2020 is finally coming to an end, and thanks to a plethora of horrible events, the conclusion of this year is something to look forward to. Everything from COVID-19 and contested presidential elections to massive wildfires and the breakout of wars across the globe has made 2020 a year most would like to forget.

That said, the year wasn’t a complete and total mess. While COVID dominated the news, good things continued to happen. This list highlights the ten best parts of an otherwise horrible year and are presented in no particular order.

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10 Multiple COVID-19 Vaccines Were Developed

COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill as countries closed businesses and enforced stay-at-home orders. The virus impacted every aspect of the economy. By December, it killed more than 1.5 million of the 67+ million people infected with the virus.

Thanks to the focus of money, time, and attention to the problem, several pharmaceutical companies managed to create a vaccine. While it won’t go into widespread distribution in 2020, it will make its way around the world in 2021.

As of December, two primary vaccines were developed by Phizer/BioNTech and Moderna, though AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Novavax continue their Phase 3 clinical trials. The vaccine developed by Phizer/BioNTech was found to be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19, while Moderna’s vaccine is 94.1% effective.

On December 8th, Margaret Keenan, a 91-year-old British woman, was vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, making her the first person in the world to receive it following approval. She is only the first of billions of people who will take the injection, but it’s a massive win in the war against the virus.^[1]

9 A Possible Control For Malaria Was Discovered

Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases on the planet, and nearly half the world’s population lives in areas at risk of transmission. In 2016, malaria caused around 216 million clinical episodes, leading to the deaths of 445,000 people.

It’s often the number one killer in the places it runs rampant, and the World Health Organization estimated that 90% of deaths in 2016 resulted from malaria infections in the WHO Africa Region.

Measures to control mosquito populations have run the gamut of scientific advancement. Ongoing efforts to genetically alter mosquitos are underway, and other measures include the use of pesticides and other means to stop the pests from transmitting malaria to humans.

A new discovery in May could finally offer up a means of taking the fight to malaria directly. A team of Kenyan and British scientists discovered Microsporidia MB, a parasitic microbe that blocks mosquitos from carrying malaria.

The discovery of Microsporidia MB may pave the way in controlling the spread of malaria, making it a significant discovery. Research is underway in developing the discovery into a viable means of controlling the spread of the disease.^[2]

8 The #MeToo Movement Scored A Huge Victory

The #MeToo movement began in 2006 on MySpace, but it wasn’t until 2020 that the movement achieved a truly significant victory. That’s when widespread accusations of sexual-abuse that exposed Harvey Weinstein finally came to fruition with a conviction in February. Weinstein’s legal troubles pushed women from all over the entertainment industry to speak out.

Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” The attention she brought to the situation brought the #MeToo movement to the forefront of sexual assault and sexual harassment in and out of the entertainment industry.

It took a few years, but the #MeToo movement achieved a huge success in 2020 when Weinstein was finally convicted for numerous crimes. On March 11th, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison, which is something his victims believed would never happen.

Weinstein’s conviction resulted from a charge of rape that occurred in a New York City hotel in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman in 2006. While the full range of charges and the massive list of victims didn’t result in additional convictions, his imprisonment achieved a victory over a powerful man whose assaults went unchallenged for decades.^[3]

7 Africa Was Declared Free Of Wild Polio

Most people in the west don’t give polio a second thought, thanks to its eradication in many western nations by 1979. Unfortunately, the virus continued in various parts of the world where vaccination became difficult.

In countries like Nigeria, hundreds of people contracted the virus, with 2006 spiking to 1,100 cases, so worldwide eradication was and is ongoing. While wild polio remains a problem in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it has finally been eradicated in Africa, which is a monumental achievement following decades of work.

The polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1952, and by ’61, the oral polio vaccine came to market. Vaccination efforts were widespread in developed countries, but several less-developed nations in Asia and Africa remained affected by the poliovirus.

Immunization campaigns were launched by the likes of Nelson Mandela, who helped mobilize the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” campaign in 1996. In that year alone, 75,000 children across the continent were paralyzed by the virus, but it’s finally been defeated. 2020 marks the end of the wild poliovirus, which will no longer infect the children of Africa.^[4]

6 Sudan Finally Achieved Peace

The Republic of Sudan has been embroiled in conflict for decades, resulting from linguistic, cultural, and religious differences as well as divisions in political power. The Sudan Civil War erupted in 1983 and wasn’t settled until 2005, but the conflict didn’t truly end.

Sudan was ruled by a dictatorial government led by Omar al-Bashir between 1989 and 2019 when he was ousted via a successful coup d’état.

Throughout al-Bashir’s rule, Sudan was embroiled in human rights abuses and was a sponsor of global terrorism. Sudan’s role in the War in the Darfur region resulted in between 300,000 and 400,000 casualties. The government operated under Sharia law, but that changed, making it possible to achieve peace.

After the ouster of al-Bashir, Sudan formed a new secular government. By August, several major groups signed a preliminary peace deal. Sudan’s People’s Liberation Movement-North came to the table for the first time alongside two factions from the western region of Darfur and one from the south.

The conflicts that were started by Sudan’s former dictator were brought to an end. After decades of fighting, Sudan finally achieved peace. As a new democracy rose in North Africa, peace became the law of the land.^[5]

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5 Multiple Successes In Israeli-Arab Peace

While U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been relentlessly attacked by the media, it has achieved significant gains in the realm of Middle-East peace. Trump’s administration worked as the intermediary for two significant treaties that normalized relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

The Middle-East conflict has been ongoing for decades, but there hasn’t been a normalization of relations between Israel and a Middle-East nation since Jordan in 1994. Before that, Egypt signed a deal in 1979, but 26 years passed before another country stepped up.

The United Arab Emirates and Israel signed the historic Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement on August 13th, 2020, making it the third Arab nation to formally normalize its relations with Israel. On September 15th, Bahrain did the same, when both countries officially signed their respective agreements brokered by the United States.

Efforts continue to bring more Arab nations to the negotiating table, as most have yet to recognize and normalize relations with Israel. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia are among the dozens of nations that have yet to negotiate a similar agreement.^[6]

4 The Falkland Islands Were Declared Landmine-Free

In 1982, the United Kingdom and Argentina engaged in a 10-week-long undeclared war. The conflict resulted from a dispute over two British dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and the South Sandwich Islands. The Falklands War was relatively short, but it was intense, and one of the outcomes was the widespread use of landmines.

Landmines are one of the worst devices employed in warfare due to their wholly indiscriminate and deadly impact on whoever is unlucky enough to trigger one. Minefields from wars fought long ago remain in place for years, and the civilian population often pays the price with the loss of limbs and lives when mines are triggered.

Most countries have since signed treaties limiting or abolishing their use, but many minefields remain. The Falkland Islands became the home of some 30,000 landmines from the war, and it wasn’t until 1998 that a ratified treaty required their removal. Dangerous demining operations were carried out by hand and continued until October 2020.

The government finally declared the Falkland Islands to be mine-free, with the last site, Gypsy Cove, finalizing its last detonation. The beaches of Gypsy Cove had been off-limits since 1982, but they were finally free of the deadly devices, 38 years after they were first placed.^[7]

3 Dog Adoptions Soared, Thanks To COVID

It’s difficult to find anything good in the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the virus has impacted everyone’s lives negatively, some good has come of it. Shelter adoptions are on the rise, thanks to the void many people feel from being trapped in their homes for the bulk of the year.

The adoption of dogs has significantly increased throughout the United States, as locked-in folks find that they have the time and energy to bring a pet into their lives. The pandemic has created a nice boom for breeders, but it’s also increased pet adoptions from shelters, saving those animals from being destroyed.

Some shelters have seen a doubling of the number of adoptions they usually get in a single day. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles saw between ten and 13 adoptions a day in late June.

For the first time in a long time, the “inventory” of shelter animals is running out, and people are being placed on waiting lists to get their hands on a puppy or adult dog. Every animal rescued from a kill shelter is a life saved, so it seems that a little good has come from our exile.^[8]

2 We Found Ways To Adapt And Overcome

COVID-19 may have come along and completely upended our lives, but people have learned to adapt and overcome for the most part. That’s not to say we’ve defeated the virus, but when people found themselves locked inside their homes for months at a time, we found ways to make it work.

Working from home went from being impossible in most businesses to being the norm, and that’s unlikely to change even after the pandemic ends. Things like drive-in movie theaters returned, and drive-in concerts joined in on the fun to become a thing.

People and companies with the know-how to do so changed their production efforts and began making masks for people all over the world, and many continue to do so on a regular basis. Liquor companies began making hand sanitizer to make up the shortfalls, and people from all over the world did what they could to help one another from afar.

While the pandemic may have been entirely negative, at least we found a way to adapt and overcome some of the virus’ impacts on our lives. It hasn’t been easy, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of thousands of people from doing whatever they could to help others.^[9]

1 The Second-Largest Ebola Outbreak Ended

Because of COVID-19, it’s easy for most folks to overlook a smaller pandemic, and one ran rampant through half the year. The second-largest Ebola outbreak began in August 2018, and the Democratic Republic of Congo fought against it well into 2020.

Ebola is far deadlier than COVID-19, but it is possible to stop its spread, as it is, fortunately, not an airborne virus. Still, it’s incredibly contagious. Whenever it arises in Africa, it often kills a large number of people before it dies out. The Kivu outbreak that lasted two years infected 3,453 people, killing 2,280 of them.

The World Health Organization and volunteers from various agencies descended upon the DRC to fight the outbreak. By February 2020, the cases dwindled down to zero. Unfortunately, three cases emerged 52 days later, and the fight continued well into June.

On June 25th, the pandemic was declared “over,” bringing a two-year nightmare to an end. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. That outbreak resulted in more than 11,000 deaths. Since that outbreak, the development of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine has helped to limit the spread to more vulnerable populations.

The vaccine is 97.5% effective at preventing transmission of Ebola, but distribution efforts have been hampered, making widespread vaccination difficult in the region.^[10]

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Every year has something that makes it terrible for a large group of people, but it seems that 2020 wanted to up the game by making everyone’s lives miserable from beginning to end.

This year has been, in a word, difficult. A worldwide pandemic, wildfires, contested elections, and just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, making 2020 one of the worst years of all our lives.

This list highlights ten of the things that made this year one everyone should forget. More bad things happened, but for a large population of folks, these ten things were more than enough.

Except for #10, these aren’t presented in any particular order because they all suck.

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10 Coronavirus

Getting the most obvious out of the way, COVID-19 arose in 2019. The virus spent the following year traveling around the globe, infecting millions of people. Shortly after it was identified, it became clear that the novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China was far more dangerous than the annual flu, and it wasn’t long before it exploded into a worldwide pandemic.

Pandemics aren’t as uncommon as most people think, but they tend to be locked into a regional area. The Ebola outbreak that arose in 2014 was terrible, but its spread was far less pervasive. Most pandemics come and go without taking down the entire planet, but COVID-19 managed to do something that hadn’t been seen since the 1918 Spanish Flu.

That virus infected some 500 million people across the world, leading to 50 million deaths.^[1] Fortunately, COVID-19 isn’t as deadly, but by December, more than 67 million people had been infected, resulting in more than 1.5 million deaths.

COVID-19 didn’t just infect and kill people; it changed the way we live our lives. Businesses were restructured to have their employees work from home. Others shut down entirely without making up lost revenue, and many lost their jobs. COVID-19 won’t disappear on January 1st, but with any luck, it won’t dominate the planet like it did in 2020.^[2]

9 The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Because the United States is such an influential and wealthy nation, the whole world tends to sit up and notice what’s going on when a Presidential election rears its ugly head. Elections in the States tend to be somewhat chaotic, and they begin long before anyone has an opportunity to cast a vote.

The 2020 Presidential election was problematic before it ever occurred. President Trump and his allies spoke out against mail-in ballots, which they said would be used to “steal the election” and make a mess of things. This went on for months, and when the election finally came, Trump lost, and Joe Biden won.^[3]

Unfortunately, that wasn’t entirely clear to everyone, up to and including President Trump. He declared victory on the evening of the vote despite the fact that millions of ballots had yet to be counted. Over the course of the week, he launched lawsuits, challenging the results, and by December, little had changed.^[4]

At this point, the nation and its people are exhausted by Presidential politics. Most elections come and go, and the citizens of the United States are typically happy to see them come to an end. Still, the 2020 Presidential election continues and will likely continue until Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, 2021.

8 The Unexpected Deaths Of Many Celebrated People

Celebrities die every year, and like any death, it’s always sad and often unexpected. Each year, we look back and see that someone who meant something to us has passed away. It’s something that happens, and people learn to deal with the loss for the most part.

That being said, 2020 hit the world with several unexpected deaths of celebrities that came out of nowhere. Granted, COVID-19 killed a lot of people, but the unexpected deaths that hit the hardest were the ones that had nothing to do with the virus, making 2020 another crappy year that took away the people we collectively celebrate.

Kobe Bryant died alongside his 13-year-old daughter and seven others when his helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California in January, and that was just the beginning.^[5] Chadwick Boseman died at 43 from colon cancer, which seemed to come out of nowhere.

Other notable celebrities we lost this year include Alex Trebek, King Von, Eddie Van Halen, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Little Richard, Sean Connery, John Lewis, Regis Philbin, Naya Rivera, Grant Imahara, Kelly Preston, Ian Holm, Nikita Pearl Waligwa, and many more.^[6]

7 China’s Crackdown On Hong Kong

In 1997, Hong Kong was transferred from British control to the People’s Republic of China, which adopted a “one country, two systems” policy regarding its governance. For 99 years under British rule, Hong Kong enjoyed its own economic and administrative systems. China promised that this would continue once the country took over.^[7]

China’s influence over Hong Kong’s governance began almost immediately. In the 23 years since the PRC took over, Chinese loyalists have taken up positions of power in Hong Kong’s government. This helped bridge the gap between Chinese socialism and Hong Kong democracy such that in 2020, It started to look like the “one country, two systems” policy was out.

In April 2019, Hong Kong proposed an extradition bill, which was pushed by PRC loyalists. The bill would make it easy for China to extradite people from Hong Kong it deemed suspicious. Thus began the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protest movement, which ultimately saw a further degradation of Hong Kong’s limited sovereignty.

In mid-2020, China further eroded Hong Kong’s limited government by directly legislating actions, making it easier to completely take over. Protests erupted across Hong Kong, and many nations saw the “one China, two systems” policy erode into little more than “one China,” and a longstanding democracy crumbled.^[8]

6 Renewed Fighting In Nagorno-Karabakh

Before 2020, most people in the west had likely never heard of Nagorno-Karabakh, and because of COVID, that remains mostly true. Regardless, Nagorno-Karabakh was brought into the news when fighting broke out in the latest conflict to plague the contested territory.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is primarily governed by the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. Representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been participating in peace talks regarding the region’s disputed status since 1992, but every once in a while, the conflict heats up.

On September 27th, clashes once more broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia’s armed forces over the territory, resulting in the outbreak of war between the two nations. Armenia and Artsakh instituted martial law in the region, and the conflict escalated to involve Turkey, which provided military support to Azerbaijan.

The outbreak of war in Nagorno-Karabakh threatened the entire region, and Turkey’s involvement brought a NATO nation into the conflict. Fortunately, things quieted down after six weeks, thanks to a Moscow-brokered ceasefire. Unfortunately, the matter remains unsettled. Thanks to the capture and transfer of territory within Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting is likely to eventually resume.^[9]

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5 Thai Prime Minister Refused To Step Down

The government in Thailand has been in turmoil since 2016 when King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away after 70 years of rule. His successor, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, lives in Germany, and for the first time in generations, the people of Thailand are criticizing their monarch.

A law in the country hands out a prison sentence of between three and 15 years for defaming the King, the Queen, the heir-apparent, or the regent, but that isn’t stopping the people from taking to the streets. To make matters worse, the current Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-Ocha, rose to power via a bloodless coup, and after the election in 2019, the people began demanding he step down.

The Asian Network for Free Elections criticized the election, as have the people who demanded his resignation. By October, things escalated. The Queen’s motorcade was allegedly harassed by protesters, which led the PM to declare a state of emergency, banning gatherings.^[10]

Protesters reacted with more protests, and the gatherings have continued to demand the PM resign. Rumors of an attempted coup or military intervention have been spreading while demands for a new government, new constitution, and a reformation of the monarchy run rampant in the streets.^[11]

4 Belarus’ Election Sparked Massive Protests

On August 9th, Belarus held a presidential election, which saw the incumbent leader, Alexander Lukashenko, retain his position for a sixth term. The election results saw 80% of the vote go for the President, but the results were immediately contested.

Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed she won with a decisive victory of 60-70% of the vote, which led her campaign to call for negotiations to resolve the matter through a peaceful transition of power. That didn’t happen, and every member of the council she created for that purpose was arrested or has gone into exile.

Accusations of widespread election fraud have led to protests across the nation, and several other countries have refused to accept the results. The European Union imposed sanctions on Belarusian officials it deemed responsible for “violence, repression, and election fraud.”^[12]

Lukashenko ordered the police to crack down on protesters, and violence erupted across the nation. As of December, the election’s results remain contested, and protests continue as the United Nations called for an end to ongoing human rights violations in the country.

“In the last month, hundreds of people continued to be arrested each week during the demonstrations — with reportedly around 1,000 people on November 8th and 700 on November 15th….Senior citizens have reportedly also been arrested during the pensioners’ peaceful weekly marches.”^[13]

3 Increased Tensions Between Iran And The United States

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, he pulled the United States out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. Subsequently, he hit Iran with sanctions to weaken the nation, and tensions began to degrade. By 2020, things were looking to reach a boiling point, and rumors of Trump’s interest in attacking Iran began making the rounds.

Hostilities between the two nations escalated when Trump authorized the killing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Soleimani. The killing of the commander of the Quds Force all but sent the two nations to war, and shortly after the killing, Iran fired missiles at American bases in Iraq, wounding several American Soldiers.

As tensions continued to rise, Iran “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing 176 people.^[14] It seemed as if the two nations would engage in an all-out shooting-war, but Trump responded diplomatically with more sanctions, ultimately cooling tensions for the time being.^[15]

If a full-blown war were to break out between the U.S. and Iran, its impact would be felt worldwide. Iran sits on the Strait of Hormuz, which is the gateway for oil exports from the Persian Gulf. Any conflict would threaten commerce worldwide, which would impact everything from agriculture and transportation to medicine and vaccine distribution.

2 The Australian Brushfires

It may seem like it happened eons ago, but the year began with the 2019-2020 Australian brushfire season, and it was intense. The fires started in June 2019 and carried on until May 2020, but because of COVID-19, a worldwide concern became something of an afterthought despite being one of the worst wildfire seasons ever recorded.

The fires burned tens of millions of acres, which caused entire cities to evacuate. Thirty-four people were killed as a result of the fires, and while any human death is a tragedy, various ecosystems across Australia were so severely damaged, some may never recover.

Several species that were already threatened may have been driven to extinction, while other species that were ‘of concern’ have been moved closer to being completely destroyed. It has been estimated that as many as three billion animals were killed or displaced by the fires.^[16]

Up to one-third of the koala population was killed by the fires. Between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals died, and conservationists want the species declared endangered on an emergency basis.^[17] The damage caused by the 2019-2020 Australian brushfire season was widespread, and its effects are still being measured.

1 George Floyd’s Death

Gorge Floyd was an African-American man who was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.^[18]

As a result, Floyd died, and the whole thing was caught on video. African-Americans who were already angry about the widespread violence and police brutality many in their community have suffered under the boots of police oppression took to the streets in protest.

They weren’t alone, as people from all walks of life came out to protest police violence, as they demanded that Black Lives Matter.

Floyd’s murder was the tipping point that pushed hundreds of thousands to take to the streets, and it didn’t go well. Many police responses came down on protesters with more violence brought by rubber bullets, tear gas, and beatings.

The BLM movement may have begun in the United States years before Floyd’s death, but it wasn’t long before people across the world took to the streets to protest similar forms of oppressive violence. Statues were pulled down, people got hurt, and while the movement may have brought the problem to more people’s attention, it has yet to result in widespread reform.^[19]

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