500,000 + Gone

Candles to remember Potter
County victims of Covid-19
(January 19, 2021)

Last evening, President Biden and Vice President Harris, with their spouses, stood outside the White House to honor the lives of the half-million souls lost as a result of Covid-19. Candles, one for every 1,000 lives, flickered on the steps. The bells of the National Cathedral tolled. The President shared words of comfort for those who mourn and the rest of us who mourn alongside them.

"This national will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we'll remember each person we've lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind," the President said.

All of our lives have been touched by this pandemic and it's not over yet.  The rollout of vaccines and finally a coordinated plan from our federal government to mitigate the economic effects provide hope that the ground that has so shifted beneath us will soon begin to steady again.

I shared my experience in pandemic response planning back in May in this post. When I wrote that essay, the numbers of deaths and infections had begun to creep upward but I couldn't imagine that, in the United States, which boasts of its exemplary health care, in the country that Trump claimed to have made great again, we would experience such heartbreaking carnage from this virus.

In the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, "Back in the late winter and early spring of 2020, when we gave the modeling number of 240,000, people thought that we were being hyperbolic about that and somewhat alarmist. Clearly that is not the case."

What had been broadly signaled by scientists through the early months of the pandemic has become crystal clear in the month since the new administration wrested control from the cold hands and hearts of Trump's denizens. The public health response was hampered by inadequate resources and blatant misinformation in blizzard of bad communication, mixed messages and the lies that were the hallmark of the Trump era. When paired with the political division in the country, exploited by the Trump  to advance his own agendas, even the simple act of wearing a mask to protect oneself and others became a political statement.

From Fauci, "I think this is a dramatic example of the divisiveness in our country. We've had a complete distortion and throwing aside of scientific facts and evidence. And a certain part of the country believed the hoax aspect, the fake news aspect."

He continues: "I mean, I think if we had had the public health messages – from the top right through down to the people in the trenches – be consistent, that things might have been different. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would have been different."

It's not going to get better as soon as we all would like. We're all so tired of the scramble anytime we leave the house - do I have my mask(s)? Is the hand sanitizer bottle full?  How much longer will we take a survey of the number of cars in the parking lot at the grocery store before going in? When can we plan a family gathering or just a simple movie date?

But our president had words of hope last evening even in remembering all that we have lost.

"We remember each person and the life they lived. They're people we knew. They're people we feel like we knew. Read the obituaries and remembrances, the son who called his mom every night to to check in, the father's daughter who lit up his world, the best friend who was always there, the nurse, the nurse and nurses, but the nurse who made her patients want to live.

"So today, I ask all Americans to remember. Remember those we lost and those who are left behind. But as you remember, as we all remember,  I also ask us to act, to remain vigilant, to stay socially distanced, to mask up, get vaccinated when it's your turn. We must end the politics and misinformation that's divided families, communities in the country. It's cost too many lives already.

"We have to resist becoming numb to sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur, or on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But equally important, to care for the living."