“I feel great. I feel hopeful today, relieved — I hope this marks the beginning to the end of a very painful time in our history.”

            —Sandra Lindsay, Director of Critical Care Nursing at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, after becoming the first person in New York, possibly in the U.S., to be vaccinated against COVID-19, December 14, 2020

             “It was truly, truly a humbling moment to be able to do that… So, this is the light at the end of the tunnel, and we truly have to be patient in order to make this work we have to make sure that we continue on to follow the guidelines —socially distancing, wearing our mask, washing our hands, and not having large gatherings—following those guidelines along with the vaccine, we can defeat this. This is something that is giving us that huge light at the end of the tunnel. It’s still a long tunnel but again, it’s up to us to do our part to assist in stopping this pandemic. So with those things in place along with the vaccine, it’s a good prognosis for the future… Let science speak for itself.”

       —Dr. Michelle Chester, DNP, director of employee health services at Northwell Health, who injected Ms. Lindsay with the vaccine, interviewed on CNN December 15, 2020

            “This disease is real, it is serious and it is deadly. Wear the mask, socially distance, if not for yourself then for others who may lose a loved one to the disease.”

—Kim Miller of Carbondale, Illinois, in the obituary she wrote for her husband Scott

Dear Students,

Two milestones for our country yesterday: the first people outside of research trials to get a COVID-19 vaccine were inoculated; and we crossed the threshhold of 300,000 deaths from the virus, by far the most of any country in the world. The vaccine will eventually be everywhere, but that death toll is only in America.

The first photo shows Sandra Lindsay (quoted above) being vaccinated by Dr. Michelle Chester (also quoted above) and the second shows Ms. Lindsay applauding as she gets her bandaid. She was one of the very first and possibly the first person in the U.S. to receive any COVID-19 vaccine outside a research trial.

People are understandably excited about the vaccine. For a few days it seemed that all I saw when I turned on the news was freezer trucks leaving Pfizer vaccine factories and distribution centers. You would think they were carrying the secret of life, and in a way they were, for those few who will be vaccinated soon. By next week at this time, trucks will be rolling out with a second very effective mRNA vaccine, from Moderna.

But I couldn’t help think of a different kind of refrigerator truck, the portable morgues that are being brought in to hospitals and coroners’ offices all over the country—and not for the first time—to store the overflow of bodies of people killed by COVID-19. Hundreds of hospitals are at full capacity for those still alive, and a third of U.S. hospitals are almost out of ICU space.

Doctors agree that death rates will go up as health care workers are overwhelmed—they, not ICU beds, are the ultimate bottleneck of care—over the next two to three months. Remember that the small number of front-line heroes being vaccinated this week will not have full immunity until the third week of January. Even according to the Trump administration, always bragging about solving the problem, projects 20 million people will be vaccinated in December, and another 20-25 million in January. That’s the first dose; 3-4 weeks later, the second dose, and then a week more for full immunity.

There are 350 million people in the U.S. We add roughly 200,000 cases and more than 2000 deaths a day, with deaths lagging by about 3 weeks. You do the math. Vaccines will have no impact on the next 60 days’ deaths (adding 120,000) and little impact in the next 60 after that. Community spread will continue up to and beyond April 1st, when deaths are projected to pass 500,000, or 600,000 with relaxation of mandates.

But you know of course what can slow the spread right now, today? Masking, social distancing, avoiding gatherings, and proper hand washing. What are the chances that enough Americans will take these simple measures during the holiday season? Close to zero, even though they would save scores of thousands.

In the past nine months, Americans have chosen the worst kind of “social Darwinism” which is contrary to Darwin’s own beliefs. We have chosen to allow the virus to kill off certain groups of people we evidently consider expendable: the old, the sick, the obese, and people whose skin is not white. And now we are cheering and celebrating the deployment of vaccines that will not make a significant dent in community spread for months, and will not stop the U.S. epidemic until we have doubled the number of deaths.

The choice is clear, as it has been all along, except now we have the worst two months of the pandemic right in front of us. We can either double down on precautions or double down on deaths. Remember that young people will be among those killed. And a much larger number of people young today will live out their lives getting reminded every day of the permanent damage the virus did to their bodies.

Celebrate the vaccines, sure, but bear in mind that they will not make a real dent for a long time. Other preventive measures will make a great difference now.

Enjoy the holidays safely, so we can truly have a blowout celebration next year. I’ll see you in January, unfortunately still on Zoom.

Stay safe,

Dr. K