These Times

Let's remember the plague, shall we?

Kirk Ericson | Feb 15, 20240

I've lately been asking people how many people in the United States have died of COVID. Their answers are generally way low - before I checked the stat, my answer was way low, too.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,176,639 people died of COVID in the United States from January 2020 to February 2024.

More than 1 million Americans dead. Imagine. That's almost double the deaths from the Civil War.

"So, again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done," the eventually twice impeached and twice not convicted president said Feb. 28, 2020.

We're now in the fourth year of this plague, although now it's less plague and more plague-lite. Let's revisit the early days of COVID with some bits from columns I've written. Perhaps they'll stir some unfond memories:

■ From the first column I wrote on the plague, published in the Journal on Feb. 20, 2020: "Now we consider the threat of the virus that causes COVID-19, which has spread from eastern China ... So, where should you put this virus on your risk list? Me, I'm ranking it low, but with an option to revisit. It wouldn't hurt to have a mask ready, though ..."

■ March 5, 2020: "This microscopic, single strand of genetic material has not only infected the U.S. stock market, it's made people blame their middle-of-the-night nausea on the coronavirus, not the Sriracha sauce they shouldn't have eaten. It's caused global supply breakdowns and anxieties about that single bead of sweat along your hairline. And to think: This virus is just a few months old and we have zero idea how old it will get ..."

■ March 19, 2020: "I now own 25 rolls of toilet paper. When people feel a lack of control in the face of a threat, they want toilet paper. Who knew? ..."

■ April 9, 2020: "I'm in favor of allowing people to go to church services - as long as they can't leave until the pandemic ends ... If some church-goers want to spread the virus among themselves, God bless 'em. However, their right to worship in a crowd shouldn't trump other people's right to not have their lungs turn to cement ..."

■ July 9, 2020: "A couple of weeks ago at an anti-mask rally in downtown Shelton that drew 25 people, Shelton-Mason County Journal reporter Gordon Weeks had a conversation with a demonstrator. Gordon asked her why she doesn't wear a mask. 'This is based on fear and false statistics,' she explained. For instance, 'on the side of the mask box it says, 'Not to be used for COVID-19.' So why are we wearing them?' Gordon followed up: 'Where did you get that information?' 'I saw it on my phone,' the anti-masker said. She waved her phone in front of Gordon's face - just in case Gordon didn't fully appreciate the credibility of her source."

■ March 25, 2021: I volunteered at drive-thru vaccination event: "I was in a room with a handful of county health workers and a United Way employee, all of whom were ensuring that vaccine was able to flow into people's arms without interruption ... Their purpose and the purpose of the scores of other volunteers and health care workers that day was authentic and infectious, like a certain virus ... this vaccination operation, from checking appointments and eligibility, routing traffic, loading syringes with 0.3 milliliters of the Pfizer vaccine, delivering the syringes to injectors, ensuring volunteers are fed, was about being organized, deliberate and aware of your surroundings."

■ June 17, 2021: "I've been thinking about Bill Gates inserting a tracking microchip into each dose of COVID vaccine. I see problems with this theory, but I'm most stuck on how the person preparing each dose - which requires putting the tip of a needle into a vial to withdraw 0.3 milliliters of serum - could ensure only one microchip of the five or six in the vaccine vial would make it inside the uptake. And how would the microchip be powered inside the body? By batteries tinier than a microchip? By solar flares?"

■ Sept. 2, 2021: " 'Do you have any ivermectin?' I asked the teenage clerk at Kiperts Korner Feed as she rang me up. I paid $4.99 for a packet of trail mix. 'Yes,' she replied. She spoke in a tone as flat as a paving stone. She lowered her chin and looked at me through the tops of her eye sockets ... 'Have you been selling a lot of ivermectin lately?' I asked. 'Yes,' she said, flat. 'Have you sold some today?' 'Yes,' she said. 'Do you sell it to anybody who wants to buy it?' 'Yes,' she said, this time with a sigh. 'It sure is weird what's going on,' I said. 'Do you want your receipt?' she asked ..."