Second, for all the money we spend on healthcare, we spend a fraction of that on public health, with estimates between 1.5 to 2.5 cents spent on public health for each dollar on healthcare. For the past two years, people have been frustrated by the public health response to COVID-19, but with these facts in mind, perhaps we can agree that the expectations here have been like asking a 30-year-old used car to perform like a Ferrari just out of the showroom. With a public health system under-funded, under-staffed keeping America healthy is almost impossible to do.

And what the current response to COVID-19 in the U.S. tells me is that things are not likely to get better. While the White House and its surrogates trumpet “we have the tools” to combat the pandemic, they ignore the fact that in the U.S., access to these tools is not guaranteed and once again your personal resources determine your fate. The most vociferous of these commentators, like the New York Times’ David Leonhardt, even castigate those trying to keep themselves and those they love safe as barriers to getting back to normal. While the U.S. President and these well-known individuals have access to everything they need, too many Americans are on their own. This is policy set from privilege. The only thing wrong right now for them is that we are not getting back to normal fast enough.

The rest of 2022 offers us more deaths and hospitalizations, millions of new infections with some riding them out because they have what they need to do that, some struggling as even a minor infection sends their households in to chaos and some sadly saddled with long COVID, which most of our policymakers are trying their hardest to ignore. Meanwhile in the background are the ghosts, the missing Americans that Jacob Bor has brought out into the light as much as America would like to bury them, their memories, our shame.