[imagesource: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images]

Surely TIME’s Person of the Year is the healthcare workers that are risking their lives daily in the battle against COVID-19?

No, but they did make the shortlist.

The three unsuccessful finalists were frontline healthcare workers and Dr Anthony Fauci, the racial justice movement, and President Donald Trump.

TIME’s Person of the Year isn’t always a good thing, with Adolf Hitler winning back in 1938.

Each year, the outlet chooses a person, a group, an idea, or an object that “for better or for worse” has had the most impact on the events over the 12 months.

Last year, Greta Thunberg won, which caused almost as much outrage on the conservative right as this year’s winner.

Or winners, should I say, because the honour has gone to US President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.

When Donald Trump takes a break from tweeting baseless voter fraud accusations, we should expect a zinger calling TIME ‘lame’, or some other petulant insult.

Here’s the TIME cover, and you can read TIME’s full story on the duo here:

For a brief description of the rationale behind picking Biden and Harris, here’s the BBC:

“For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year,” wrote TIME’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal.

The announcement came with this video feature:

I’m still going with healthcare workers on this one, although a Biden / Harris presidency will ensure that the jobs of everyone battling COVID-19 are made easier.

Trump’s abject failings in curbing the spread of the virus will only look worse in years to come.

Person of the Year isn’t the only category announced.

Guardians of the Year were Dr Fauci and frontline health workers, along with Porche Bennett-Bey, Assa Traoré, and racial-justice organisers.

Businessperson of the Year was Zoom’s founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan, LeBron James was named Athlete of the Year, and South Korean pop group BTS won Entertainer of the Year.

[sources:time&bbc]