400,000

400,000 Dead from Covid 19 in the United States.

Back when Covid 19 first started, a friend sent me a confidential email that a friend of theirs had received.
My friend’s friend was a healthcare provider working at a hospital in the US.
The email was from a healthcare group to those working in hospitals.
It presented a myriad of situations/possibilities, and what these hospitals should be prepared for in terms of things like hospital beds, masks, ventilators, etc…

The numbers seemed ridiculous to me, at the time.

It didn’t make sense.
I remember this one, particular, email so clearly because one data points looked at three potential outcomes for how many people will die from this virus in the United States.
The three outcomes were based on how well America (and the health care system) responds to the pandemic.
The lowest number (best case scenario) was 400,000 United States citizens dead.

I guffawed.

“At least 400,000 people will die from Covid 19?”
It just seemed so unlikely.
It seems completely outrageous.
But, that number stuck in my brain.
And, with each passing week, it felt like this email of yore might be right.
How could it be right?

400,000.

And, like that email suggested, that was the best case scenario.

We’ve become numb to numbers in general.
We’ve become numb to the number of people who have died.
We’ve become numb to masks.
We’ve become numb to social distancing.
We’ve become numb to science.
We’ve become numb to reason.
We’ve turned a medical pandemic into a political one.
We’ve turned against one another in ways that I could have never imagined.

Who are we?

I’d like to believe that…

This isn’t about politics.
This isn’t about public health.
This isn’t about laws pushed at the local or national level.
This isn’t about how your local (or national) representatives handled a completely new, complex and ever-changing global pandemic.
This isn’t about blame.
This isn’t about picking sides.

This is about that number: 400,000.

In Canada (where I live), we’ve had over 18,000 deaths.
Globally, over 2 million people.

I couldn’t even fathom that 400,000 number back in March of 2020.

I find it so hard to see today.

Stay safe… and stay healthy.