2021 Year-End Review: COVID Edition
Charles Dickens’s words from his epic novel A Tale of Two Cities (written in 1859) capture 2021 for me (in a nutshell) —
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
(For those who haven’t read the book or have forgotten it) A Tale of Two Cities takes place during the French Revolution. Dickens weaves together the stories of dichotomies. Though the circumstances have changed and the headlines are different since the book was written, the central themes of the book (revolution, duality, aristocrat vs. poor) apply today. And that is why I can say that 2021 was —
“the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
As the year comes to a close, the pandemic rages —
During the past 14 days, there have been more than 300,000 new/incident cases of COVID diagnosed each day (an increase of 153% compared to the previous 14 days)
Currently, 78,000 Americans are in the hospital suffering from COVID (an increase of 14%).
More than 821,000 Americans have died of COVID since the start of the pandemic; more than half of those deaths occurred in 2021 alone.
More than 89 million Americans are unvaccinated, including 19.3 million children aged 0-4 who are still not eligible to receive the vaccine and remain unprotected going into the new year.
138 million Americans have not received their booster shot yet.
COVID hospitalizations among children have spiked in the past two weeks (increasing by more than 50%).
This definitely feels like the worst of times.
BUT… we have safe and effective vaccines (that are free). And new treatment options are available to prevent severe disease.
This definitely feels like (it could be) the best of times.
As we head into year three of the pandemic, we are going to continue to experience these dichotomies: best and worst, wisdom and foolishness, light and dark, as well as hope and despair. At the end of A Tale of Two Cities, one of the main characters is executed at the guillotine in France (it is tragic), but Dickens ends the book by imagining what this character might have said in a farewell speech. In this hypothetical speech, this character predicts a future where his sacrifice will allow those “for which I lay down my life [to be] peaceful, useful, prosperous, and happy” and where France will be restored to peace and order.
This, my friends, is my hope for us…
that our decisions to get vaccinated, wear a mask, avoid crowds, support our local healthcare providers, and SO.MUCH.MORE will result in a future where we can all be peaceful, prosperous, and happy. And where our world will be restored to peace and order.
I will share my dreams and plans for 2022 on New Years Day (stay tuned…), but for now, it is my hope that we can all — regardless of our vaccination status, political beliefs, religious traditions, values, opinions, and ways of knowing — agree to leave five things in the past. We have carried a heavy burden throughout 2021.
Lightening our load moving into the new year feels like the next right thing to do.
Let’s leave the following five things in the past.
Cheers. And remember together we are public health.
If you have suggestions for other things we can leave behind in 2021, please let me know.