On Christmas Day, COVID Tops 52 Million Cases in U.S.

At the risk of being a Grinch or a Scrooge, COVID cases in the U.S. passed 52 million. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been 52,054,340 COVID cases resulting in 816,436 deaths representing a mortality rate of 1.6%. After taking 7 days to go from 50 to 51 million cases, it took only 5 days to go from 51 to 52 million cases primarily due to the Omicron variant.

I am sure we will add another million cases before 2021 is complete with cases rising very sharply at the beginning of 2022 once Christmas and New Year's festivities have concluded. I don't know if the U.S. will add 1 million new COVID cases a day as outgoing NIH Director Francis Collins has predicted. But the cases will increase and our already fragile health care system will be further strained and health care workers will have to decide who they can treat and who they cannot.

Again, I realize this is the last thing anyone wants to hear on Christmas Day. People want a day away from COVID. But COVID is the uninvited guest which isn't going anywhere so long as a critical mass of us see fit not to get vaccinated let alone wear masks. Getting vaccinated won't eliminate the possibility of getting COVID but it will very likely keep you out of the hospital. And who wants to celebrate Christmas and New Year's in the hospital?