'A defining tragedy': US COVID death toll eclipses 800,000 as winter surge intensifies
ABC News
The sobering mark comes less than two years into the pandemic, and despite the introduction of the first coronavirus vaccines nearly one year ago.
As Americans gather to toast the end of another particularly difficult year, many loved ones will be notably missing from holiday celebrations, a glaring reminder of the tragic realities of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the United States reached yet another staggering milestone, with 800,000 Americans now confirmed lost to the coronavirus, according to newly updated data from Johns Hopkins University.
"This will be a defining tragedy of our generation," David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News. "We've gotten to the point where our eyes glaze over on these numbers. But by now, almost every one of us knows someone who has died of COVID-19."
The sobering marker comes less than two years into the pandemic, and despite the introduction of the first coronavirus vaccines, nearly one year ago.
