Sometime this weekend we reached 900,000 American deaths from COVID-19.
🦠 Poynter: 900,000 Americans have died from COVID-19
This weekend, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 passed the 900,000 mark. Only two months ago, President Joe Biden observed the country passing 800,000 COVID-19 fatalities.
But somehow, the 900,000 figure barely makes news. So many have died and so many are still dying from the virus that, in our quest to feel normal again, we have become numb to the numbers.
This number is almost certainly too low – the real number is probably already over a million, but the current “official” total is sitting at 902, 719 this morning.
Early on, under Trump, many Republican states started fiddling with their numbers, failing to report COVID-19 deaths or reporting them as something else to make the situation look better than it was. I haven’t heard that this has changed, so I assume that’s still happening.
This number, 902,719, also doesn’t account for the non-COVID-19 deaths that are happening because COVID has overwhelmed hospitals and doctors, and people aren’t getting the care they need. Heart attack patients who couldn’t get into an ER. Cancer or dialysis patients who couldn’t get treatment. Deaths of neglect and despair.
Counting all that, the number is so much higher than 902,719.
Notes & Thoughts 