America Will Lose 500,000 People, a Horrific Loss

America's current death rate guarantees that the death count will surpass half a million.

On Monday, John Hopkins University's Coronavirus tracker reported that COVID-19 deaths had accumulated to a horrifying 498,901, all but guaranteeing that the total death count of the pandemic would be over half a million Americans. For most, the deaths are experienced through announcements and statistical reporting from the news, but the loss is all too real for those whose loved ones have died.

In May of last year, it was considered a horrific milestone for 100,000 Americans to have died. So much so that the New York Times dedicated their entire front page to remembering those lost to the virus. Each name was printed out to let the American people know who was lost. To the Times and the families whose loved ones were ripped from them, it was a hole in their hearts. 

Not since 1918 has a disease ravaged the United States with such deathly vigor. With nearly 675,000 deaths from the once unfamiliar pandemic, the Pandemic of 1918 and the Pandemic of 2020 will go down in history as a tragic moment in American history. 

Unlike the pandemic of 1918, however, the U.S was not at the end of a war, nor was it bringing troops home on a mass scale. It had time, resources, and research to respond to our crisis, but the results were the same. Mass death and tragedy scourged the United States as it did before, ripping holes in once happy families and robbing men, women, and children of their futures.

Deaths will likely rise for many more months, but one thing is for certain: America will be weeping for years to come.