The United States has now recorded more COVID-19 deaths than the total number of Americans killed in combat during World War II, the bloodiest war in human history.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the US saw 291,557 battle deaths during WWII. As of Thursday evening, there have been 291,754 COVID-19 deaths in the US, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The coronavirus pandemic had killed more Americans than the Vietnam War by late April.
And by around mid-May, the US COVID-19 death toll had already surpassed the combined number of Americans killed in battle in every major US war since 1945 – nearly 87,000. The number of Americans killed by COVID-19 is now equivalent to almost half of the total death toll in the Civil War – approximately 620,000 – which was the bloodiest war in American history.
The US has consistently had the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the world. The national caseload has surpassed 15.5 million as of Thursday, per Johns Hopkins.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday morning noted that the US COVID-19 death toll would soon surpass to the total number of American soldiers killed in battle during WWII.
Pelosi said that the war brought the country together but that President Donald Trump is not a “unifying” president.
“We do not have a unifying President of the United States. In fact, we have a president in denial, delaying, and distorting, calling it a hoax. Many more thousands of people have died because of that,” Pelosi said.
Trump has been widely criticized over his response to the US COVID-19 outbreak and polling has consistently shown a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of the pandemic.
The president has repeatedly downplayed the threat of COVID-19, which he contracted in early October, and gone against the recommendations of top public health experts.
Source: Agencies
