SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A31
opinionThree months after the initial deaths,
the death toll had surpassed
100,000 people.May 28, 2020
101,000
COVID DEATHSBy mid-April, the death toll was
growing at an inconceivable speed
— worse than being hit by a
9/11-size terrorist attack every
other day.April 16, 2020
34,800
COVID DEATHSBy early April 2020, covid had
already killed more Americans than
all the service members killed in the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
combined.April 2, 2020
7,000
COVID DEATHSThe toll grew exponentially. By late
March, the pandemic’s death toll
surpassed Hurricane Katrina’s,
which hit New Orleans in 2005.March 27, 2020
2,000
COVID DEATHSWithin weeks, covid had killed more
people than all of the plane crashes
in the United States over the
previous two decades.March 23, 2020
800
COVID DEATHSBut testing wasn’t widely available in
the early days of the pandemic, and
information was sketchy. The death
toll was actually much higher around
that time.March 1, 2020
51
COVID DEATHSVaccination campaign begins
Dec. 14, 2020
300,000
COVID DEATHSDespite nationwide lockdowns, the
deaths continued. By the time the
first vaccine shots were distributed
in December 2020, more than
300,000 Americans had died.Why covid is one of the deadliest tragedies in U.S. history
As the omicron variant took over,
covid killed on average more than
2,000 people each day in January
and February of this year — a total
of more than 125,000 deaths in
two months.Feb. 28, 2022
946,000
COVID DEATHSIn 2021, the pandemic killed nearly
476,000 people. More deaths than
strokes, Alzheimer’s disease,
diabetes, influenza and
pneumonia, which combined killed
449,000 in 2020.Dec. 31, 2021
820,000
COVID DEATHSAs vaccinations increased, the
number of deaths fell. In July 2021,
the nation registered 8,600 covid
deaths, the lowest monthly toll in
more than a year.July 31, 2021
613,000
COVID DEATHSOn average, about 2,500 people
died from covid daily during the
winter of 2021. This would be like the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
happening every day, for three
consecutive months.March 20, 2021
542,000
COVID DEATHSThe monthly death toll peaked in
January 2021, when nearly 96,000
people died — more than the
combined number of Americans who
died during the wars in Vietnam
(58,200) and Korea (36,600).Jan. 31, 2021
440,000
COVID DEATHSMay 2022
1,000,000
COVID DEATHS
Historians estimate the death toll for
the American Civil War to be about
750,000 military and 50,000
civilian combined. Covid killed tens
of thousands more people, in about
half the time.Delta variant surge
Oct. 31, 2021
744,000
COVID DEATHSStill, millions resisted the vaccine,
and as the delta variant took over
the country, the virus regained
strength. In September and October,
covid killed more than 100,000
people. At this point, covid’s overall
death toll had surpassed the number
who died in the 1918 influenza
pandemic in the United States.Huricane
Katrina
1,800
deathsAmerican deaths
in the post-9/11 wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan
6,9009/11
attacks
3,000 deaths100,000
100,000
American deaths
in Vietnam and
Korea wars
combined
94,800Americans
killed in
Pearl Harbor
2,400July 2021
8,600 covid
deaths1918
influenza pandemic
675,000 deaths
in the United StatesCovid deaths
in 2021
476,000January and
February 2022
125,000 covid deathsCivil War
800,000 deaths
(Military and
civilian combined)Sources: Washington Post reporting (data on covid deaths); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1918 influenza pandemic death toll and deaths from stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia in 2020);
Watson Institute at Brown University Costs of War project (death toll on post-9/11 wars); Defense Department (American death tolls in Vietnam and Korea). Civil War death toll from J. David Hacker, Binghamton University and James
McPherson, Princeton University. Numbers higher than 100 are rounded.First death reported
The first confirmed covid-19 death
was announced in late February
2020: a man in his 50s from
Washington state.Feb. 29, 2020
1
COVID DEATH