December 31, 2020 - Inflection Point
Inflection Point
December 31, 2020
On the last day of this miserable year, Alabama recorded 4,406 more cases (incl. 998 probables) and 53 more deaths from COVID. Perhaps it is fitting that the year would end with the highest 7-day positivity rate recorded in Alabama by both trackers I follow - 45.5% (The Covid Tracking Project) / 40.1% (BamaTracker). Overall, our State closes 2020 with 361,000 cases, 4,827 deaths and 2,815 confirmed hospitalizations (106 hospitals). Finally, as of this morning, Alabama had received 124,000 vaccine doses and had administered 26,000 of them, or 8.6% of the eligible persons to be vaccinated in Phase 1a.
Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham announced last night that he tested positive and will enter quarantine. Louise Jones, the wife of Sen. Doug Jones, is also sick with COVID and has quarantined, accompanied by her husband. The same is true of Greg McElroy, former Crimson Tide QB, who will not be able to broadcast the Cotton Bowl and Rose Bowl, as scheduled. We hope and pray that these prominent Alabamians will experience nothing more than mild symptoms and will bounce back quickly.
The people of Louisiana likewise prayed for healing when Luke Letlow announced he had COVID on December 17. Letlow, a newly elected GOP congressman, was 41 years old when he died 11 days later, leaving his heartbroken widow, Julia, and two young children - Jeremiah, 3, and Jacqueline, 11 months. He was due to be sworn in on Sunday.
2020 will be remembered as the year when hubris and mendacity collided to alter the face of America, ending the lives of more than 350,000 Americans (and counting), crippling its economy, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and nearly destroying its democracy. Among other things, the greatest public health system on Earth was humbled when it failed to discover that this virus can be transmitted asymptomatically until many weeks after it was first identified; and when it developed a contaminated diagnostic test that was so flawed that fewer than 1,500 persons were tested in the U.S. by early March, after millions had been tested elsewhere around the world.
2020 also brought incalculable harm inflicted by the President, who told us the virus would be gone by Easter, while saying the opposite to Bob Woodward in private; who seriously suggested on national television that the consumption of bleach could be beneficial to our health; who hosted mask-free superspreader events on the campaign trail and in the Rose Garden; and who created and cultivated an alternative reality that was devoid of truth and accountability. For Americans who were shoveled falsehoods by the boatload, it will not be easy to trust our elected leaders ever again.
Tomorrow, we will turn the page on 2020. It is another inflection point and hope seems on the way - with caveats. First, new leadership will arrive at the White House in January, but the challenges which confront the new administration are unprecedented, and there is no indication it can expect cooperation or goodwill from Republicans. Second, while the scientific community deserves credit for producing effective vaccines in record time, the government plan to distribute those vaccines seems severely deficient.
Finally, perhaps most importantly, the American people are deeply divided - by gender, race, education, age and geography. During the last century, this country’s greatest successes happened when we were united - defeating fascism, rebuilding Europe, conquering polio, landing a man on the moon, ending the Cold War, rebounding from 9/11. Somehow, we must find a way to heal the wounds that separate us today. That begins by listening to one another and telling the truth. The last 14-day case totals of 2020:
12/18 - 5348
12/19 - 4221
12/20 - 2548
12/21 - 2380
12/22 - 4979
12/23 - 4758
12/24 - 4232
12/25 - 3625
12/26 - 1032
12/27 - 2170
12/28 - 2269
12/29 - 3907
12/30 - 5106
12/31 - 4406