COVID-19’s global death toll tops 5 million in under 2 years

The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 5 million on Monday, less than two years into a crisis that has devastated poor countries and humbled wealthy ones with first-rate healthcare systems.

Together, the U.S., the European Union, Britain and Brazil — all uppermiddleor high-income countries — account for one-eighth of the world’s population but nearly half of all reported deaths. The U.S. has recorded over 740,000 lives lost, more than any other nation.

“This is a defining moment in our lifetime,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious-disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. “What do we have to do to protect ourselves so we don’t get to another 5 million?”

The death toll, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. Globally, COVID-19 is the third-leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke.

The staggering figure is almost certainly an undercount because of limited testing and people dying at home without medical attention, especially in poor parts of the world.

Hotspots have shifted over the past 22 months. Now, the virus is pummeling Russia, Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe, especially where rumors, misinformation and distrust in government have hobbled vaccination efforts. In Ukraine, only 17% of the adult population is fully vaccinated; in Armenia, only 7%.

Wealthier nations with longer life expectancies have larger proportions of older people, cancer survivors and nursing-home residents, all of whom are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a global health center at Columbia University. Poorer countries tend to have larger shares of children, teens and young adults, who are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus.

But within each wealthy country, when deaths and infections are mapped, poorer neighborhoods are hit hardest. In the U.S., for example, COVID-19 has taken an outsize toll on Black and Hispanic people, who are more likely than white people to live in poverty and have less access to healthcare.