The Biden transition team estimated that we would reach 500,000 coronavirus deaths in March before they took office, but we've crossed that grim threshold sooner than expected.
Daily deaths briefly fell below a thousand for the first time in months, but over 2,300 were recorded in the last day and that pushed us over the benchmark.
From NBC News:
More than a fifth of all deaths worldwide have occurred in the the U.S., which has less than 5 percent of the global population. [...]
Public health experts and top government officials have said precautions must remain in place to slow the spread of the virus.
"We are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more 2½-fold times what we saw over the summer," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press."
The last week or two has been the first time that I have ever personally felt like I can see a light at the end of our endless pandemic tunnel. But I'm also concerned about public complacency and the CDC director apparently is as well.
Daily deaths and infections are falling, but only about 6 percent of the country has been fully vaccinated with two doses of a vaccine as of this week. If we decide it's over before it really is, we could still see another wave of infections and deaths. I can't help but wonder if infections have fallen so quickly because a significant portion of the country has been buried in ice and snow for a couple weeks. Everyone should remain cautious in any case.
Death is a lagging indicator and most if not all of the people who've died in recent days were infected while Trump was still in office.