While most people suffered financially during the pandemic, billionaires enjoyed an unprecedented run.

Two years ago this week, shortly after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring “A National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Outbreak,” the pandemic death toll was still below 500. But the economic ramifications were already being felt.

But it was a different story for the very rich. They were about to experience a redistribution of wealth that would see their fortunes skyrocket. While the pandemic has been hard on the vast majority of Americans, it’s been nothing but good times for the billionaire class.

Elon Musk was worth $24.6 billion when Trump issued his pandemic proclamation. Today, he is worth $234 billion – an 851-percent spike. During the same period, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin doubled their wealth, to nearly $114 billion and $109 billion, respectively. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos enjoyed a more modest increase in his fortunes, gaining a mere $52.1 billion.

“A new billionaire has been minted every 26 hours.”

Globally, during the course of the pandemic, Oxfam estimates that “[a] new billionaire has been minted every 26 hours.” The growth has been particularly pronounced in the U.S., where Americans for Tax Fairness calculates the $4.6 trillion in assets controlled by this country’s 704 billionaires is “one-third more than the collective $3.4 trillion net worth of the entire bottom half of American society, or some 65 million households.”

Those are some astounding numbers.

Now, consider this fact: “Under current law, none of that wealth gain – essentially income – will likely ever be taxed,” per ATF.

“Working families pay what they owe in taxes each paycheck. Billionaires generally pay little or nothing in taxes on these extraordinary gains in wealth,” says Frank Clemente, executive director of ATF, who wants Congress to start taxing wealth gains as income each year, so that billionaires will start paying their fair share of taxes.

That idea has gained traction in Congress. Last fall, Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, released a new version of his proposed Billionaires Income Tax, which is designed to force billionaires to start paying taxes on a regular basis. If enacted, the plan could raise roughly $550 billion over a decade from just 704 very wealthy taxpayers.

Another plan, the “Make Billionaires Pay Act,” was proposed by Senate Banking Committee chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, in the last Congress. That measure, presented in response to initial reports of spikes in billionaire wealth during the pandemic, sought to impose a one-time 60-percent tax on wealth gains made by billionaires between March 18, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2021.

No matter which approach Congress takes to tax the rich, there is no question that it needs to happen. The pandemic is not over. But the era of pandemic profiteering by the billionaire class can, and should, be finished.

JOHN NICHOLS is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and the author of the new book Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis.