US deaths from coronavirus surpass 100,000 milestone
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. surpassed a jarring milestone Wednesday in the coronavirus pandemic: 100,000 deaths.
That
number is the best estimate and most assuredly an undercount. But it
represents the stark reality that more Americans have died from the
virus than from the Vietnam and Korea wars combined.
“It is a grim
milestone,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health
policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington. “It’s a striking
reminder of how dangerous this virus can be.”
Worldwide, the
virus has infected more than 5.6 million people and killed over 350,000,
with the U.S. having the most confirmed cases and deaths by far,
according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe has recorded
about 170,000 deaths, while the U.S. reached more than 100,000 in less
than four months.
The true death toll from the virus, which
emerged in China late last year and was first reported in the U.S. in
January, is widely believed to be significantly higher, with experts
saying many victims died of COVID-19 without ever being tested for it.
At
the end March, the United States eclipsed China with 3,500 deaths. Now,
the U.S. has not only the highest death total, but the highest number
of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world, making up more than 30% of
the global total.
Early on, President Donald Trump downplayed the
severity of the coronavirus and called it no worse than the common flu.
He previously predicted the country wouldn’t reach this death toll. As
early as March, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious
disease expert, was warning that COVID-19 could claim more than 100,000
lives in the U.S.
“I think we’ll be substantially under that
number,” Trump said on April 10. Ten days later, he said, “We’re going
toward 50- or 60,000 people.” Ten days after that: “We’re probably
heading to 60,000, 70,000.”
Critics have said deaths spiked
because Trump was slow to respond, but he has contended on Twitter that
it could have been 20 times higher without his actions. He has urged
states to reopen their economies after months of stay-at-home
restrictions.
The virus exacted an especially vicious toll on
Trump’s hometown of New York City and its surrounding suburbs, killing
more than 21,000. At the peak, hundreds of people were dying per day in
New York City, and hospitals, ambulances and first responders were
inundated with patients.
The densely packed New York metropolitan
area, consisting of about 20 million people across a region that
encompasses the city’s northern suburbs, Long Island and northern New
Jersey, has been the hardest-hit corner of the country, accounting for
at least one-third of the nation’s deaths.
There is no vaccine or
treatment for COVID-19, though several emergency treatments are being
used after showing some promise in preliminary testing.
Worldwide,
about a dozen vaccine candidates are starting to be tested or getting
close to it. Health officials have said studies of a potential vaccine
might be done by late this year or early next year.
For most
people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever
and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially
older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more
severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Among the 100,000
deaths was 74-year-old Michael Ganci, a resident of Newington,
Connecticut, who died March 21. He was a public school teacher, a
grandfather and father of four, and a 4th-degree belt Sensei in
Kyokushin karate.
Ganci, who had a compromised immune system, died
at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford three days after showing symptoms.
His family was not allowed to be with him and tried to text and talk
with him on his cellphone during his final days. His wife of 48 years
also tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to grieve alone.
For
their daughter, 45-year-old Joanna Ganci of Beverly, Massachusetts, the
milestone and other statistics are important to understand the scope of
the virus.
“But at the same time, I think the danger of
counting, the danger of statistics, is that it just minimizes the human
element,” she said. “And I think, again, we see that our country is in
the throes of this kind of moment of just that the numbers don’t seem to
mean anything anyway to many. It’s like, what number is going to make
an impact for people who haven’t been touched by it?”
“For people
whose lives haven’t been threatened or where the virus hasn’t been as
rampant through a community, I just think numbers or not, it’s still so
abstract to so many people,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s
200,000, 100,000 or 10. It doesn’t mean anything until you’re personally
affected by it.”
From Jan. 1 through the end of April, the U.S.
saw at least 66,000 more overall deaths than in similar periods for
previous years, an increase of around 7%, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
The coronavirus was reported as a
cause in about half the excess deaths, but experts also believe the
virus was likely a factor in many others. Coroners caution that deaths
from other causes are likely up, too, including those from drug
overdoses and among people who delayed treatment for problems like heart
attacks.
It’s not even clear when the coronavirus first appeared
in the United States. Initially, it was believed the first death from
the virus in the U.S. was on Feb. 29 in Kirkland, Washington, a Seattle
suburb. But by mid-April, it was determined that two people with the
coronavirus died in California as much as three weeks earlier.
Because
it can take one or two weeks between the time people get infected and
when they get sick enough to die, it now appears the virus was
circulating in California in late January, if not earlier.
Comparing
countries is tricky, given varying levels of testing and the fact that
some coronavirus deaths can be missed. According to figures tracked by
Johns Hopkins University, the death rate per 100,000 people is lower in
the U.S. than Italy, France and Spain but higher than Germany, China,
South Korea, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
“The
experience of other countries shows that death at that scale was
preventable,” Michaud said. “To some extent the United States suffers
from having a slow start and inconsistent approach. We might have seen a
different trajectory if different policies were put into place earlier
and more forcefully.”
Countries with low death rates suppressed
the virus “through lots of testing, contact tracing and policies to
support isolation and quarantine of people at risk,” Michaud said.
Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a global health center at Columbia University, called the U.S. death rate shocking.
“It
reflects the fact that we have neglected basic fundamentals for
health,” El-Sadr said. “We have neglected public health and we have
failed to secure access to quality health services to all Americans.”
“So, now we are in this shameful situation,” El-Sadr said. “It is the most vulnerable people in our midst, the elderly, the poor, members of racial/ethnic minority groups who are the ones disproportionately getting sick and dying.”
Johnson reported from Washington state. Pane reported from Boise, Idaho.