The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has eclipsed 300,000, just as vaccinations begin across the country. The number of dead tallied by Johns Hopkins University rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of Hurricane Katrina every day for 5 1/2 months. It is more than five times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. The U.S. crossed the threshold just as the biggest vaccination campaign in American history began Monday with health care workers receiving COVID-19 shots.
