Covid won’t stop; we can’t ignore it
Demarcus Dunn was supposed to get married in July of 2020, but the wedding was rescheduled to Aug. 14 of this year because of the pandemic. The day before that new date, the 36-year-old Louisiana police officer died from complications of covid-19.
Ryland Daic loved to fish and play with his brothers. The 12-year-old Texas boy died Aug. 10 - days before he was set to start sixth grade - after testing positive for covid-19.
Haley Richardson, a nurse in Pensacola, Fla., was happily looking forward to the birth of her second child, a girl that she and her husband planned to name Ryleigh Beth. But she became ill after contracting covid-19 at the end of July. She, at the age of 32, and her unborn child died on Aug. 20.
The country breathed a brief sigh of relief in the early summer months as the number of people dying from covid-19 declined. Effective vaccines had been developed and many people had regained some semblance of normalcy in their lives. In June, the New York Times halted its “Those We’ve Lost” series. Other media outlets did the same.
But people continued - and continue - to die. The numbers are thankfully less than during the worst days of the pandemic that started 19 months ago, but they are rising, due to the virulently transmittable delta strain and the refusal of far too many people to get lifesaving vaccines. So it is fitting to once again look beyond the often numbing numbers and remember the lives cut short and those who have been left mourning.
People such as Walter Kearse IV, 36, a Georgia middle school teacher and graduation coach who leaves behind a wife and three children. Makayla Robinson, a 13-year-old beloved by all the teachers at her Mississippi school. Patrick Madison, 43, a Florida police sergeant described as “the kind of boss that everyone wanted to work for.” Clarence Wayne Johnson III, 13, an Oklahoma City eighth-grader with a “beautiful soul and unforgettable smile.” Kelly Peterson, 41, a Florida teacher whose students knew she “really did care.” The #soulslosttocovid hashtag catalogs the heartrending accounts.
Striking in the recent wave of deaths is the age of those victims. Poignant evidence of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that show more younger people being infected than occurred earlier in the pandemic. So many of these deaths could have been prevented if people had only protected themselves - and others - by getting vaccinated. Unvaccinated people make up 99% of Americans dying from covid-19 in the latest wave.
The decision not to get vaccinated “wasn’t a political thing, we didn’t want to because we didn’t want to, and the information is such a fight right now, and we thought we were young and healthy. It will be OK,” said Christina Tidmore, whose 36-year-old husband, Josh, the father of their three children, died of covid-19 this month. She is now urging people to get the shot. With nearly 640,000 Americans dead from covid-19, her message needs to be heeded.