Insane after Coronavirus?

In her personal essay, American novelist Patricia Lockwood recounts her experience of suffering from clinically moderate COVID symptoms in March 2020 that led to weeks of delirium, paranoia, and fatigue. Lockwood’s account serves as one example of the collective disorientation that occurred during the initial wave of the pandemic. Interestingly, just before the onset of her severe symptoms, she finds amusement in the ship captain’s lack of foresight while watching the disaster film Titanic. Ironically, Lockwood’s own symptoms begin to manifest as she dismisses the approaching virus as “barely a flu” (Lockwood). Lockwood presents an image of pandemic denial in early 2020 and highlights the “fracture of information” that contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories and the disbelief exhibited by some medical professionals towards the threat of COVID. Drawing a comparison to the Titanic disaster, Lockwood suggests that the consequences of the pandemic were more deeply felt because they followed a period of unwavering confidence. Similar to the ship’s claim of being unsinkable, Lockwood was certain that the pandemic would only be a minor disturbance. However, her story of overcoming the delusions induced by the virus conveys the possibility of regaining clarity by acknowledging the knowledge that “I used to be able to do this, I know I used to be able to do this, I will be able to do it again” (Lockwood).