Is the Public Numb to the Horrifying COVID-19 Milestones We Have Reached?
For the past few days, the country has hovered just below two grim milestones; markers on the pandemic road that we have all traveled together. On Monday, the U.S. passed those numbers: 50 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 just in the U.S alone.
More than 800,000 Americans are dead. The grim reaper continues to collect more than 1,300 souls a day.
Yesterday Colorado passed 10,000 dead from COVID in this state.
Another variant of unknown danger is rapidly making inroads around the world.
Millions of people have what is now called “long COVID” — with unknown health impacts.
The county continues to see high levels of COVID-19 positives; 81 in just the past 14 days; 2,358 cases in a population just under 20,000, and too many deaths for a small rural county.
As someone who has lost people to this virus, who has relatives in the hospital at this moment with COVID who were immunocompromised, I view this pandemic not as sterile numbers, but with human faces.
Faces like my former next-door neighbors Ray and Colleen O’Shea in Centennial; a sweet couple, Ray was a WWII bomber pilot and United Airlines pilot. Colleen was the beloved neighborhood Grandma.” Both died from COVID within 24 hours of each other. Faces who exist now only in my memories.
As the numbers continue to climb, so many of us appear to have become numb to what this means. To be clear:
- COVID-19 is lethal.
- It is random.
- It is mutating.
- Serious cases of it are entirely preventable.
- Those who refuse to get vaccinated show complete disregard for the human lives that constitute the rest of the community. In short – their behavior is selfish and short-sighted.
The truth is — people don’t have to be dying. Science provided a miracle solution — life-saving vaccines. Thanks to early work on the SARS virus genes, when the once-in-a-century pandemic hit, scientists around the globe were able to create vaccines at what is considered in scientific circles to be lightning speed. And, a year ago this week,the first vaccines rolled out.
Avery Parsons Elementary School in Buena Vista welcomed students back on Thursday, Aug. 27. In fall,2020, Chaffee County school districts emphasized in-person learning, and were able to do what few other school districts were able to achieve; a full year of mostly in-person learning. Photo by Tara Flanagan.
But political nonsense and fantasy thinking has blinded so many normally-rational people to our way out of this. So it continues. The innocents — our youngest children and infants – remain unprotected while a political party that touts its value of human life pretends to care.
Since March of 2020, Ark Valley Voice (AVV) has done hundreds of news stories on the COVID-19 pandemic. A companion crisis to COVID-19 is already upon us which we have covered and are covering in the series “On Edge”; the mental health impacts on all ages, particularly our youth.
As winter deepens, AVV will be looking at the mental health crisis facing families, schools, the county, the state, and the nation, and efforts being made to acknowledge the needs and meet the challenges.
The world is tired and the world needs hope.
Truth isn’t always welcome by those who would like to look the other way, pretending that it doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter. But truth, like grief has to be faced, to be able to move on to hope.
It’s already dead! Thank you, Al Gore (who I voted for) since you invented the most incredibly stupid and naive totally open network with no rules or restrictions and still no talk of verification of truth at any level of enforcement. And who couldn’t see the total unfair business practices of Facebook, Amazon, and almost all the monopolistic business powers
I’m dropping out and leaving as soon as I can. Burning my iPhone, laptop, and living free and safe. I will have guns although I am not a republican, not a racist, just a live and let live lover of all caring and sharing people.
I say it again, the problem is that Covid DOES NOT KILL ENOUGH PEOPLE! I bet 90 percent of the deaths are anti-vaxxers so let ’em die!
Let’s give them blankets with smallpox like their ancestors gave the Native Indian!
I wish there was somewhere I could send a thank you card to Covid for helping rid the US of so many stupid idiots. If you still choose not to get the vaccine at this point, you deserve whatever happens to you and your family, and I won’t feel bad about not contributing when you go begging on GoFundMe for help paying for the consequences of your mistakes.
Thank you for speaking the truth and good luck getting anyone especially around here to care. As an immunocompromised adult with a serious health issue that is impacted by the actions of others I can tell you that anything you may try to prevent is unimportant to the anti-vaccination crowd. They simply do not care who they kill or how they do it. I am proof as are the 5 years I have been struggling with neighbor’s noise impacting my health permanently. At least in this area the shallow, unbelievably selfish ‘beautiful people’ that have overtaken this area for profit are happy to rid themselves of more old annoying residents who still thing you are supposed to be responsible for your community. They simply lie to get their way and do not care how many others they endanger as long as they never have to apologize or admit their actions. They simply get 50 of their closest friends to agree and join them in their attack of the person calling them out on their selfishness and ignorance. You cannot use facts and honesty to deal with these people. They have plenty of time to bully and harass those trying to report the truth and no time at all to listen to the facts or educate themselves with truth though they can quote lies like lyrics. It makes me wonder how long before they kill our republic.