(OPINION) PNW – 2020 has been a year that none of us will ever forget. We experienced the worst global pandemic in 100 years, we witnessed the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, civil unrest erupted in major cities all over America, and we had one of the wildest presidential elections in our history. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet year. For a few moments, let’s take one more look back at the past 12 months. The following are 20 numbers from 2020 that are almost too crazy to believe…
#1 When 2020 began, nobody had ever heard of “COVID-19” because that term had not even been invented yet. But by the end of the year, there had been more than 83 million confirmed cases around the globe and more than 1.8 million deaths.
Here in the United States, there have been more than 20 million confirmed cases so far and more than 350,000 deaths according to the official numbers. Of course, nobody is sure if we can trust the official numbers or not, because just recently a politician in Austria showed that a cup of Coca-Cola can test positive for COVID-19.
#2 All of the masks that we have been wearing and discarding during this pandemic have taken a heavy toll on the environment. According to one study, more than 1.5 billion (with a “b”) masks will be dumped into the oceans of the world this year alone.
#3 The lockdowns that our politicians instituted to control the spread of COVID-19 resulted in an unemployment shock that was absolutely unprecedented. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than 70 million new claims for unemployment benefits. That means that we have been averaging well over a million new claims per week since the first lockdowns went into effect.
To put that into perspective, the old all-time record for a single week was just 695,000 and that was set all the way back in 1982. During this pandemic, we have been above that old record every single week, and now unemployment claims are starting to rise higher once again.
#4 Almost four out of every ten Americans do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but the federal government is going to spend 250 million dollars on an “information campaign” that is designed to convince them otherwise.
#5 The civil unrest that erupted all over America following the death of George Floyd ultimately sparked a crime wave that seems as if it will never end. According to an analysis of data from 57 big-city police departments, the number of murders in those cities is up 36.7 percent compared to last year. In quite a few of those cities, new all-time records are being established in 2020, and many Americans are anticipating even more violence in 2021. READ MORE
