US COVID-19 deaths top 300,000 just as vaccinations begin

https://apnews.com/article/us-coronavirus-deaths-300k-361f7128ba7ae1f4168cf1622555b93f

By ADAM GELLER and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

Dec. 14, 2020

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 Monday just as the country began dispensing COVID-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak.

The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of Hurricane Katrina every day for 5 1/2 months. It is more than five times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. It is equal to a 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days.

•••••

The death toll was reported by Johns Hopkins University from data supplied by health authorities across the U.S. The real number of lives lost is believed to be much higher, in part because of deaths that were not accurately recorded as coronavirus-related during the early stages of the crisis.

Globally the virus is blamed for more than 1.6 million deaths.

Experts say it could take well into spring for the shots and other measures to bring cases and deaths under control in the U.S.

•••••

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/14/946045921/how-do-we-grieve-300-000-lives-lost

How Do We Grieve 300,000 Lives Lost?

December 14, 20203:54 PM ET
Will Stone


•••••

There is no analogue in recent U.S history to the scale of death brought on by the coronavirus, which now runs unchecked in countless towns, cities and states.

It's equivalent to Sept. 11 happening nearly 100 times. One person now dies every 36 seconds from COVID-19.

"We're seeing some of the most deadly days in American history," says Dr. Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

During the last two weeks, COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in the U.S., outpacing even heart disease and cancer.

•••••

Even with a rapid rollout of vaccines, the U.S. may reach a total of more than half a million deaths by the spring, says Ali Mokdad of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Some of those deaths could still be averted. If everyone simply began wearing face masks, more than 50,000 lives could be saved, the institute's model shows. And social distancing could make a difference, too.

No other country has come close to the calamitous death toll in the United States.

•••••

Nurse Jessica Scarlett saw more death in three months of caring for COVID-19 patients in McAllen, Texas, than she did in her previous 15 years as a nurse.

"It was just extremely difficult to see so much death," she says. "We'd see families praying in front of the hospital, praying for us and for their family on our way into work."

It was unlike any nursing she'd ever done before. Almost the entire hospital was on oxygen. Nurses would sit at the foot of the bed because there wasn't any other space.

•••••