Let's not mince words here: the COVID-19 pandemic isn't over. While cases and deaths (as of writing) are in a decline, new variants are still appearing and the United States, alone, just passed the 1,000,000 death toll mark.
We're certainly living through a memorable time, memorable in the sense that it's never going to be scoured from our memories no matter how hard we try. There are things we've seen from our fellow man that'll stay with us and lesson we've learned through death tears that will educate us for future generations.
Reddit user, deorrox, wanted to know what awful observations you made during the pandemic when they asked:
"What did the pandemic teach you about people?"
The sudden change to how we worked and how we got to work was the first real eye-opener, the thing that made people all over examine their career choices and ask the question, "Why?"
Essential-ish
"They’ll think I’m essential until I ask for more money."
steambuddy14
"Ah a fellow nurse?"
SuperArppis
Who Are The Real Essential Workers?
"It taught me that society can function when lawyers, stockbrokers, bankers, market analysts and the myriad of other office workers stay at home … but is totally screwed without delivery drivers, retail, health, sanitation and all the other ‘essential’ workers who get paid a pittance in comparison."
Bangkokbeats10
It's Tough Being A Teacher
"That a lot of parents have no idea how to parent and, worse still, don't like their kids."
Barbarella_ella
"...and most parents had no idea about their kids' behavior on an average day while they kept looking down on teachers and daycare workers."
Shot_Profession_4176
Crucially, the pandemic brought our eyes and critical lenses to our fellow man. How could we trust our neighbors to take our own safety into consideration when they weren't even placing their own in a spot of significance?
We Should All Probably Forgive "The Walking Dead"
"If we were in a zombie apocalypse, people would definitely hide if they've been bitten"
tonky_kong
"All my theories about zombie apocalypse have been shattered by the pandemic. People are dumber than I thought. There would also be a sizable population who will purposely go get bitten by zombies because they want to prove it’s a hoax. And if there was a cure, there would be a sizable population that refuses it because they’re convinced it’s actually a government tracking device."
Vegetable-Double
" Karen with bite marks and towing two sick-looking kids who smell rotten is screaming about her rights being infringed upon after being politely asked to leave the store."
zaffrebi
We're Not As Collectively Smart As We Hoped
"Critical thinking is a skill MANY people do not have."
mmpmed
"Being comfortable alone is a skill many people do not have."
"I have a number of extroverted friends who lost their minds 2 weeks into the pandemic because they were alone in their homes. Now I am pretty introverted and even I’ll admit after 2 years a lot of people rightfully were getting cabin fever but a surprising number of people melted down almost immediately."
Ok-Engineer1891
A Large Oncoming Of Dumb
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
Back2Bach
"Never underestimate the amount of stupid people.... stupid groups are easy to form when stupid is more than average majority"
Some-random-thoughts
If anything, the one thing the COVID-19 pandemic did was amplify the traits and natures we all already possessed. If there was good in you, that good was pushed to the absolute forefront. And if there was bad in someone? Well, there's a reason you probably stopped talking to that person.
It Wasn't Bad Enough
"That if something more serious came along, humanity is f-cked."
sami2503
"Arguably, the problem was that the pandemic wasn't serious enough."
BeABetterHumanBeing
"Yep. This whole experience killed any hope I had that we will take significant action to stop climate change. Scientists will probably figure out a way to mitigate the worst effects but seeing so many people I used to respect start believing in things that would be grounds for institutionalization if it wasn’t a common belief instead of do the bare minimum to protect themselves did a number on me."
"Also if God forbid we got into WWIII I think we will see something similar. The seeds are already there. Right now it is just the crazies who think that Putin is the good guy and the people like Tucker Carlson are fueling it. It’s easy to support Ukraine now when all you have to do is put a flag on your profile picture on social media but what if we had to bring back a draft? How many people would suddenly be against “protecting Hunter Bidens drug empire “ rather than going to war?"
TPrice1616
Who Really Cares And Who Was Just Pretending
"It reassured me of who was a true friend and had my best interests at heart and who didn’t."
"I had a falling out with 2 of my best friends, but it opened my eyes to the fact that their friendship to me was only conditional upon me doing stuff for them and/or when it was convenient."
jets3tter094
Deep Down, Maybe We Think We All Deserve This
"People are horrible"
Jazzyg707
"I work at a hotel and I think people have gotten worse since this started. It is better now but during 2020 I got screamed at by lunatics over tiny things when the news was talking about the days death rate in the background. That was an every day thing for a while."
TPrice1616
We'll never be the same after this. There's no way.
Strangely, we shouldn't.
The lessons we take and the lives we lost are a good reminder of the selfishness of our fellow man and the ruthlessness of the world when the chips were down.
Lessons learned through fire, with an importance that can never be weighed.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Laura Michalski on Unsplash 
