US tops 500,000 coronavirus deaths, matching the toll of 3 wars

The COVID19 death toll in the US has topped 500000 a staggering number that all but matches the number of Americans killed in World War II Korea and Vietnam combinedThe US recorded an estimated 405000 deaths in World War II 58000 in the Vietnam War and 36000 in the Korean WarPresident Joe Biden held a sunset moment of silence and a candlelighting ceremony at the White House on Monday and ordered American flags lowered at federal buildings for the next five daysWe have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow Biden said We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blurMondays grim milestone as recorded by Johns Hopkins University comes as states redouble efforts to get the coronavirus vaccine into arms after last weeks winter weather closed clinics slowed vaccine deliveries and forced tens of thousands of people to miss their shotsDespite the rollout of vaccines since midDecember a closely watched model from the University of Washington projects more than 589000 dead by June 1The US toll is by far the highest reported in the world accounting for 20 percent of the nearly 25 million coronavirus deaths globally though the true numbers are thought to be significantly greater in part because many cases were overlooked especially early in the outbreakThe first known deaths from the virus in the US were in early February 2020 It took four months to reach the first 100000 deaths The toll hit 200000 in September and 300000 in December then took just over a month to go from 300000 to 400000 and another month to climb from 400000 to 500000Average daily deaths and cases have plummeted in the past few weeks Virus deaths have fallen from more than 4000 reported on some days in January to an average of fewer than 1900 per dayBut experts warn that dangerous variants could cause the trend to reverse itself And some experts say not enough Americans have been inoculated yet for the vaccine to be making much of a differenceInstead the dropoff in deaths and cases has been attributed to the passing of the holidays the cold and bleak days of midwinter when many people stay home and better adherence to mask rules and social distancingDr Ryan Stanton an emergency room physician in Lexington Kentucky who has treated scores of COVID19 patients said he never thought the US deaths would be so highI was one of those early ones that thought this may be something that may hit us for a couple months I definitely thought we would be done with it before we got into the fall And I definitely didnt see it heading off into 2021 Stanton saidKristy Sourk an intensivecare nurse at Hutchinson Regional Medical Centre in Hutchinson Kansas said she is encouraged by the declining caseload and progress in vaccinating people but I know we are so far from overSnow ice and weatherrelated power outages closed some vaccination sites and held up shipments across a large swath of the nation including in the Deep SouthAs a result the sevenday rolling average of administered first doses fell by 20 per cent between February 14 and February 21 according to data from the Centres for Disease Control and PreventionThe White House said about a third of the roughly 6 million vaccine doses delayed by bad weather were delivered over the weekend with the rest expected to be delivered by midweek several days earlier than originally expectedWhite House coronavirus response coordinator Andy Slavitt on Monday attributed the improved timeline to an allout roundtheclock effort over the weekend that included employees at one vaccine distributor working night shifts to pack vaccinesMore than 44 million Americans have received at least one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and about 16 million per day received either first or second dose over the past seven days according to the CDCThe nations supply could expand significantly if health regulators approve a singleshot COVID19 vaccine developed by drugmaker Johnson amp JohnsonThe company said it will be able to provide 20 million US doses by the end of March if it gets the green light and would have capacity to provide 100 million vaccine doses to the US by the end of JuneThat supply will help government officials reach the goal of having enough injections to vaccinate most adult Americans later this year On a global scale the company aims to produce 1 billion doses this yearJampJ disclosed the figures in written testimony ahead of a congressional hearing on Tuesday looking at the countrys vaccine supply White House officials cautioned last week that initial supplies of JampJs vaccine would be limitedUS health regulators are still reviewing the safety and effectiveness of the shot and a decision to allow its emergency use is expected later this weekJampJs vaccine would be the first in the US that requires only a single shot The vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses spaced several weeks apartThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no 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