I understand these comparisons, but I've figured out why they bother me: Soldiers die in battle, trained & prepared, at least a little, for death.

The 201,046 Americans now dead from COVID-19 did not train for death. This is an entire city of civilians, erased from the earth. https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1308433169788604417

They weren't warriors. They weren't defending this nation or its ideals. They weren't armed. They weren't trained or offered support or given orders or a purpose.

The 201,046 Americans now dead from COVID-19 died meaningless deaths, abandoned wholesale by this nation's leaders.

If we want to honor the 201,046 Americans now dead from COVID-19 - & the tens of thousands yet to die - we must begin to grapple with the meaningless nature of the deaths to which our leaders abandoned us. They were not warriors - they were just folks. And they deserved to live.

The thing about this thread is that I flipped the numbers, as I occasionally do. It's 201,406 Americans now dead - we were probably at 201,046 yesterday. Tomorrow it'll be 202,046, or 202,406. We'll be at a quarter million by Halloween or so.