MarcS,

The numbers significant, but still not relevant to many.

Suffering and losses are personal. We tend to dismiss that which does not impact us directly. Many may have lost elderly relatives, but that is easy to dismiss thinking they would have dies anyway.

The death of congressman-elect Luke Letlow may be a wake up call for some, but perhaps not.

Those who are in acute care medicine cannot possibly dismiss this. I brought a 50's patient in two weeks back. RR over 50 and SpO under 50. Dead of covid after a week on a vent.

I'll try but not quickly forget the well-founded terror in the eyes of the patient and the patient's family.

I understand that we cannot shut down the country, as people need to work to eat. We do need to do all we can manage to slow the spread, allow nurse and doctors to save lives of a reasonable patient census, and allow dissemination of vaccines to bring this to a halt.

Bailing works if all the water does not come in at once.

I'll stop sermonizing when people stop dying.