Five hundred thousand dead from COVID. Flags lowered, candles lit, speeches given. But half-mast can’t hide what we already know: we failed.
Science was sidelined. Lies spread faster than the virus. Leaders turned a public health crisis into a partisan fight. And while they argued, half a million lives ended.
There’s no phrase — “grim milestone,” “unthinkable loss” — that matches this. It isn’t unthinkable. It was predictable. That’s the shame.