A grim milestone: 500,000 lives lost

A grim milestone: 500,000 lives lost

 

There’s a concept known as "compassion fade." It's the idea that the more people are impacted by a tragedy, the less we as people are impacted by it.   For example, if I tell you the story of one person that died of Covid, you are likely to have a great amount of empathy. But if I tell you that story 500,000 times, your empathy will begin to fatigue. We can’t let that happen. Please don’t let your compassion fade as we continue to fight this battle.   We’ve been in a war for the past year, and this week we marked 500,000 lives lost to the enemy that is coronavirus. That’s more than the number of Americans killed in World War II. This virus hasn’t been discriminating -- targeting the young and old alike. But what is truly heartbreaking is that it didn’t have to be this way.   This was never going to be easy, but we had the tools to fight this to a much greater ability. We knew that masks worked. That social distancing worked. And yet, they become politicized weapons used against us instead of helping us.   These 500,000-plus mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters didn’t all have to meet this fate. And we need to remember their stories. We can’t let these numbers numb us to the memories and stories of these individuals.