U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Reaches 900,000
In a grim milestone, the death toll in the U.S. from COVID-19 reached 900,000 on February 4.
According to the Associated Press, the highly contagious Omicron variant is driving up the death toll, which topped 800,000 less than two months ago.
“After nearly two years, I know that the emotional, physical, and psychological weight of this pandemic has been incredibly difficult to bear,” President Joe Biden stated, as he urged more Americans to get vaccinations and booster shots.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, which amounts to about 212 million people.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, called the death toll “an astronomically high number” that would have shocked most Americans two years ago when the pandemic struck. He also lamented that the vaccination drive hit stumbling blocks along the way.
“We got the medical science right. We failed on the social science," Jha said. "We failed on how to help people get vaccinated, to combat disinformation, to not politicize this. Those are the places where we have failed as America.”
These latest figures come as Omicron cases have subsided, decreasing by almost a half-million since the middle of January when 800,000 new cases were being reported daily. The number of cases have declined in all 50 states.
