Do you ever find yourself feeling wistful and looking back fondly to the days when everyone was forced to wear facemasks, practice social distancing, and carry around proof of vaccination? No? Me neither. But believe it or not, there are people who do feel that way. Time Magazine refers to them as the “COVID-cautious,” and they feel abandoned by the rest of us and by the government as well. Despite the vastly lower number of reported infections and the thankfully even smaller number who still die from the disease, there are clearly some Americans who are displaying what seems to be a persistent level of paranoia about the virus. Time interviewed one person who only wanted to be identified as “Alex,” who says that he’s lost faith in the government and in medical institutions.
For all of 2020, Alex, a 28-year-old living in New York, followed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and…
