300,000 dead

Lost in all the excitement around the electoral college doing what it does every four years just as uneventfully as it is intended to do it, was the news that the United States has now lost over 300,000 citizens to COVID-19 (The Guardian, CDC, Johns Hopkins). With over 17,000 deaths per week, COVID has replaced heart disease as the number one cause of death in America (CDC, WSWS, CBS, IHME) with a recent daily death toll surpassing 3,000 souls (The Guardian). In happier news, Vaccinations have finally begun in both the U.S. and Canada (NYT, globalnews). However, it will take several months, at best, to vaccinate the population, and the country currently lacks any national leadership on the matter.

Vaccination center at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Photograph: Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe/Getty Images