The it’s-always-darkest-before-the-dawn edition. On Thursday, January 14, 238,390 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed – up 27 percent from two weeks prior. An additional 3,973 deaths were reported – up 39 percent from two weeks ago (but down from 4,400 reported on Tuesday, January 12). The national COVID-19 death toll is approaching 400,000. Still, hope is on the horizon in two forms. First, President-elect Biden Thursday evening announced a robust proposal to corral COVID-19 and resurrect our sputtering economy. Also: after a sluggish rollout, reports suggest that the number of vaccines administered daily is on the rise. As of late this week, 28 states plus D.C. were offering the vaccine to Americans 65 years of age and older.

“With COVID-19 cases surging and U.S. deaths approaching 400,000, President-Elect Biden is meeting our national emergency with caring and determination.  His American Rescue Plan has the necessary scope to halt our current decline and protect millions from hardship and harm. The President-Elect and his team have done the clear-eyed analysis to know that we cannot free ourselves of this combined health and economic disaster without ramping up an ambitious schedule of vaccinations and disease prevention alongside a robust package to help our people meet basic needs

Yesterday, we witnessed a shocking act of domestic terrorism that should shake every one of us to our core. At this moment, we can be nothing less than honest about what we saw. A conspiracy-crazed mob, incited by lies championed by the 45th President of the United States — at a rally organized to disrupt the solemn last step in the constitutional process of validating the federal election — invaded our sacred seat of American democracy, the People’s House – the United States Capitol building.

Last weekend, 45 faith leaders signed a letter encouraging President-elect Biden to include expansion of low-income tax credits in his soon-to-be-released COVID-19 relief package. “Of the many challenges you face, one of the most urgent is helping all Americans emerge from the chaos, despair, and economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus-19 pandemic,” the letter states. “The pandemic has caused untold economic devastation to millions of Americans, particularly Brown and Black Americans, and while there are many policy options at your disposal we believe that expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) can play an instrumental role in assisting millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet.”