Dear anonymous33,

I hope and pray that the situation in your country starts improving soon, and that foreign help has arrived and keeps arriving.

I share your sentiment of feeling frustrated at people who refuse any protection measures and even refuse to wear masks, claiming they’re harmful and a sign of oppression and suchlike. Unfortunately there are such people everywhere, in every country. I’ve had some debates with such friends and acquaintances on social media, but over time, I’ve realized there’s no point in trying to convince them, they’re so deep in their belief system and end up believing quite ridiculous things and conspiracy theories.

I’m not angry at them any more, but I don’t think I can be close to them any more either, because I’ll always be looking at them at someone who showed a profound lack of compassion for others. And even though I know it’s because of their own fears and unsolved issues that they behave like that, it would be hard for me to pretend that nothing happened and have the same kind of relationship with them that I had before the pandemic.