At the start of the pandemic, in late March 2020, President Trump held a White House briefing, where his top adviser announced the official COVID-19 death forecast.With a calm tone, they predicted it 100,000-240,000 Americans will die From illness if you follow reasonable social distance expansion and other mitigation guidelines.
240,000! It was an unimaginable amount of death. Four times as many Americans died in Vietnam. 80 times the number of deaths in the 9/11 attack.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the country’s leading infectious disease experts, said: “There was light at the end of the tunnel,” Trump added, if we acted properly, but “we will experience a very tough two weeks.”
Two years later today, we all know how it worked. It didn’t behave as it should. I couldn’t see the light even after two weeks. And there were no 100,000 dead or 240,000 dead.
Instead, we are now approaching one million dead. As of Sunday, the total number of deaths from COVID in the United States was 986,000. According to the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionMore than 400 Americans die every day.
Our cumulative national mortality rate of more than 200 deaths per 100,000 expensive More than any other large and wealthy industrialized country.
Yes, there are some positive signs. I have a vaccine. There is a booster. Hospitalizations and deaths have fallen far from their peak.
But this virus doesn’t seem to have been done with us. New variants are still emerging in the United States and abroad. The Delta has receded and Omicron is well above the highest point reached in mid-January, but here are the subvariants XE, BA.2, BA.2.12, and BA.2.12.1. In California, the number of COVID cases is skyrocketing, in part due to the relaxation of indoor masking rules and vaccination verification requirements.
Worst of all, we continue to fight among ourselves for masking requirements, how to open or close, how to protect school children, and the benefits of immunization. The truth continues to permeate social media. Science and health remain meaninglessly politicized.
Indeed, this is a confusing moment.Risk Have It has decreased. And now, even LDP members who hate Trump, worship Fauci, and unquestionably obey all mitigation rules are very tired of hiding from the disease. We all want to regain our lives.
So we tell ourselves that there is a level of continuous death that we can live in. Its COVID is like the flu — endemic, not pandemic. What we are crazy about, and what is better but encouraged, and therefore we are kind, kind, invincible.
But since I’m anxious for this to end, it’s time to move slowly and avoid complacency. To give an example Only 66% of the country is fully vaccinatedOnly 45% received at least one booster. (In LA County alone, there are about 1.7 million people over the age of five who have never been shot.) Another reason is a new, more dangerous sudden, as long as the virus is rampant somewhere. The possibility of mutation remains real.
With care, you can probably slow down the process and prevent one million from becoming two million.
It is difficult for humans to put so many dead in a meaningful perspective. Paul Slovic of the University of Oregon claims that people are suffering from “psychic numbing.” In this psychic numbing, as the number of deaths increases, both our understanding and empathy diminish. This is often a scholarly paraphrase due to Joseph Stalin. One million deaths are statistics. “
But let’s provide some context.
Heart disease killed nearly 700,000 Americans in 2020, and cancer killed just over 602,000. This suggests that in the last two years, each has probably killed more than COVID.
COVID in 2020 Third most common cause of death In the United States, more people died of COVID in 2020 than the combined number of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia.
The Vietnam War, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the number of people who died on 9/11 are not only one million more, but more than an estimated 750,000 people who died in the four years of the Civil War, which permanently injured the United States.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Bureau, 38,824 people died in road accidents in 2020.
The 1918 influenza pandemic killed about 675,000 Americans. According to the CDC.. (Estimated 50 million people have died around the world.)
What Slovich wants us to remember (and Stalin may want us to forget) is that each of those millions of COVID deaths represents a real person, and real life is early. It means that it ended in. moreover, One study showed Nine bereaved families are left behind for all who died in COVID.
At this point, many of us know who died of this terrible illness. The Statistics show About 75% of the dead are over 65 years old. Dead people are also disproportionately immunocompromised or unvaccinated. Disproportionately black. Disproportionately working class.
About 200,000 American children Lost one or both parents According to the data collected at Imperial College London, sick.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: 1 million deaths? It’s probably an underestimate.
So how will these years be remembered in the future when or if we come out on the other end? Blip? A catastrophe in world history? Do you remember how you were at home, how you bumped into each other, and how you made a terrible mistake in protecting yourself?
The year of COVID may resonate with the public’s memory, such as 9/11 — or almost forgotten. We may tell our grandchildren about a big pandemic, and by then the pandemic will be part of our daily lives.
Lately I’ve been feeling a little more relaxed — more sociable, eating dinner and traveling by plane. I enjoy freedom.
But I feel like this isn’t over yet.
This story was originally Los Angeles Times..