No Vaccine Can Bring Back The 250,000 Americans Who Have Died of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has now claimed the lives of 250,000 Americans. According to Johns Hopkins University, as of this writing, 250,140 Americans have died because of it. 

Worldwide, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of nearly 1.35 million people (1,346,677) with the U.S. accounting for 18.6% of global deaths. Only two other countries in the world have more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths (Brazil and India). 

Of course, there is a distinct possibility that good news could be in store with both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna claiming their vaccines are 95% effective. But even if their claims come to pass it won't bring back the 250,000 plus Americans who lost their lives due to COVID-19 as well as more than 1.1 million people outside of the United States.

As I argued last week, even under the best of circumstances, the logistics involved in disseminating the vaccine and the time it will take to demonstrate its efficacy to get to herd immunity will mean that millions more people are going to contract COVID-19 and thousands more people are going to die - most of them in the United States. We are now approaching 11.5 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S. (11,492,593). Mind you we hit the 11 million mark scarcely 72 hours ago.

President Trump's Operation Warp Speed might very well prove to be a long term success with regard to the development and dissemination of a vaccine or multiple vaccines. But this country has paid a heavy price with his administration's resistance to basic mitigation measures which proliferated the spread of COVID-19 thus prolonging our national agony as exemplified by his campaign rallies with no social distancing and a scarcity of masks. Earlier this month, researchers at Stanford University reported that Trump's rallies held between June and September caused 30,000 cases of COVID-19 leading to 700 deaths. 

It is remarkable though not surprising how little sorrow Trump has shown to the 250,000 plus Americans who have died of COVID-19 and their loved ones. Any elected official capable of derisively saying "COVID!!! COVID!!! COVID!!!" is an elected official who richly deserves defeat and rebuke. Any other elected official with such a preventable loss of life would have hung his or her head in shame and lived out their days in infamy. But Trump is incapable of shame and thrives on infamy as demonstrated by his repeated claims that he won the election despite all evidence to the contrary. 

President-elect Joe Biden wants to reverse course, but Trump's refusal to acknowledge the obvious will only add to the death toll which will continue to climb in the early months of a Biden Administration. 

We all hope a COVID-19 vaccine will save millions of lives all over the world as quickly as possible. But we must never forget those who could not be saved especially in the United States. Nor can we forget those who shirked their responsibility to their fellow Americans. R.I.P.