
Way to go! You did it, COVID deniers!
At the beginning of 2020, people were all over social media debating the severity of the incoming COVID pandemic:
"COVID has a 99% percent survival rate!"
"Don't worry, COVID has killed fewer people than Jeffery Dahmer!"
"What, you mean the China Virus? That will never make landfall here."

In good news: If you compare the number of people who died from COVID against the total US population, the virus has a greater than 99% survival rate! It's 99.7%! That's only a third of a percent of Americans! That's such a tiny percentage, and it works out to the equally small ... one million Americans dead from COVID in the last two years.
As 2020 marched on and some people wanted to take severe measures to try to blunt the spread of COVID, other people had a more optimistic outlook.
"We shouldn't do anything to change our lives over a virus."
"Why don't we only quarantine the old/sick/fat/not-me?"
"COVID will go away in the summer, when it gets warmer."
These talking points were fantastic. Not for Americans, but for the virus, which then took the lives of 340,000 people in 2020. It became the third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.
As time went on, however, scientists all over the world were working on a vaccine. Something that could help stop the spread of the virus, and all we needed was to get the population 80-90% vaccinated.
Problems pop up there, as well:
"The vaccine was developed too quickly!"
"You mean the vaccine isn't 100% effective? Pass"
"No way, They're putting microchips under your skin to track your every move!"
"I already got COVID, so I know I won't need the shot."
We never made it to 2/3rds of the population taking two shots.
So, congratulations, COVID deniers, you did it! The pandemic is over, and most of you didn't have to lift a finger to get your way. COVID is endemic now, where it will cycle through the population in different flare-ups and variants, possibly forever, like the flu but worse.
Your brave inaction and noble contrarianism can be celebrated in this country that's now a third of a percent smaller.