In September 2021, 650,000 small plastic flags, some with personal messages to those who have died, went up around the Washington Monument to recognize the Americans lost to COVID-19.Photo: Kent Nishimura / Getty
May 12, 2022 marked a grim, but anticipated milestone — just over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1 million Americanshave died from the virus.
The number is one thatfelt unimaginable at the start of the pandemicin March 2020, when COVID-19 was just beginning to spread around the country. But as cases started to soar, deaths did too.
By April 2020, the U.S. began seeing around 1,000 deaths a day as hospitals filled up with patients, and doctors and nurses were unsure how best to treat the tricky virus, which attacks everything from the respiratory system to the brain and heart.
Mitigation efforts like masks helped, and new infections and deaths dipped down in the spring before people eager to socialize again led to another rise that summer.
And over the holiday season, with people heading back indoors amid the cold weather and celebrating holidays with family, cases soared upwards anddeaths hit their highest levels ever. On Jan. 12, 2021, the U.S. recorded the most-ever deaths in a day with 4,406, a level that has not been seen since.
Refrigerated trucks holding the bodies of COVID-19 victims sit in New York City.Noam Galai/Getty
An aerial view of the 650,000 flags placed on the National Mall to recognize the Americans lost to COVID-19.Kent Nishimura / Getty
With the nation recording an average of 2,500 to 3,500 deaths a day through January and February 2021,the death toll soon surpassed 500,000, half a million.
But despite having these vaccines on hand, millions of Americans refused to get vaccinated, and a new, severe COVID-19 variant — delta —ravaged the unvaccinated, leading to thousands of deaths. By December 2021, the death toll hit 800,000.
Activists gather during a vigil in Lafayette Park for nurses who died during the COVID-19 pandemic in Jan. 2022.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty
In a statementcommemorating the “tragic” milestone, President Joe Biden gave his prayers to the families who have lost loved ones, andcalled on Congress to pass the COVID spending bill, which provides resources for testing, vaccinations and hospital bills; the bill has been held up for months.
“As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow,” Biden said. “To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible, as we have with more testing, vaccines, and treatments than ever before. It’s critical that Congress sustain these resources in the coming months.”
“To those who are grieving, and asking yourself how will you go on without him or what will you do without her, I understand. I know the pain of that black hole in your heart. It is unrelenting. But I also know the ones you love are never truly gone. They will always be with you.”
source: people.com
