Essential workers- including nurses,
doctors, delivery people, grocery-store employees – people who have risked their
lives in the fight against COVID-19 from the frontlines, have been TIME’s 2020 Person
of the Year Reader Poll, PTI reported.

According to the poll, the essential services
employees won with 6.5% of the total votes, which stretched up to be more than
8 million. The poll, reportedly, had asked people to select the person or group
who had the greatest influence in 2020.

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“Essential
workers beat out some 80 other candidates, including famed figures like (US)
President Donald Trump, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Pope Francis, for the
readers’ top pick,” PTI quoted TIME as saying.

Further
adding to its announcement, TIME said that several other personalities or
groups who stood out during an unprecedented year such as 2020 were also
included in the results.

Anthony
Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases,
who “emerged as a trusted figure amid COVID-19 misinformation”, came out in the
second spot with 5% of votes.

“Fauci
has been on the receiving end of President (Donald) Trump’s public wrath as he
raised the alarm about the US’ failure to contain the virus, and continues to
be one of the most authoritative voices in the country on combating COVID-19,”
TIME was quoted as saying.

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At
the third place were positioned the firefighters, with their attempts at
putting out bushfires ranging all the way from Los Angeles to New South Wales,
Australia.

One
of the highlights of 2020, the Black Lives Matter protestors came in at number
four with leading and triggering a global reaction against systemic racism and
police brutality as well as highlighting the issue of the African American
deaths, including those of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Joe
Biden, the current President-elect and the winner of the US Presidential election
2020, came in at the fifth position.