Are Americans better off than we were four years ago? ask some Republicans, trying to score political points.
Well, yes. Hell, yes— we’re better off.
Exactly four years ago, the WHO declared COVID-19 a world-wide pandemic.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans died in 2020, the economy ground to a halt, started up again, inflation spiked, but is now coming down while unemployment is staying low.
On the topic of pandemics and epidemics*: we do have a fentanyl epidemic.
Per a report in The Economist, ‘America’s ten-year-old fentanyl epidemic is still getting worse’.
*While an epidemic is large, it is also generally contained or expected in its spread, while a pandemic is international and out of control (from Columbia University Public Health’s website).
He was first thought to have stolen the vials to sell on the black market, but no— he had been injected 217 times, by vaccines from 8 different manufacturers.
Bartell pharmacy chased me away last week when I attempted to get another booster shot, my 6th COVID vaccine shot. (The CDC guideline says it’s only for 65 and older).
[Reporting by the New York Times]