By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
Dec. 14 marked the one-year anniversary of the first COVID vaccine that was given in the United States.
The first dose was given to a New York nurse it was heralded as a “game-changer” and “savior” around the world as the global pandemic was about to enter its second year.
However, one year later the national vaccination rate is only at 61% and the U.S. has the largest death toll in the world as it topped 800,000 this week. More than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available virtually free across the country.
The U.S. accounts for about four percent of the world’s population, but some 15% of the 5.3 million known Coronavirus deaths around the world since the pandemic began in China two years ago. The actual death toll is projected to be much higher due to cases that were overlooked or concealed.
As the global pandemic nears the end of its second-year known virus cases rose above 50 million and cases are rising again with many hospitals across the U.S. stretched to their limits with COVID patients as well as the uncertainty of the new variant.
More than 1,200 people in the country are dying from COVID each day according to the Center For Disease Control. The pace of deaths has picked up and is moving faster than at any time other than last year’s winter surge.

Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.