By Marivel Guzman

Originally published May 02, 2020

The world shifted on March 11, 2020—the day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. From that point on, everything changed. The “death toll” became the news.

I still have strong reservations about the way lockdowns were implemented. As someone with a background in nursing, I struggle to accept mass lockdowns as a viable measure to stop the spread of infection. There is a fundamental difference between being infected and being sick. Never in the history of outbreaks have healthy populations been quarantined alongside the infected. Quarantine has always been a targeted public health measure—until now.

I read scientific journals regularly. I review peer-reviewed studies and stay alert to updates from researchers in epidemiology, microbiology and infectious diseases from around the world. This has exposed me to a wide range of conflicting views, especially concerning the CDC’s revised death certificate guidelines.

As a small business owner who supervises cleaning crews, I’ve entered more than 60 homes throughout Southern cities. I ask questions, observe conditions and engage with people. In all that time, I have yet to meet a single person who is ill—or who personally knows someone who is. At least not in the communities where I’ve worked.

I also traveled extensively during the height of the pandemic. I flew internationally and domestically, crossed borders, and moved freely between states and countries. I visited three states in Mexico, spent time in France and Amsterdam, and traveled across a dozen states in India. During my visit to India, I stayed in two rural states where internet access was extremely limited—available in theory, but with no provider towers in the countryside. People in those areas had no idea that a virus was sweeping the globe. There were no masks, no lockdowns, no fear. Daily life continued uninterrupted, untouched by the panic that gripped other parts of the world.

In my daily visits to the post office to ship plants, I took the opportunity to speak with postal workers at the USPS business center at 3101 W. Sunflower Ave. in Santa Ana, Calif. In March and April 2020, none of the employees were wearing masks. Several told me they had been instructed to purchase their own, but masks were not available for sale anywhere. I contacted Evelina Ramirez, Corporate Communications Media Relations officer at USPS, with a formal inquiry regarding employee protection protocols, package handling, sick leave, and contingency planning.

In her written response, Ramirez stated that the Postal Service was “sharing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidance… to our employees via stand up talks, employee news articles, messages on bulletin boards, and internal messaging inside USPS workplaces.” She added that the service was not experiencing operational impacts at that time and was reviewing contingency plans should the need arise. Regarding imported goods, she cited the CDC’s guidance noting “very low risk” of surface transmission via packages and that “there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States associated with imported goods.”

Despite the lack of protective measures early on, postal workers told me that no one had called in sick during those first critical weeks. By late spring, masks became standard and plexiglass barriers were installed at customer counters.

As a freelance journalist, I’ve covered numerous public events: visits to supermarkets and hospitals, senior meal programs, food distributions for the homeless, mask giveaways and shelter operations. I’ve reported on the ground, face to face, without a mask. No one I’ve interviewed or lived with has fallen ill.

What I’m trying to say is this: life was still functioning before the pandemic was declared. Once it was, everything became filtered through a lens of fear and mortality.

Doctors and scientists who questioned the official narrative were dismissed, discredited or censored. Open discourse—essential in both science and journalism—was sacrificed. Censorship became normalized in the United States.