Funny what can happen in only six weeks. Except there's nothing funny about what's happened the last six.
The last time I mentioned pandemic numbers here was a couple days after the election. Since then we've learned who won and who lost and who would like to overturn democracy to keep the loser.
We've learned the Loser-in-Chief doesn't have much time for truth, justice, or the American Way, but he's certainly reinforced his reign as the Tyrant of Tweet Tantrums. As of this writing he's attacked every living American and several who've never been living or American. Yertle McConnell, for instance, is the most recent tantrum target and that poor guy has been dead for twenty years.
Wait, he hasn't? That's right. It's American that he hasn't been for twenty years.
But given the unsurpassed popularity of Putin's Puppy in Kentucky, Yertle might as well be dead at the moment. If things don't go his way in Georgia next month, a funeral will likely follow.
Don't worry my fellow Kentuckians. Mitch still won't do anything for you in this life and is working hard to make sure your afterlife sucks, too. Got to hand it to ole Yertle, he's nothing if not consistent. Like Darth Vader but committed.
But I have certainly digressed. We were talking about numbers. Six weeks ago, the United States had around 9.4 million cases of Covid-19 and had surpassed 230,000 deaths.
As of today, six weeks later, we're about to hit 17,000,000 cases and are nearing 305,000 killed by the pandemic. Hospitals all over the country are overflowing with coronavirus cases. Possibly the third deadliest day in United States history was last week, with only the Galveston hurricane and the Battle of Antietam being higher on that sad list.
Two weeks after Thanksgiving, new cases are breaking 200,000 per day, a 28% increase. The death count has jumped 60% in that time.
It looks like too many families that shouldn't have gathered did gather and they're receiving the blessings of their bullheaded devotion. We're hurtling into Christmas and it looks like flat-earthers will be giving the gift even Wally World won't take back.
Unless that dual-planet image, aka Christmas Star, burns some sense into some skulls, we're in for an even bigger wave of holiday horror in the weeks to come. There will be no vacations in the healthcare industry.
It's going to be a hard holiday for all of us. But it won't be the loneliness or the separations from loved ones that will be sad about this Christmas season.
It will be the plight of individuals who are suffering and dying for no good reason.
Because the fact is we could have avoided so much agony caused by this pandemic if only one guy had been decent enough to say "yes, this is a crises we need to deal with" instead of "this is a hoax created by liberals". If only one guy had listened to the scientists instead of anyone but. If only one guy had tweeted "make America great again, wear a mask" instead of...well, anything.
Only one guy. And that's the number that counts.