NBC’s Lester Holt suggests ‘free will’ is partly to blame for the 1 million COVID deaths

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt closed his newscast on Wednesday with a somber monologue about the 1 million COVID death milestone that was just reached in the U.S., but suggested that “free will” is partly to blame for the devastating death toll.

“Today’s soul-crushing milestone comes just as we begin to peek out from behind our masks lower our guard willing the pandemic to be over,” Holt told viewers while showing COVID-era images, including caskets. “But the slowly rising tally of the dead won’t let it be and forces us to confront some tough questions like how many of those 1 million deaths might have been prevented.”

“We counted on the tools, the vaccines, the masks, the distancing, but we forgot about the unpredictability of free will, mistrust in science and simple human behavior,” the anchor said as images of anti-mandate protests appeared on-screen.

Holt pondered “what such a moment called for” as the U.S. reached various death toll milestones, saying the pandemic has “changed our rituals of death and grief” by keeping loved ones physically separated, perhaps only connected virtually. – READ MORE