Our View: COVID-19 — a year we are still struggling through and will never forget

For many of us, it’s been a year since we’ve seen family and friends because of a pandemic the likes we haven’t seen in more than 100 years. Weddings have been postponed. Funerals have been limited to immediate family, if even that. For those of us not considered essential workers, we’ve had to work from home. For the essential workers, bless them all, they take their chances every day going to work for fear of getting infected with the coronavirus.

And schools? Sometimes it is a daily guess as to whether teachers and students head to school or have to meet over school-supplied iPads or Chromebooks.

Many businesses struggle to stay open, others have already closed. Unemployment has been a crutch for many families, yet often it isn’t enough. Now we head into our third stimulus package, the latest will cost us $1.9 trillion. How will our country pay the bill when it comes due?

Yes, we know all of this and our lives have been changed forever because of it. We’re all hoping for a time when we can be safe when we leave our homes. We wait to learn when we can get a vaccination and get some peace of mind. Perhaps, after months of our society being split in political factions over how to protect ourselves and each other, we have reached a time today where nearly everyone heading to a public place, be it a store, restaurant or city hall, is wearing a protective mask over their nose and mouth.

Wearing those masks is a matter of life or death.

Let’s put that in perspective.

In Illinois, there have been 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and 23,000 deaths statewide, including 480,000 cases in Cook County and 10,000 deaths; 66,200 cases in Will County and 1,300 deaths; 51,400 cases in Kane County and 780 deaths; 25,000 cases in McHenry County and 293 deaths; 8,500 cases in DeKalb County and 120 deaths; 11,700 cases in Kendall County and 90 deaths; 11,000 cases in La Salle County and 283 deaths, and 3,400 cases in Lee County and 82 deaths.

Politico reported Wednesday the U.S. death rate increased by 15% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, making it the deadliest year in U.S. history. By comparison, Politico reported, the death rate decreased in 2019 by just 1.2% compared to the 2018 toll. Over 3 million people in the U.S. died in 2020. In 2020, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. Normally, “unintentional injuries” is the third-leading cause of death.

According to CDC data, the 2020 15% increase is the largest since 1918 — when, during World War I, hundreds of thousands of people died of the flu, Politico reported.

The news is terrible and 3 million deaths from COVID-19 are far beyond early expectations from a year ago. And fear remains among many Americans, young and old.

But there is optimism on the horizon.

President Joe Biden has proclaimed we are three months away from full vaccination of America’s adult population. And elderly family members today celebrate in ways we haven’t seen in years when they get the call or email alerting them of a time and date when they can get a vaccination.

There is a sense of hopefulness and a calmness now that we will get through this disaster as we head into spring 2021.

We are still in this together, but we need more patience. We need to continue to practice social distancing and stay home when we can until we are all vaccinated. The toll on us all has been too great already.

The pain and disruption remains with all of us. We’ve made it this far, let’s work together until we reach sunshine for all.