One million dead: ‘It’s not just a number’
The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus has eclipsed one million, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work.
‘‘It’s not just a number. It’s human beings. It’s people we love,’’ said Dr Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who has advised government officials on containing pandemics and lost his 84-year-old mother to Covid-19 in February.
‘‘It’s our brothers, our sisters. It’s people we know,’’ he added. ‘‘And if you don’t have that human factor right in your face, it’s very easy to make it abstract.’’ The bleak milestone, recorded yesterday in the US by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Jerusalem or Austin, Texas. It is more than four times the number killed by the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
Even then, the figure is almost certainly a vast undercount because of inadequate or inconsistent testing and reporting and suspected concealment by some countries.
And the number continues to mount. Nearly 5000 deaths are reported each day on average. Parts of Europe are getting hit by new outbreaks, and experts fear a second wave in the US, which accounts for about 205,000 deaths, or 1 out of 5 worldwide. That is far more than any other country, despite America’s wealth and medical resources. ‘‘I can understand why . . . numbers are losing their power to shock, but I still think it’s really important that we understand how big these numbers really are,’’ said Mark Honigsbaum, author of The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris.
The virus first appeared in late 2019 in patients hospitalised in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first death was reported on January 11. By the time authorities locked down the city nearly two weeks later, millions of travellers had come and gone.
Government leaders in countries like Germany, South Korea and New Zealand worked effectively to contain it. Others, like US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, dismissed the severity of the threat and the guidance of scientists, even as hospitals filled with gravely ill patients.
Brazil has recorded the second most deaths after the U.S., with about 142,000. India is third and Mexico fourth, with more than 76,000.