More People Have Died of COVID This Year Than Last

One simple trick to boost your Thanksgiving dinner, FG Trade/Getty

Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.In the popular imagination, 2020 gets all the bad press, but this year has been no sunny day at the beach, either. Sure, several effective COVID-19 vaccines emerged, but so did the the highly contagious Delta variant, as well as new, more virulent strains of anti-vax sentiment, tightly yoked to conservative political ideology. Worst of all, intellectual property hoarding has meant that the vaccines have so far largely bypassed low-income nations of the global south, wreaking untold human misery and giving the virus ample opportunity to generate more contagious and/or more virulent strains.
Add it all up and you have a persistent pandemic, one that has just reached yet another grim milestone: As of Nov. 20, the number of US Covid-19 deaths sustained in 2021 has shot past the toll in the unspeakable year of 2020, The Wall Street Journal reports. 
As hospitalizations tick up yet again and cases surge in Europe, experts worry about impending Thanksgiving travel and closed-door get-togethers. 

Very few social distancing mandates remain in effect in the US. Seven states have mask mandates, and five states have some form of gathering restrictions. Many other mandates are in place at the local level. 1/ pic.twitter.com/i0Wo0FEpPg
— Ali H. Mokdad (@AliHMokdad) November 20, 2021

None of us wants mandates in the US, especially during our holidays season. We deserve to celebrate. We can contain this virus if we get our vaccines and wear a mask. Be responsible, do your part. Together we can, divided #COVID19 can and will. end/
— Ali H. Mokdad (@AliHMokdad) November 20, 2021

One thing Mokdad didn’t mention was that on Nov. 19, the CDC declared “all adults over 18” eligible for a COVID-19 booster dose. You probably can’t convince your Trumpy uncle to get a jab before the holiday. But now you can get a booster.