About the Years of COVID-19

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Well, darn. We really hoped we wouldn't have to add another year to the now three-year moniker of Years of COVID-19, but with the identification of the Omicron variant in late November 2021, the persistence and selfishness of covidiots and anti-vaxxers, the lack of vaccines in developing nations, and the increasing fatigue amongst everyone over this extremely deadly disease, it appears we have yet another year in the twilight zone of the pandemic. It is now November 28, 2021 as we write. 261,686,345 people have contracted the disease as of this moment. 5,215,500 have died from it, and the world is entering its 5th wave. Let's hope we don't need to add another paragraph to this entry for 2023.

No one over the age of five years old in 2020, anywhere in the world, will forget 2020, the first year of COVID-19. This global pandemic, believed to have originated in China, spread quickly throughout the world. Some countries, like China, New Zealand and Germany, acted quickly and minimized the effects of the first round (which we are still in on July 3, 2020 as we write this).

Other countries, particularly those trending toward anti-science or headed by an authoritarian executive branch, including the United States, Brazil and India, became epicenters with exponential growth. From less than ten cases in late December, 2019 to over 11 million cases and over 500,000 deaths worldwide by July 3, 2020, the Coronavirus has disrupted lives and economies, exposed racial tensions, healthcare inadequacies and political divides. It has shown the world who the true leaders are, and who they are not. Its end is as yet unknown.

What is known? The world will not look or feel the same going forward. COVID-19 is a watershed moment in history. What will come next, we will have to wait and see.

COVID-19 is shorthand for Novel Coronavirus first detected in 2019. Other versions of Coronavirus previously detected include MERS and SARS.

Coronavirus and COVID-19 are the only two internationally recognized names for this disease.

Update December 29, 2020
The United States continues to be the epicenter of the virus with 20 million infected in the US alone by year's end and more than 340,000 dead. Year end totals show over 82 million infected globally with 1.8 million deaths.

The good news is at least 2 vaccines have been approved for emergency use, and are being administered to frontline workers and those most at risk. Several others are due to be approved in the coming weeks. Scientists and health workers believe it will require the balance of 2021 to vaccinate enough people, meaning 2021 will also be the year of COVID-19.



Header Images:
Waiting to enter Costco during COVID-19, Laura Lewis
Young man in mask, Kebs Visuals
Vaccine, Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels
Nurse, EVG Culture from Pexels
Don't Panic, Markus Spiske from Pexels
Zoom Meeting, Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Crying broken heart, Burak Kostak from Pexels