During the first weeks of 2020, as medical workers and public health officials grappled with a devastating new virus sweeping small towns and big cities alike, the White House predicted that at least 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die from it. cause of the coronavirus.
The first reported COVID-19 death in the United States occurred on February 29, 2020. A month later, on the day Dr. Deborah Birx announced the worrying prediction, the death toll had already surpassed 5,000.
The best scenario collapsed in mid-November of that same year. By the time the first big holiday season passed, more than half a million Americans had died from COVID-19 as of February 2021.
Each data point below represents an American who has died from COVID-19
deaths that occurred during waves of COVID-19 they are represented in red
The deaths outside waves are blue
The first death due to COVID-19 was originally thought to be a man in his 50s from Washington state on February 29, 2020. But a Mercury News investigation found that doctors amended Lovell “Cookie” Brown’s death certificate nearly a year and a half after his death on January 9, 2020, in Leavenworth, Kansas, to say that he had died of the new virus.
During this period, several US cities banned large gatherings. Major American sports leagues such as the NBA have suspended games for the season to try to prevent the spread of the virus.
The US death toll from COVID-19 also topped 2,000 a month after the first death was discovered. Governors and mayors began imposing lockdowns across states and cities to prevent the spread. Dr. Birx of the White House coronavirus team stated that between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from COVID-19 even with “perfect” containment measures like masks, social distancing and lockdowns.
Now-former President Donald Trump was taken to a hospital after becoming ill with COVID-19 in early October 2020. He underwent treatment with the experimental drug remdesivir. The first lady, Melania Trump, and several members of the White House staff also came down with the virus.
Daily cases would break consecutive records before the winter of 2021, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine.
New York nurse Sandra Lindsay was one of the first Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Moderna’s vaccine, along with Pfizer’s, was added to the vaccine arsenal as both prepared for a national rollout. The deployment was first made available to people over 65 and healthcare workers.
Then-President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine live on television in a bid to persuade all Americans to get vaccinated, as the first variant of the coronavirus, called Alpha (B.1.1) .7), was identified in the US, days after the UK announced its discovery.
Cases rose so fast during the winter of 2021 that an additional 100,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in just one month.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that communities without vaccine coverage — minorities, low-income communities, and those with disabilities — received fewer vaccines in proportion to white enclaves and higher income. The CDC also confirmed racial and ethnic disparities in hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
Meanwhile, the Delta variant, first identified in India, became the new variant of interest in the US. It would soon become the predominant variant in the country, surpassing the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma variants.
By then, nearly all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths were from unvaccinated patients, making the coronavirus a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Booster shots began to roll out to elderly and at-risk Americans.
Children aged five to 11 years became the last group authorized to receive an emergency dose of Pfizer’s vaccine. Infants, young children and those under five years of age are still unable to receive the vaccine.
Pfizer’s pill, Paxlovid, was authorized as the first home treatment against COVID-19, as the Omicron variant dramatically increased cases. An antiviral pill from Merck for home treatment is also expected to be licensed.
A sub-variant of Omicron, dubbed BA.2 and dubbed “Stealthy Omicron,” surpassed the original variant in the percentages of COVID-19 cases in the US in March 2022.
A second booster shot is recommended for older Americans, and also those with severely weakened immune systems, for additional protection against new waves of COVID-19. Eligible Americans were recommended to receive the second booster shot four months after the first.
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