Three years after the deadly pandemic brought the United States to a screeching halt — shutting down businesses, industries, government offices, schools and much of daily life as we had known it — memories of how terrible those days were have begun to fade a little.
Before politicians and the general public become too outraged over reports of the staggering amount of fraud in federal COVID-19 relief programs, we should remember the enormous need in those dark months when businesses were in danger of closing for good and people thrown out of work were scrambling to take care of themselves and their families.
Yes, recent reports that billions of dollars of federal COVID-19 funds were stolen or misspent are shocking and appalling. A recent report from The Associated Press says that fraudsters may have stolen more than $280 billion in COVID relief aid, while as much as another $123 billion was wasted or used wrongly.
Those losses together come to about 10% of the $4.2 trillion in COVID relief aid the federal government doled out. There’s about another trillion dollars in aid yet to be paid.
Sadly, it’s not surprising that some people would take advantage of a devastating pandemic that killed more than 1.13 million Americans, put enormous pressure on hospitals and medical workers, and stressed our economy almost to the breaking point. Some were hardened criminals and gangsters. Others just saw an opportunity and thought it was OK to game the system.