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In 2015, Bill Gates wrote an article in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the threat of “the next epidemic.” He warned of an airborne pathogen that would spread through global travel routes, spark panic, overwhelm the supply of medical commodities, set off a technological race with death, drastically reduce global wealth and fill millions of graves. (Michael Gerson, 5/10)

Barely has an entire population of young people suffered collectively with what is known as an adverse childhood experience, or ACE, a traumatic event with potentially lasting impacts on mental and physical health. It is safe to say the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest adverse experience shared by many people, joining such historical events as the Sept. 11 attacks, the Great Depression and both world wars. Typically, ACEs are experienced individually or within families, such as domestic violence, neglect and parents who divorce, die or abuse substances. (Sarah Breithaupt, 5/10)

As the United States surpasses the tragic milestone of 1 million deaths from covid-19, we must decide where we go from here. The bad news is that this coronavirus is here to stay. It will continue to cause surges fueled by new and possibly even more contagious variants. The White House is projecting that as many as 100 million Americans could contract covid-19 this fall and winter. (Leana S. Wen, 5/10)

On Feb. 14, 2020, President Donald Trump spoke to a White House audience about the virus then engulfing Wuhan, China. “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it,” he said. “It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.” But we weren’t in good shape. A little more than two years later, the United States is passing the ghastly milestone of at least 1 million deaths from the pandemic virus, and still counting. (5/9)

Across the United States, more than 1 million of our family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and complete strangers are now gone, ripped from our lives by an unsparing pandemic that has battered us for two full years. We are justifiably exhausted. But amid the desperate sprint to move on and put the trauma of this nightmare behind us, we are also at risk of making a tragic and avoidable mistake: As a nation, we are failing to process the grief and loss that surrounds us. We have a responsibility to remember the lost. (Alex Goldstein, 5/10)