The Counterpoint is a free newsletter that uses both analytic and holistic thinking to examine the wider world. My goal is that you find it ‘worth reading’ rather than it necessarily ‘being right.’ Expect regular updates on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as well as essays on a variety of topics. I appreciate any and all sharing or subscriptions.
Two years ago, on March 18th, 2020, the city of San Francisco was the first American city to lockdown. It also happened to be the day that the 100th American died of confirmed COVID-19.
Since the start of the Revolutionary War, there have been ~670,000 total combat deaths in all of American history. In two years, there have been 970,779 confirmed American deaths from COVID-19.
Phrased another way, that is 1,328 American deaths, each and every day, for the past two years.
Using the 2020 census’ count of 331,449,281 Americans, that means that 0.293% of the entire country died from COVID-19.
I’m not sure that we’ve fully reckoned with the total amount of death, disability, suffering, and sheer societal chaos that the pandemic caused. I’m not sure that we ever will.
But the past is the past.
What I hope is that we understand that the pandemic was fully predictable and that there are concrete actions that we can take, individually and societally, to limit the impacts of communicable diseases, whether endemic ones such as influenza or the next pandemic, which will sure come.
Today’s generations did not ask for the burden of the worst pandemic in a century. Regardless, we now bear the responsibility of preparing for the next one. Perhaps future generations will thank us for the better world that we built.