On July 4,2021, Americans celebrated with a renewal sense that we were crushing the Coronavirus and the president and encouraged us to enjoy the fireworks with friends and family as a way to mark our "independence" from Covid-19. "This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss," he said. But his optimism, and my own, were misplaced. Pandemic Post II picks up six weeks after the First Volume wrapped up when it became clear we were not 'crushing' anything except, perhaps, our collective psycho.