Darkest Winter: Journal of a Pandemic, Volume 2

In retrospect it was an avoidable disaster. Before the pandemic washed ashore on U.S. beaches, other countries had grappled with it. There were earlier epidemics. These guideposts were ignored. As we learned for ourselves in the moment, even our own guideposts were ignored, even mocked. The fault lay not only with the nation's leadership, but also with its people. Science and scientists were the guiding star, and the only star. Only scientists could map and interpret the virus' path. Leaders and the led all too often ignored that light.The unparalleled economic and personal pain of 2020 was avoidable. The U.S. had the opportunity to flex its medical, economic, and social muscle to bump the virus back into the ocean. We didn't. Instead, our leaders flailed and our people griped. At the close of the year, nearly 300,000 had perished in the U.S. alone. Without reason.It was as though all the learning that had occurred from 1918 onwards to the ever-moving present was forgotten. To be sure, there were many in the medical community who screamed about the dangers. These were screams in a vacuum.This journal is the second volume in a continuing series capturing and assessing -- including over a hundred charts -- the day-by-day progress of the pandemic, U.S. Presidential leadership, and citizen behavior, mixed in with the daily life of the author.