Patrick Leahy: “for more than a year, our country has been in the grip of an unprecedented health and economic catastrophe. It was…”

“for more than a year, our country has been in the grip of an unprecedented health and economic catastrophe. It was January, if we recall, of last year when the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was found in our country. Since then, more than 444,000 of our fellow citizens have died, more than 26 million have been infected, millions have lost their jobs, and every day there are another thousands more deaths. A year ago, former President Trump boasted--just think of this. This is just a year ago. He said that there were only 15 COVID-19 cases in this country, and he said that soon the number would be zero. For months, he told the American people there was nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about? Tell the 26 million who have been infected, the nearly half a million who have died, because it is obvious to anyone paying attention to the country's public health experts that, unfortunately, he had no idea what he was talking about. But, of course, he wasn't interested in what anyone else had to say. All of us can see so many unforgiveable mistakes, so many missed opportunities in dealing with this virus that we and the world are now facing a calamity unlike anything in modern history. The last administration, rather than unite the country against the virus, chastised people for wearing masks. They vilified Governors who tried to stop the spread of the virus.…”