Today, the United States recorded its 975,000th death from COVID-19. According to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, there have been 975,837 deaths due to COVID-19 out of 79,888,364 cases representing a mortality rate of 1.2%.
There is some good news here. When the U.S. reached 950,000 deaths on February 28th, it had added 25,000 deaths in just 13 days. I feared that we would hit the 1 million death mark on March 26th - two days from now. Instead, it took 24 days to go from 950,000 to 975,000 deaths.
With that said, it is cold comfort to the families of the 25,000 plus people who have passed away of COVID over the past 24 days.
There will also come the inevitable day when the United States surpasses 1 million COVID deaths. It won't come on March 26th, but it will come soon enough. If the rate of death remains constant then we would surpass that ignominious on April 17th. Perhaps the death rate will slow down even further. Who knows? That day might not come until May. Yet it is only a matter of time.
And when it does come there will be a myriad of stories. But it will only get a moment's attention if even that. After all, the COVIDIOT crowd including defeated former President Trump have claimed the death toll has been inflated (at least while he was still in office).
Of course, much of America and the world's attention has been focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and for good cause with fears that this war could escalate and involve the use of chemical and nuclear weapons.
But COVID-19 is the greatest single catastrophe in American history. It has killed more Americans than any other act of war, natural disaster or disease we have ever faced. Even if we have found a way to manage COVID-19 it's impact on this country is going to be felt for many years to come no matter how many of us wish it would disappear like a miracle or pretend it doesn't exist.
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