(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

Saturday Jan. 9, 2021, COVID-19 took another life, one who was deeply loved by family, many friends and the community that individual served. The name will be added to the list of 24,000 who died alone in the absence of family between New Year’s Day and Jan. 9, 2021, and to the list of U.S. citizens now topping 390,613 lives.

In a few weeks this number will exceed the 418,000 American deaths from the four years of World War II.

Today we are in a world at war that nearly half the U.S. population and government leadership have refused to acknowledge much less fight. As U.S. citizens we brag on the ability of our health care system, yet our deaths from COVID-19 are often 4 times the world average and our resources are overwhelmed.

The U.S. represents 4 percent of the world population but accounts for 20 percent of the world COVID-19 deaths. Nearly a year since the president was briefed on the likely deadly consequences of runaway pandemic, no nationally coordinated program exists.

This is a war when the use of our best weapons is curtailed by those who, without evidence, refute conventional science and wisdom and flood unfounded information on social media.

In Washington our leaders’ failure to act has allowed the corona-19 novel virus to escalate virtually out of control. We are better prepared on many levels including better understanding of the virus and the rollout of a highly effective vaccine.

With the absence of leadership or even empathy we will continue to die. These words will not bring back any of COVID’s casualties nor will save more lives. I write on behalf of those who no longer can.

A warning this will not be our last pandemic.

Cal Malcom

Williamstown