Commentary: The incalculable damage wrought by COVID-19 is everywhere

The ledger on COVID-19 has been closed for 2023. But the contagion is not, as some have proclaimed, “over,” with the Upper Midwest dealing with a mini-surge that will probably continue through January. Because reporting and interest in general have tailed off, no one has a good idea how many cases are actually occurring, but there are enough that hospitalizations have doubled since autumn.

However, for most, COVID-19 is no longer the serious infection it was in the four previous years. After more than 1 million deaths, the actual number was just over 70,000 in 2023 and slowing in the second half of the year, as the effects of immunity and vaccination now protect the population.