physically distance, or listen to scientists? Would our leaders still be failing to take definitive action while playing political games and worrying about their lobbyists’ interests and getting the funding to be re-elected? As far as pandemics go, we’re lucky. If it were a video game, we’re playing on easy but still haven’t figured out how to get past the first level. We’re playing Madden on the rookie setting, and still losing 49–7. This is easy mode, and we keep getting killed by the first zombie in Resident Evil, then shouting in protest, “We didn’t see it coming!” We’ve played this game 37 times! Figure it out!
Again, THIS PANDEMIC IS ON EASY MODE.
And I get it, for some people, easy is hard, but adjusting to avoid the same mistakes repeatedly isn’t. If you have to defeat the main boss in the game, but don’t have the skill level, powers, or weapons to do it, you’ve got to complete certain tasks to obtain those things. You can’t keep trying to beat the boss without them, and that’s what our current situation feels like. Most of us are powerless to do anything other than wear masks and distance. It feels like we’re non-player characters (NPCs) in a world ruled by an evil overlord (COVID), and we’re waiting for the hero to step up and free us from misery. Meanwhile the hero is going on side quests to ban TikTok and select a Supreme Court justice. As this is happening, fellow NPCs keep dying, but unlike in a video game, none of the 216,000 dead can respawn, and when it comes to pandemic science fiction, we’re better off if they don’t.
I mean imagine the chaos in leadership if we had zombies.
It feels like I’m watching a 74 year-old pick up a PlayStation controller for the first time, and everyone’s telling him to hit the circle button, but he’s insisting “That’s an ‘O,’’ and instead hits “X,” jumps off a cliff, then blames everyone else. It’s maddening.
“What about a cheat code?” Sure, it would be nice to hit a combination of buttons and be able to gain invincibility, but we wouldn’t learn anything. And what happens if, in the next game, there aren’t any cheat codes programmed in? And don’t get me started on the microtransactions if we do develop a viable vaccine. If you’re unfamiliar, microtransactions are a newer development when it comes to gaming — first, you buy the game for $60, expecting to be able to play the game as it’s meant to be played: completing missions to unlock secret moves, weapons, and levels. Then, you realize you can’t unlock any of those things, no matter how hard you work at the game or how good you get. Instead, you have to pay extra to get them.
Imagine if a viable vaccine or cure for COVID is developed, but we have to pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to receive it. Even though the world would be better off with this medication, it’s evident that the profits-drive-people mindset has worked its way into our healthcare, so life-saving drugs are impossible to come by… unless you can afford these microtransactions.
The truth is, this isn’t a video game, and real people’s lives and livelihoods are on the line, but if our leaders actually chose to work together to beat the missions and gain the skills leading up to and finally beating the big boss, we’d see far fewer deaths, bankruptcies, evictions, and closings. Then, once the main antagonist is defeated, we can go on side quests.
I wish I had answers, and not just this silly analogy, but I do know we’re failing over and over, and what really bothers me is that no one is learning anything. We even had a group of guys hatch a plot to kidnap one of the programmers (Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan). All we have to do is complete one mission at a time and defeat one henchman at a time while we improve our skills, upgrade our tools, and gain new allies so that we can finally beat the game on easy. Who knows when the difficulty setting will get bumped up to medium — or worse — and at the very least, we’re going to need the experience beating the game once to face that challenge.
