"[M]any people with chronic and debilitating conditions are more vulnerable than they were before the pandemic began. The policies that protected them during the pandemic’s height are gone—and yet SARS-CoV-2 is still here, adding to the dangers they face. The losses have been written off, Bortko told me: Cases of long COVID in Madison County have been dismissed as products of 'risk factors' that don’t apply to others; deaths, too, have been met with a shrug of 'Oh, they were old; they were unhealthy.' If, this winter, COVID sickens or kills more people who are older, more people who are immunocompromised, more people of color, more essential and low-income workers, more people in rural communities, 'there will be no press coverage,' Hlatshwayo Davis said. Americans already expect that members of these groups will die."
"COVID still kills roughly as many Americans every week as died on 9/11. It is on track to kill at least 100,000 a year—triple the typical toll of the flu. Despite gross undercounting, more than 50,000 infections are being recorded every day. The CDC estimates that 19 million adults have long COVID. Things have undoubtedly improved since the peak of the crisis, but calling the pandemic 'over' is like calling a fight 'finished' because your opponent is punching you in the ribs instead of the face."
