A companion piece to go with the profound loss a lot of people are going through.
'One million died. It didn’t have to happen — and it must not again.'
"On Feb. 14, 2020, President Donald Trump spoke to a White House audience about the virus then engulfing Wuhan, China. “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it,” he said. “It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.” But we weren’t in good shape. A little more than two years later, the United States is passing the ghastly milestone of at least 1 million deaths from the pandemic virus, and still counting.
This marks the gravest public health disaster in a century, outstripping all the combat deaths in both world wars, Vietnam and Korea. Largely because of the pandemic, life expectancy in the United States declined 2.39 years, the greatest fall in eight decades. The disease caused by the coronavirus became a leading cause of death all through the pandemic, and as recently as January, more people age 15 and older died of covid than of cancer. In addition, the pandemic is leaving lasting personal scars, including long covid and mental health troubles in years ahead.
The death toll is just one part of a truly catastrophic chapter in American history. The pandemic also tore at the nation’s social fabric, sent shock waves through the economy and caused widespread disruption in schooling and careers. It brought unimaginable sadness: families and loved ones suddenly bereft; the deaths of so many people all alone, without a warm hand to hold; the bewildering arbitrariness of infection. The costs were heavy, the wounds deep and lasting."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...s-preventable/
I know that conservatives are tired of hearing that their very own Baron Harkonnen was largely to blame for many of the excess deaths. Tough shit. Take some responsibility for once in your miserable lives. You voted for him.