Pandemic Privilege

Usually privilege hides in plain sight, sometimes it’s obvious though

Last week I booked a flight and radically changed my situation.

I was living in Ecuador, which was under strict lockdown because of rising Covid-19 cases. Hospitals were overwhelmed, death rates were spiking and the government had declared it illegal to leave your house for any reason on weekends or after the weekday 8 pm curfew.

That seemed like my cue to exit.

I bought a one-way ticket to the US. My first day here I got the vaccine, for free. It was so effortless and casual. Yet, a day earlier I was in a place where people more vulnerable than me were desperate for it.

Privilege is always present but often hidden. Being able to flee the pandemic at your convenience is one of the more blatant examples.