It’s been a long journey since the coronavirus pandemic reached our shores back in early 2020. Over the course of those first few months, governments ordered non-essential businesses shut, indoor dining was banned and people who left their homes were told to wear masks (even for a solitary jog). Houses of worship were ordered closed; elective surgeries were prohibited; schools were shuttered; travel was restricted and, in so many ways, people felt like prisoners in their own homes.

Those who were deemed essential, health care workers, public safety workers, grocery store workers, and others were hailed as heroes for doing their jobs even as they faced the danger of contracting Covid-19. A popular headline at the height of coronavirus infections read something like: ‘Supermarket workers among the unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic’. People put signs in their yards and windows thanking these essential workers—and rightfully so.