Another Grim Milestone

Back in March, in a conversation with a co-worker, I predicted that a half-million Americans would die of COVID-19 before the pandemic runs its course.  That was even before the whole 'anti-mask'  movement developed, and anti-lockdown protests became a thing.  Well, now the US death toll from COVID-19 has exceeded 200,000, and most of the country is trending in the wrong direction numbers-wise.  I have no doubt that over a quarter-million Americans will have died of this thing by Election Day, and even if Biden wins, no substantial changes in pandemic response policy will be implemented until January.  I stand by my prediction, though if I'm right, it will be a source of sorrow more than smugness.

On an anecdotal level, I've heard about how extremely bad this thing is... In a local branch of one of our giant chain pharmacies, a clerk, a woman who looked to be in her mid-fifties to sixty told me that she had been hospitalized for two months, and now has residual cardiac damage.  She's one of the survivors, one of the lucky ones who now has trouble going up a flight of stairs... so much for this disease being just like the flu.

Two-hundred thousand deaths... in what is supposed to be the most advanced nation in the world.  Two-hundred thousand unique lives ended because of a mendacious humbug in the White House and his moronic minions who despise science, indeed all learning.  The cold weather is returning, and people will be huddling inside more regularly.  Back in March, in a conversation with a co-worker, I predicted that a half-million Americans would die of COVID-19 before the pandemic runs its course.  I'm starting to think that I was too optimistic.