The US death toll from the coronavirus exceeded 400,000 on Tuesday in the waning hours in office of President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis has been judged by public health experts as a particular failure.
The total number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is almost equal to the number of Americans who died in World War II. It’s about the people of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Tampa, Florida; or New Orleans. It corresponds to the Sea of Humanity that was in Woodstock in 1969.
It’s just a little less than the estimated 409,000 Americans who died in 2019 from stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, the flu, and pneumonia combined.
And the virus is far from done with the US, even with the advent of the vaccines that could finally conquer the outbreak: A much-cited model by the University of Washington projects the death toll to reach nearly 567,000 on May 1.
While the Trump administration has been credited with Operation Warp Speed, the crash program to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccines, Trump has repeatedly downplayed the threat, mocked masks, lashed out at lockdowns, promoted unproven and unsafe treatments, undermined scientific experts and little compassion for the victims .
Even his own fight with COVID-19 seemed to leave him unchanged.
The White House defended the government.
“We deplore every life lost in this pandemic, and thanks to the President’s leadership, Operation Warp Speed has led to the development of multiple safe and effective vaccines in record time, something many said would never happen,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said. .
President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday.
The country reached the 400,000 milestone in just under a year. The first known deaths from the virus in the US were in early February 2020, both in Santa Clara County, California.
While the census is based on figures provided by government agencies around the world, the actual death toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part due to inadequate testing and cases that were initially inaccurately attributed to other causes.
It took four months to reach the first 100,000 deaths. It took a little over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000.