JOE’S NOTEBOOK: Death in the Midst of Life

KEN CARTER is a colleague and online friend who wrote this earlier today —-

I am blessed to have work to do.

And there is life beyond work.

In the midst of life, there is death.

Over 700,000 U.S. citizens have died from COVID-19. Much of the last wave has been predominantly in the southern U.S. and among the unvaccinated.

The loss of life is due to many factors—misinformation among them—and as I have noted consistently over the last eight quarters, what should have been about science came to be about politics.

The astonishing game-changer in the pandemic was the miracle of a vaccine that was produced almost at the beginning of the outbreak. But, as McChrystal notes, we had no unified strategy, global or national. It was left to states and municipalities.

I would add that this left us susceptible to how these are gerrymandered and often led more for political approval or gain than the well-being of citizens. You simply need to look at a map of the United States right now to see the prevalence of COVID in some regions and not in others.

It is in decline, but the last few months were in large measure preventable.

I recognize that saying this does not motivate persons to change.

It is simply a sadness and a loss.