Nearly 400,000 Americans have now died of covid-19. It took 12 weeks for the death toll to rise from 200,000 to 300,000. The death toll has leaped from 300,000 to almost 400,000 in less than five weeks.
Just three months ago, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s infectious-disease chief, imagined that “if we don’t do what we need to in the fall and winter, we could have 300,000 to 400,000 covid-19 deaths.”
Now, with more than 1 of every 1,000 Americans dead from the virus, a University of Washington model that predicted the current totals forecasts 567,000 U.S. deaths by April 1, a number that could jump above 700,000 if mask mandates are eased in the interim.
I was discussing the other day why this perspective isn’t shown more. The hospitals in my area are being overwhelmed and there’s not much news on this that I can see. Granted I’m not buying local...
I was discussing the other day why this perspective isn’t shown more. The hospitals in my area are being overwhelmed and there’s not much news on this that I can see.
Granted I’m not buying local papers or anything, but it seems like more coverage on the effects of COVID might actually help people follow the spirit of the rules rather than trying to find the loopholes.
COVID kills in a horrific way - not only physically, but also forcing victims to isolate from friends and family. It would be better for everyone if people with no regard for this virus were forced to face this reality.
More than 300,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.
It is the latest sign of a generational tragedy — one still unfolding in every corner of the country — that leaves in its wake an expanse of grief that cannot be captured in a string of statistics.
"[The death toll] should be absolutely stunning," Spencer says. "At what point do we wake up and say, this can't be normalized?"
And yet the most deadly days of the pandemic are still to come.
For many people (too many), COVID has a weightlessness to it — the absence of tragedy. I see it at work, with co-workers who flout the guidelines and treat anyone with concerns as if we’re Chicken...
For many people (too many), COVID has a weightlessness to it — the absence of tragedy. I see it at work, with co-workers who flout the guidelines and treat anyone with concerns as if we’re Chicken Littles. I don’t know how to adequately communicate the gravity of our current situation, nor do I think I could, as anyone who has turned a blind eye to things thus far is showing they don’t particularly care and aren’t about to change that. It’s just frustrating that America is approaching a full year of this uprooting nearly every aspect of life, and yet people act as if it hasn’t. I feel like I’m being gaslit sometimes when I see people who are so perpetually unconcerned — like people aren’t dying every day of this, and right now in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen.
I feel like our national capacity for pain is greatly reduced by the availability of distraction and denial. Instead of facing this reality head on, it seems like people have just put up a mental and emotional wall — tune out the numbers and ignore the stories and the problem legitimately feels like it has gone away. We’ve pulled the blankets up over our head so we can’t see the monsters, and I think there are many people who have done this metaphorically and legitimately think the problem is solved. COVID is worse than it has ever been in the US, but among people I know and work with, many are less concerned about it than they ever have been.
I was discussing the other day why this perspective isn’t shown more. The hospitals in my area are being overwhelmed and there’s not much news on this that I can see.
Granted I’m not buying local papers or anything, but it seems like more coverage on the effects of COVID might actually help people follow the spirit of the rules rather than trying to find the loopholes.
COVID kills in a horrific way - not only physically, but also forcing victims to isolate from friends and family. It would be better for everyone if people with no regard for this virus were forced to face this reality.
One month and three days ago, NPR posted the following article: How Do We Grieve 300,000 Lives Lost?
For many people (too many), COVID has a weightlessness to it — the absence of tragedy. I see it at work, with co-workers who flout the guidelines and treat anyone with concerns as if we’re Chicken Littles. I don’t know how to adequately communicate the gravity of our current situation, nor do I think I could, as anyone who has turned a blind eye to things thus far is showing they don’t particularly care and aren’t about to change that. It’s just frustrating that America is approaching a full year of this uprooting nearly every aspect of life, and yet people act as if it hasn’t. I feel like I’m being gaslit sometimes when I see people who are so perpetually unconcerned — like people aren’t dying every day of this, and right now in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen.
I feel like our national capacity for pain is greatly reduced by the availability of distraction and denial. Instead of facing this reality head on, it seems like people have just put up a mental and emotional wall — tune out the numbers and ignore the stories and the problem legitimately feels like it has gone away. We’ve pulled the blankets up over our head so we can’t see the monsters, and I think there are many people who have done this metaphorically and legitimately think the problem is solved. COVID is worse than it has ever been in the US, but among people I know and work with, many are less concerned about it than they ever have been.