I remember passing the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last September where small white flags stuck up from the ground almost as far as I could see. On many of the flags were the names of loved ones lost in the pandemic. At that time, at least 673,484 people had died from COVID-19 in the United States.
Today, just seven months later, that number has nearly doubled. Now, 1 million people in the United States have been lost to COVID-19. About 24 million more people are currently suffering from long COVID, which created at least 1.2 million disabled adults in 2021 compared with the year prior. More than 200,000 children have lost a primary parent or caregiver to COVID-19. It’s a somber day and one that must be used to catalyze a Congress that has become anesthetized to so much illness and pain.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill.
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