America’s Covid-19 deaths, explained in 8 charts and maps – Vox

When the coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan, China, it may have seemed like a distant threat. But very quickly, the tiny pathogen made its way around the world, bringing sickness and death wherever it went.

In America, the first known Covid-19 fatality occurred on February 6, 2020. From there, the wave of daily deaths started rising.

By the end of May 2020, the virus had taken 100,000 lives, mostly in the Northeast and major cities.

Four months later, the death toll surpassed 200,000.

Less than three months later, by mid-December, more than 300,000 people had died.

With the virus spreading all over the US, it took only 36 more days to reach 400,000 deaths. January was the deadliest month so far.

The virus was unsparing.

Across the country, more than 27 million people have contracted the coronavirus, and 485,000 have died. Thats the highest Covid-19 toll of any country and more than the coronavirus deaths in Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, the UK, Canada, and France combined. It exceeds the US death toll in World War II.

Its also an underestimate, and doesnt account for all the people impacted by loss. If every American who died has left nine people grieving, as one study suggested, there are now more than 4 million Americans who have lost a loved one to the pandemic.

Death at this scale is difficult to comprehend, or visualize. To get a clearer sense of the shifting burden of Covid-19 deaths over time, Vox analyzed coronavirus mortality by age, region, and race from the past year, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.

We found that while Covid-19 spared no group, it impacted certain populations more than others. Throughout the pandemic, people of color have consistently been disproportionately sickened and killed by the virus. They also died young: Of Covid-19 deaths in people under the age of 45, more than 40 percent were Hispanic and about a quarter were Black.

But what started as a health emergency concentrated in travelers, urban minority communities, and other crowded places (such as nursing homes and prisons) fanned out into rural areas of the country, leading to a surge in deaths among white people, too.

In the deaths, we saw how an infectious disease became a universal issue, said Boston University School of Public Health dean Sandro Galea. The extraordinary loss of life was also preventable, said Virginia Commonwealth Universitys Steven Woolf, and a grim marker of how poorly the US handled the pandemic.

By the winter of 2020, the virus was spreading broadly in every state, and largely by people younger than 50. Still, disparities in lives lost have persisted.

A trend at the start of the US outbreak has held: People of color have died of Covid-19 at much higher rates double the rate of white people overall in 2020.

But over the course of the year, the share of Covid-19 deaths among white people grew, while the share among Black and Hispanic people decreased.

In absolute terms, the death rate among white people rose significantly, while the rate among people of color dropped slightly. This was a trend we found in communities across America as Covid-19 spread.

Deaths per 100,000 per week:

Share of white population

The first surge

in deaths in the

spring occurred

mostly in places

with a large

share of

nonwhite

population.

The winter

surge brought

more deaths to

places where

more white

Americans live.

Deaths per 100,000 per week:

Share of white population:

The first surge

in deaths in the

spring occurred

mostly in counties

with a large share

of minorities.

The winter

surge brought

more deaths to

whiter counties.

Deaths per 100,000 per week:

Share of white population

The first surge

in deaths in the

spring occurred

mostly in counties

with a large share

of minorities.

The winter

surge brought

more deaths to

whiter counties.

Your screen

is too small

to view

this graphic

Experts attribute the change to the evolving geography of the virus a result of the failure by states and the federal government to curtail transmission.

At the start of the US outbreak, coronavirus cases and deaths were concentrated in a few cities, which have large numbers of people of color who are more likely to do essential work. The impact of Covid-19 was limited to New York, and to a lesser extent Detroit and New Orleans, said Dartmouth health economist Jonathan Skinner, and in particular among people who had to commute by public transportation to service-sector jobs.

Many Black and Hispanic people soon contracted the virus and died at very high rates an estimated 118,000 in 2020 overall.

By October, some of the most sparsely populated areas of the country Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska were grappling with Americas worst outbreaks. The relative share of deaths among white people started rising.

The politics of 2020 led governors in [these] parts of the country to be less aggressive in dealing with the virus or actively discourage public health safeguards, Woolf said.

At the same time, more states adopted face-mask orders and other safety measures. Mask mandates helped bring case numbers down, and may have saved the lives of some essential workers.

The result: In August, Black people died at 2.5 times the rate of white people. By November, the rate was 2.2. In early February, it was 1.5.

But minorities were disproportionately affected by the virus in every month of 2020. They were also much more likely to die young.

46% of Americans age

35-44 who died are Hispanic

21% of Americans

age 35-44 are Hispanic

57% of Americans

age 35-44 are

white

20% of Americans age

35-44 who died are white

Black and white population data is non-Hispanic.

46% of Americans age

35-44 who died are Hispanic

21% of Americans

age 35-44 are Hispanic

57% of Americans

age 35-44 are

white

20% of Americans age

35-44 who died are white

Note: Black and white population data is non-Hispanic.

46% of Americans

age 35-44 who

died are Hispanic

21% of Americans

age 35-44 are Hispanic

57% of Americans

age 35-44 are

white

20% of Americans age

35-44 who died are white

Note: Black and white population data is non-Hispanic.

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America's Covid-19 deaths, explained in 8 charts and maps - Vox