COVID-19 has been ravaging the United States since March. The pandemic opened the country’s eyes to the government’s and health care system’s lack of preparation for such a threat. For several months, the U.S. had “shortages of key equipment needed to care for critically ill patients including ventilators and personal protective equipment” in hospitals, according to The New England Journal of Medicine. Medical staff resorted to reusing personal protective equipment or, even worse, making their own. 

America’s population of 328.2 million poses another problem. When a vaccine is created, how will it be efficiently distributed? Rick Bright, the past director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, estimates that it will take anywhere from 650 to 850 million needles and syringes to vaccinate the U.S. alone. Yet Bio World points out that the Strategic National Stockpile carries “about 15 million needles and syringes,… about 2% of what will be needed.” 

Children are taught that there are three things a person needs to survive: water, food, and shelter. For many in America, the third is no guarantee any longer.

To be fair, housing has been in crisis in the U.S. for decades, but the virus has not been kind to the problem. On July 31 of this year, the weekly $600 the federal government gave to supplement the unemployed ended. A new benefits deal is still in the works in our nation’s capital, but time is wasting.

New York Times writer Conor Dougherty, who specializes in housing and business, shared a frightening statistic: “One in four tenants spent more than half their income on rent.”

Experts fear that, without another federal aid package, masses could face eviction.

In the wake of the economic collapse, 39 states created some sort of eviction moratorium. Some cities went as far as banning landlords from shutting off tenants’ utilities. In addition, Congress passed the CARES act, which forbids landlords from evicting tenants for 120 days. The Urban Institute explains that this only applies to those who rent from “properties secured by federally backed mortgages, which account for one in four rental properties.”

Landlords are desperate and quickly losing patience. 

At the beginning of the year, environmentalists from around the world were hopeful that the lockdown would help to mitigate the effects of climate change. As the quarantine continued, wildlife roamed in places it hadn’t for years and air quality improved.  Unfortunately, however, it was short-lived. 

With the surge in single-use plastic due to fears over the spread of COVID-19, conservationists rightfully expect an increase in aquatic pollution. An article by The Guardian, “More Masks than Jellyfish,” features an interview with a member of France’s nonprofit Opération Mer Propre, Joffrey Peltier. The group works to conserve our oceans and wildlife by picking up litter along the coastline. They are now finding face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer containers, along with the usual cans and bottles, in coastal areas. In a letter to France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Peltier states that “with a lifespan of 450 years, these masks are an ecological timebomb.”

A more immediate climate fear comes from the wildfires destroying the west coast. These lethal fires have a tendency to demolish everything in their path, devastating people’s livelihoods.

Perhaps the silver lining is that many Americans are now coming to understand the effects of climate change. Nevertheless, as the situation continues to grow more complicated, it’s clear that combating climate change will take more than mere understanding.  The smoke content from the western fires in the air put seven states—Washington, Utah, Oregon, Arizona, California, Idaho, and Nevada—at an elevated risk of fire weather.

The Black Lives Matter movement gained extensive support after a horrific video was released back in May. In the footage, a Georgia man named Ahmaud Aubery was shot while jogging by a white man who was self-policing his neighborhood. The outrage from this act of injustice helped the modern civil rights movement quickly gain momentum.

After the details of Aubery’s murder spread around the nation, more cases came to the surface, including the murder of Breonna Taylor in mid-March. On May 25th, George Floyd was brutally murdered by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a store clerk claimed he had passed counterfeit money. These examples of American police brutality sparked nationwide protests and initiated calls to “defund the police.”

Some citizens see the unrest as destructive, while others see it as a moral duty to create change.

Last month, Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old unarmed man, was shot by police in front of his own children. The people of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the setting of the altercation, took to the streets.

“The mayhem followed a familiar pattern, with daytime protests devolving into night-time looting and arson,” said James S. Robbin of USA Today.

On the other hand, peaceful protests have been utilized by many groups in order to speak out against police brutality. Video footage of an NYPD police car striking down protesters gained national attention the first week of June. Another video surfaced of a man bleeding from his skull after being pushed over by cops.

Even non-participants have been hurt by the police during these protests. Photojournalist Linda Tirado was covering a Black Lives Matter protest when she was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet. Fortunately, Tirado’s right eye was spared, so the injury was not career-ending. Over two dozen journalists have experienced similar violence at such demonstrations.

At this point in an election year, it’s difficult to go a significant amount of time without some reminder of the upcoming election. TV commercials, ads, texts, calls, and yard signs feel ever-present. Americans have November 3rd marked off to cast their votes, but this year comes with its own set of challenges. 

As shown by the primary elections that took place earlier this year, lines may be outrageously long—especially in minority neighborhoods. Earlier in 2020, a white elections consultant suggested closing polling locations in ten of Georgia’s largest black populated counties, and the southern state followed through. With the decrease in polling areas, lines are destined to stay long.

On the other hand, absentee ballots are available to those who don’t want to contend with the lines. This process, however, has revealed itself to be quite difficult. The U.S. Postal Service began removing mailboxes around the country, which Ernie Swanson, a spokesperson for USPS, explained as a result of “declining mail volume.”

With all the uncertainty this year created, Americans are understandably uneasy. President Trump’s untrue claims about mail-in voting have the potential to do unprecedented harm. According to a CNN article, election experts concluded that mail-in voting and electoral fraud “are exceedingly rare in the U.S.” Even U.S. intelligence officials found “no evidence that Russia or other countries are attempting to produce fake ballots or otherwise undermine mail-in voting.”

Trump’s opposition to mail-in ballots may ominously foretell his refusal to accept an election outcome he doesn’t favor.

What if this year was necessary? Perhaps it has revealed just how high the stakes are. If the United States improves, even a little, upon each of the issues that has made the year so difficult, wouldn’t you say 2020 was worth it?