Saturday, March 11, 2023, marked the third year anniversary for the COVID-19 pandemic. The death toll has dramatically changed with the inclusion of the COVID-19 vaccines; though, the deaths still continue to climb with thousands perishing by the day.

     The original virus is still around, and the thousands dying each day has been normalized, even with the threat of a more dangerous variant spreading around the world.

     “New variants emerging anywhere threaten us everywhere,” said COVID-19 virus researcher Thomas Friedrich of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. “Maybe that will help people to understand how connected we are.”

     With information sources drying up, it has been extremely hard to keep track of the pandemic. The virus spreads so rapidly that researchers and scientists are struggling to identify all the locations that the infection has spread. 

     With the pandemic killing 900 to 1000 people a day worldwide, COVID- 19 is still just as deadly as it was on the day it was created. COVID-19 spreads extremely easily, attacking the respiratory system that helps the carrier breathe. Even just a simple breath can infect a completely healthy person. 

     Even though vaccines have been developed, the virus can still spread easily. COVID has already unleashed multiple deadly variants and is still changing thousands of lives by adapting around the vaccines. The virus only continues to spread and adapt, becoming more deadly and transmittable the more it spreads. 

     Though COVID-19 can develop quickly, humans can make treatments twice as quick. Researchers of COVID continue to monitor the virus as it spreads. Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, stated that the current omicron variants have about 100 genetic differences than the original coronavirus. Many of these changes have made it more difficult to counter, and have made it more contagious; however, the worst is likely over due to population immunity. 

     Overall, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 6.8 million people, however scientists are working towards a future where the deaths will drop drastically.