My Dad was from the mid west, not NYC. And he was old enough to have avoided WWII.
2 Days after 9/11, when the corrected casualty figures had come through, he felt the need to look at me and say in bewilderment: “That’s smaller than the number of driving casualties every year”.
Now, I think that the number of American COVID-19 casualties is gonna be larger than 9/11 (very soon), but more than that, it affects everybody everywhere, not just people at ground zero.
What remains to be seen is what permanent effect it will have. After 9/11, everything changed, because “9/11”. 18 years later, we’re still doing ‘9/11’ secrecy and security theatre. In 20 years, will we still be wearing masks and keeping at 6’ distance? I don’t think so.
On the one hand, I saw the towers fall with my own two eyes from my office on Broadway and 19th St. I can’t argue with the shock I felt. On the other hand… it was a suicide bombing. A really, REALLY big suicide bombing, and in America rather than back home, but still, suicide bombings I knew how to deal with.
This is an ambiguous, poorly worded question. And consequently people chose different answers because they interpreted it differently.
I agree with many of the previous posters that COVID-19 will have a much bigger long-term global impact than 9/11. But 9/11 “knocked me for a bigger loop” because it happened suddenly, out of the blue–while I have been following COVID-19 for over two months–starting when it had a couple hundred cases or so.
COVID-19 has forced me to make major lifestyle changes. I have a compromised immune system, and my wife babysits. We agreed that a constant parade of children in and out of our house was not a good fit, so I’ve moved in with my mother in law.
I’d say 9/11. I don’t know what my answer would be if I did not live in Florida, since during a hurricane, I am used to watching the media over the period of a week watching something slowly come in without anything I can do about it besides take the meagrest of precautions and make sure I get my shopping done before the panic buying starts. So in that sense, even though it is bigger than 9/11 or a hurricane intellectually, it didn’t “throw me for a loop” since the sense of a slowly-approaching-crisis-of-indeterminate-severity is not new to me.
This is much scarier. It is like the difference between falling off the roof and breaking a leg, which eventually heals and then you only limp a little (and the pins they put in the bone slow you down through airport security) as compared to hanging by your fingers from the gutter, looking at all the other people also dangling from the gutters, and there is nothing you can do for them, all you can do is hope you can hold on.
9/11 was at least cathartic, the lion’s share of the country/world was not directly affected, and things returned rather quickly to a strong semblance of normal. Whatever the hell is on the other side of this thing will probably not be quite as familiar (though it might end up actually better in some or many ways).
This is actually worse but 9/11 was a bigger shock. COVID-19’s horror has been growing. 9/11 was very sudden and swift. Also I could see the smoke from the ruins of the towers on the sunny day.
I said Covid because I am personally very affected. I work in a large grocery store so I am now considered essential service. We have security now, there was a fight yesterday (and something happens every day), I have changed from being the person who helps you to being the person who tells you (kindly) what to do. Like where to stand, when to wait, when to proceed.
Most people are being really great but every day there are incidents. Yesterday we had an old man who refused to move away from a coworker and even reached out to touch her on purpose. Security removed him from the store, without his large amount of items he wanted to buy.
I’ve been yelled at, sworn at, had to break up fights…
I swear my coworkers and I are all going to need therapy after this. It’s like being in a war zone. Yesterday a lady came in and she was sweating, pale and even said “Boy, I am not feeling well!”. She said this while standing about 2 feet away from me.
Covid-19 is barely started. I think by this time next year it will be considered higher impact by most people, except perhaps those who had a direct personal connection with someone killed in the attacks.
Worldwide we have 22,165 deaths so far and that number keeps rising and is probably under-reported. So yeah, a lot worse. The USA is at just over 1000 but that is growing quick sadly.
I don’t/didn’t live on the east coast. From my perspective, 9/11 was basically over on 9/11. After that there was a bunch of weird machinations which really only affected me when I wanted to get on an airplane. The Plague is everywhere, not just 1,500 miles away. My daughter works in an end of life home for old people, she’s way stressed out every day. To the extent 9/11 caused social disruption and required some modifications to day-to-day life, the virus is doing it deeper, and will be for far longer. And that’s just my American perspective. As a citizen of Earth, the virus is much bigger, and much more relevant.
I’m not so sure about this. 9/11 affects us every day since, and will till the end of time. It is responsible for a long drawn-out war, global turmoil and heaps of other bullshit that ain’t ever going away.
They might come up with a shot someday to kick that shit to the curb, but you’ll still be having to get felt up in your stocking feet to get on an airplane for the rest of your life.
For 9/11 I was living in Dearborn, MI-- the epicenter of Arab-American culture in America-- working for the local paper. We were kept extremely busy with reaction stories, vigils, local government action, etc. I was young and this kind of thing was very exciting for a young reporter. A bit scary at times, obviously, but I never felt like it negatively affected my day-to-day.
For COVID-19, I’m older now, own my own business, have young kids and old parents. This is affecting everything about our lives right now. While it wasn’t an explosive event like 9/11, it did sorta seem to rapidly sneak up on us. Like, one day, we’re watching from afar and wondering, and the next day everything’s closed.
COVID-19 is definitely the bigger gut punch for me. Feels more personal.
9/11 was a bigger surprise (that sounds weird but I can’t think of a better term), but this crisis is more reality-changing in many fronts.
Clearly, the stakes are so much higher today than 19 years ago, but what strikes me most is that the immediate reaction of Americans and the world was to pull together against a common threat. You felt that everywhere.
Today, the immediate reactions are to divide people and point fingers. Probably 44% of America thinks people are overreacting (funny how that number keeps popping up) and are acting in malicious ignorance to make everything as bad as possible.
After 9/11, our social lives were minimally impacted. Now every other person is a potential threat by their mere existence. I would like to go visit my mother, but she is nearly 88 years old, so that would be foolhardy, as I live on the edge of one of the biggest danger zones. It has never been this bad (at least, not in my lifetime, not here).
Not being American, there’s no question; on 9/11 in the UK I guess we were shocked, saddened and a bit nervous for a while, in case that was the start of a bigger set of attacks. But ultimately, it was a bad thing happening over there somewhere, to people I didn’t know.
COVID is happening here, there, everywhere… The police are now stopping cars and demanding to know where you’re going, almost everything’s closed, and we’re living with restrictions that are like nothing I’ve heard of since WW2. Plus, there’s a fair chance, given the size and demographics of my friendship group, that people I know will die from it.
9/11 happened when I was in high school. I went to boarding school and wasn’t allowed to go off campus much, and it just felt distant. Living so much of my life on campus, I felt a bit isolated and unaffected by what was happening in the rest of the world. Also, any sort of decision that might have been affected by 9/11, like traveling or safety considerations, were determined by my parents or by the school. This pandemic is much more “real” to me because I’m out making decisions in the world, and my decisions have consequences.
Also, after 9/11, I don’t remember ever expecting something worse than the trade center attacks to happen. It felt like something bad had happened, and we were dealing with the aftermath. With this pandemic, there’s this sense of dread that the really bad thing hasn’t happened yet. And I think the sense of dread is more haunting than the aftershock.