That’s how I feel as the virus grows worse and worse around the world and US vaccination efforts are feeble.

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US COVID News
“President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on Saturday that he was ‘always going to lead with science and truth’ as he announced top science and technology officials on his White House staff, reaffirming trust in the kind of expert research that the Trump administration often ignored or disdained. ‘This is how we are going to, God willing, overcome the pandemic and build our country back better than it was before,’ Biden said on Saturday while announcing the top members of his White House science team.” New York Times

Biden’s voice is a voice of hope. At the same time, today’s pandemic statistics are too grim for me to even want to think about. They destroy hope.

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Maybe if our country wasn’t in such turmoil, with those who want to overthrow the government, I’d still feel more of the hope that I felt back in November when Biden first won the presidential election.

But my optimism dimmed on January 6th, 2021. Conspiracy mongers, doing everything possible to destroy America’s democracy, make this dark tunnel in history even darker. It now almost seems without end. How can we end this pandemic when reality deniers insist the severity of the disease is nothing more than a “hoax”? How can we end the pandemic if people don’t care if others die? How can we end the pandemic when so many don’t believe in science? Far too many Americans truly are existing in some sort of weird alternative reality. As a result, all Americans will suffer. I fear that Joe Biden and his team can’t save our country alone. It takes the American people working together to win this war against a worsening disease that is capable of killing a large percentage of our country’s (and the world’s) population.

For the first time since the pandemic started, I am now starting to truly feel boxed in. Even when I'm able to get outdoors.