SUMMARY: This Thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to families who are going to have an empty seat at the table because of COVID-19.

Over 2100 people died from COVID-19 yesterday as the void in leadership continues. Maybe I’m too empathetic, but these people are someone’s dad, father, son, or daughter, and many of these deaths could have been prevented if only we had leadership who put as much emphasis on prevention as they did on “fake news.”

On Facebook, local newspaper feeds are full of comments from people who feel that wearing a mask is an infringement of their rights or that getting COVID-19 is no big deal while ignoring flu deaths. The level of stupidity baffles the imagination.

To date, I haven’t seen one pharmaceutical company emphasize the importance of wearing masks or social distancing on ALL their websites. While a vaccine for COVID-19 may be close there are still a lot of questions about efficacy, distribution, and how many people will choose to be vaccinated.

While people within pharma feel that trust is being established because of their hard work on treatments and vaccines, they forget that trust is not just given blindly because of one-act…it has to be earned consistently.

I wish all my readers a very good holiday and remember when saying grace or saying thanks to remembering the families of the 250,000 people who have become statistics in the battle against an unforgiving virus.