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WASHINGTON: The United States crossed the staggering 500,000 milestone of COVID-19 deaths on Monday (February 22) just over a year after the coronavirus pandemic claimed its first known casualty in the country.
The United States had recorded more than 28 million COVID-19 cases and 500,054 lives lost as of Monday afternoon, according to a Reuters tally of public health data, though daily cases and hospitalizations have fallen to the lowest level since before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
About 19 percent of the world’s total COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the US, a huge figure given that the nation accounts for just 4 percent of the world’s population.
The United States also has one of the highest death rates per 100,000 inhabitants, surpassed only by a few countries such as Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy.
With a total death toll of more than 500,000, one in 673 US residents has succumbed to the pandemic.
The El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office staff closes the mobile morgues before moving bodies in bags labeled “COVID” from the refrigerated trailers to the morgue office in El Paso, Texas, on Nov. 23. November 2020 (File Photo: Reuters / Ivan Pierre Aguirre). )
“AWESOME” NUMBERS
“These numbers are staggering,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of President Joe Biden’s top infectious disease advisers, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “If you look back historically, we have fared worse than almost any other country, and we are a rich and highly developed country.”
In an interview with Reuters, Fauci said on Monday that the pandemic hit the United States when the country was divided by political divisions in which wearing a mask became a political statement rather than a public health measure.
“Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,” Fauci said, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom battled the virus.
“However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the highest percentage of deaths and be the most affected country in the world,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the president’s top advisers. Joe Biden. “That I think shouldn’t have happened.”
While the United States has about 4% of the world’s population, it has recorded nearly 20% of all deaths from COVID-19.
The country’s poor performance reflects the lack of a unified national response last year, when the administration of former President Donald Trump left states to their own devices to address the biggest public health crisis in a century, and Trump often ran into conflict. with yours. health experts.
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“REMEMBER EACH PERSON AND THE LIFE THEY LIVED”
In a proclamation honoring the dead, President Joe Biden ordered the United States flag to fly at half mast over public buildings and grounds until sunset Friday.
“On this solemn occasion, we reflect on his loss and his loved ones left behind,” Biden said in the proclamation. “We as a nation must remember them so that we can begin to heal, unite and find purpose as a single nation to defeat this pandemic.”
The bells rang at the Washington National Cathedral to honor the lives lost, ringing 500 times to symbolize the 500,000 deaths.
“As we recognize the magnitude of this mass death in America, let us remember each person and the life they lived,” Biden said in a grim speech at the White House after the bells sounded.
“The son who called his mom every night just to check in. The father, the daughter who lit up his world. The best friend who was always there … The nurse who made his patients want to live.”
Moments later, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their spouses appeared in black clothing and masks. They fell silent as the hymn “Amazing Grace” was played.
Refrigerated tractor trailers used to store bodies of deceased people are seen in a temporary morgue during the COVID-19 outbreak in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 13, 2020 (File Photo: Reuters / Brendan McDermid).
AVERAGE DROPS OF LIFE HOPE
By 2020, the virus has dropped a full year to the average life expectancy in the US, the biggest decline since World War II.
Sweeping the country early last year, America’s epidemic had claimed its first 100,000 lives in May.
The death toll doubled in September as the virus receded and rose during the summer months.
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Americans weary of the pandemic, like so many around the world, grappled with the mountain of losses that COVID-19 brought when health experts warned of another resurgence of the coronavirus during the coming fall and winter months.
Americans lost mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, brothers, sisters and friends to the virus. For many, the pain was amplified by the inability to see loved ones in hospitals or nursing homes and by the physical distancing imposed by the authorities to slow the spread of the virus.
Mariachi musicians perform during the funeral of Rudy Cruz Sr., who died of COVID-19, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in El Paso, Texas on November 25, 2020 (File Photo: Reuters / Ivan Pierre Aguirre) .
By December, the death toll had reached 300,000 as the United States entered a deadly post-holiday season that would claim 230,000 lives in less than three months.
With figures that made the terrible death toll at the beginning of the pandemic pale in comparison, the deaths recorded between December and February accounted for 46 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the US, even as vaccines finally finally hit. were available and a monumental effort was made to vaccinate the American public on the go.
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Despite the grim milestone, the virus appears to have loosened its grip as COVID-19 cases in the United States fell for the sixth week in a row.
However, health experts have warned that variants of the coronavirus initially discovered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil could trigger another wave that threatens to reverse recent positive trends.
Fauci cautioned against complacency and urged Americans to continue with public health measures such as wearing masks, physical distancing, and avoiding crowds as officials rush to inoculate the population, particularly with these new, more contagious variants in circulation.
“We have to be very careful and not just say, ‘Okay, we’re done now, we’re done,'” he told ABC.
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