Vaccines Here but Things Still Bad

With Congress having reached an agreement on the next covid-19 relief package and not one, but two vaccines gradually reaching the public, it really feels like we’ve got a handle on this whole coronavirus pandemic…

…on Opposite Day!!!!!!! Everything’s still bad, and it’s still getting worse.

Last week, more than 18,000 people died of covid-19 in the United States, CNN reports, and on Friday we set a new record for the number of new infections in a single day with 249,709 additional cases, per data from Johns Hopkins University.

Even with two vaccines out there—more than 272,000 people have received their first of two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, per CNN, and Operation Warp Speed chief scientific officer Moncef Slaoui expects that the just-approved Moderna vaccine will begin to be administered Monday morning—these horrifying numbers will only continue to rise as Christmas holiday travel further spreads the virus.

“Unfortunately, it will get worse because we still are experiencing the outcome of the Thanksgiving holiday and gatherings,” Slaoui told CNN. “And unfortunately, there may be more over the Christmas holiday. So there will be a continuing surge.”

There have been 17,592,760 coronavirus cases recorded in the U.S. since the pandemic began, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 315,260 Americans had died of covid as of noon on Sunday.