The U.S. has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19, the worst death toll in the world, according to a tally from NBC News. The grim milestone comes as U.S. COVID-19 cases have started to climb in recent days and high-profile figures test positive, like Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
After the U.S., the highest death tolls from COVID-19 are in Brazil, which has reported over 663,000 deaths, India, which has seen over 523,000 deaths, and Russia, which has recorded more than 368,000 deaths from COVID-19. Mexico rounds out the top five, with over 324,000 deaths from the disease.
The U.S., like many countries, has struggled to fight misinformation about the COVUD-19 vaccinations that have proved to be a life-saver for so many people who’ve gotten the jab. Conspiracy theories about widespread illness from the vaccines and even nonsense about injecting microchips is shockingly widespread on the internet.
The U.S. is ranked 63rd in the world for COVID-19 vaccinations, with just 66.75% of the population fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University. That puts the U.S. behind Sri Lanka (67.48%), Laos (67.5%), and Iran (68.55%), just to name a few.
COVID-19 infections have begun to climb back up again in the U.S., with 119,865 new cases on Wednesday and just 43 of the 50 states reporting. The country also reported 767 new deaths on Wednesday. BNO reports 17,802 Americans are currently in the hospital with COVID-19, up 757 from the day before.
While the U.S. has the highest death toll from COVID-19 of any place in the world, other countries have had worse fatality rates relative to population size. Peru, for instance, has reported 212,000 deaths but that’s 645 deaths per 100,000 people. the U.S. has a rate of roughly 302 deaths per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University. But those numbers will be cold comfort to any of the 1 million Americans who’ve died.