A former marathon runner gasps for breath in the shower, his lungs destroyed, his red blood cells no longer effectively carrying oxygen.
A son mourns his mom’s death, her life stolen, he says, by incompetent politicians and self-centered Americans.
A family doctor breaks down after losing a patient who survived cancer and a heart attack but died in the surge of COVID-19 cases following Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.
A wife and new mother watches her husband slip away during a months’-long hospitalization: First his voice. Then his lungs. Then his leg. Then his life.
A year after the start of a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and sickened nearly 30 million, the infection has exposed deep political, economic and racial fault lines that appear unlikely to heal anytime soon.
Complicating any recovery is the largely private nature of the deaths — and political leaders who downplayed the severity of the pandemic from Day 1 — allowing millions of Americans to deny the pandemic’s true threat, leaving survivors and their families angry, disgusted and frustrated.
As vaccination rates rise dramatically, some states are rushing to reopen despite anguished pleas from public health experts to move cautiously because tens of thousands of people are still sick, and more than 1,500 are still dying daily. After hitting a recent low of about 41,000 new cases on March 7, cases nationwide have jumped 50% as of March 10, according to data from the Centers…
