Commentary: Carl Golden - We can defeat virus, but not conspiracy theories Carl Golden FacebookTwitterEmail About 34 million people have fallen ill with COVID-19 in the U.S. and nearly 610,000 have died. Protection is readily at hand, but is going to waste in storage and in some cases while millions refuse to avail themselves of it. Americans, usually among the most responsive people on the globe when confronted by a widespread and out of control contagion, have resisted accepting a highly effective vaccine out of doubts about its safety. Some believe the pandemic is a false narrative, while other think government-sponsored inoculation is a violation of their constitutional right to privacy.