Quietly Counting the Dead

 QUIETLY, imperceptibly, nearly unnoticed, the six hundred thousandth American to die of covid 19 became a tragic footnote in a tragic, uniquely America saga, in a country whose hidden history is littered with footnotes of forgotten tragic sagas. In america, we like to sweep our infamy under the rug, out of sight. Meanwhile, we go merrily back about our business of self absorbed self gratification; the bars are reopening. To be a member of a family or circle of friends which has experienced the loss of Covid 19 victim five hundred fifty thousand to six hundred thousand bears an added burden of despair, best swept away and hidden. It is the knowledge, unavoidable though unspoken, that the most recent fifty thousand deaths were even more unnecessary than the first half million, because they occurred after the vaccines became widely available to anyone who chose to take it. You can scarcely conceive of the hidden agony of losing a beloved friend or family member in the summer of 2021, six months after the prevention was available and offered to nearly all adults. In reality, nearly all the six hundred thousand deaths were unnecessary. There are countries more densely populated than the United States where the death toll has  been minimal. In the United states, we were simply unable to muster the will power and discipline to do what was necessary to save ourselves from the catastrophe from which we are only now beginning to emerge. Barely half the population has been fully vaccinated, and we are behaving as if the nightmare is over, when in fact it continues, but at a somewhat less nightmarish pace. On every holiday in 2020, we gathered together arrogantly, dismissive of expert advice to the contrary. We crowded the beaches on memorial Day, and on the Fourth of July. At Christmas and Thanksgiving, we traveled. We argued about whether wearing face masks and staying away from each other even mattered, when every scientific expert assured that it did matter. We listened to a vain, deranged leader tell us that there was nothing to worry about, that we should reopen our economy by Easter, 2020, at which point the pandemic had but barely begun. Out idiot president told us to ingest bleach or other disinfectants to clean out the inside of our bodies. NO, not all of us succumbed to the insanity, but enough of us did to turn a bad situation into one of the most complete nightmares we have ever, or will ever endure again, if we are lucky.