March 11, 2021

Today marks one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. After a year of hell for the world, not just America, there are still very high case numbers, and deaths are still climbing to around 2,000 people every day. So much has been lost this past year; so much damage has been done. The most infuriating and sad part of it all was it didn't have to be this bad. Now, I understand the losses and amount of illnesses would still have been high, but I will always maintain if the country had a competant president at the time who was less concerned about his image and more concerned about the welfare of the people he swore to serve, then many more lives would have been saved. We didn't need a peacock; we needed a president.

There were---and still are---failures on the state and local levels, too. Unfortunately, the ex-peacock made one of the best and only defenses against this virus a political issue. As a result, his minions in the form of certain governors and local officials were either too slow to issue masks mandates for their citizens, or they outright refused to do the right thing at all. This neglect cost lives. For the record, masks absolutely work. Why else would surgeons be required to wear them? If they can do it hours at a time in surgery, you can do it, too.

We have lost so much this past year, but significant progress has also been made. There are three vaccines out there to help us fight back, and there is a lull of sorts in the amount of hospitalizations and deaths coming in daily. However, there are several variations of COVID-19 out there that are waiting to take advantage of human weakness. While many things are still unknown, there seems to be a consenus among scientists these variants are more esaily spread than the original strain. Now is not the time to relax and let our guard down. Complacency will kill us.

As much as I would like to revel in the passage of the American Rescue Plan today, I cannot help but worry about another surge of this virus due to spring break. This time the virus is more contagious and possibly more deadly. It was hard enough to treat before. God, help the healthcare workers who have to continue to clean up the carnage left behind by selfish people.