Sure, we’re emerging from COVID. But we can’t ignore 1,001 Stanislaus deaths
As I write this, Stanislaus County is reporting 1,001 deaths from COVID-19. What a perfectly palindromic punch in the gut.
It seems a lifetime ago that I wrote about our first death, on April 10, 2020. Because we managed to go an entire month with zero deaths, it seemed at the time that Stanislaus might escape the worst ravages of the coronavirus, that maybe we were special. At the time, our national leaders warned that the United States could, if things got really bad, suffer as many as 200,000 deaths — roughly the population of Modesto.
How naive we were. On both counts.
Stanislaus’ death rate is fifth worst among California’s 58 counties. Which means that 53 California counties are doing better than us.
And the national death toll, 553,000, nearly mirrors the entire population of Stanislaus County.
So yeah, it’s bad.
Bad enough that COVID now ends the lives of more Stanislaus people than any other cause except for heart disease — more than cancer, Alzheimer’s, crashes, diabetes and a host of other killers.
Sorry for the negativity. Things really are looking up, with vaccines much more accessible, students returning to schools, business restrictions easing, people getting stimulus checks, local leaders adopting more responsible behavior, and herd immunity somewhere on the horizon.
But losing 1,001 of our neighbors to something that’s mostly preventable remains a tragedy, no matter how you slice it. These were real people with real lives and dreams snuffed out before their time.
If 1,001 of our people died in some horrific disaster, like an earthquake or missile strike, people would rush to build monuments and memorials in honor of the poor victims. TV crews would cover the event for weeks. Everyone across the planet would know.
But that won’t happen, because similar tragedies are playing out everywhere else, with a few exceptions, claiming 2.83 million souls worldwide.
So it’s up to journalists like me to acknowledge milestones like this. And to remind us that despite all reason for optimism, our awful death toll cannot and will not stay at 1,001.
