(CNN)How do you calculate the cost of an American tragedy?
It’s difficult to comprehend just how drastically the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted life in the US when its effects are so wide-reaching. Unemployment has soared to levels not seen in decades. The virus is ravaging African American and Latino communities. And daily life as we knew it is on indefinite pause.
The following figures make those consequences clearer. Here, in dollars, percentages and — most tragically — lives, is the devastating toll the pandemic has taken on the US.
Coronavirus has now killed at least 100,000 people in the US since the first death was reported in February, according to Johns Hopkins University’s case count. That’s an average of nearly 900 deaths per day.
Older adults are exceedingly vulnerable to severe infection from coronavirus. And according to CDC data, that risk increases with age.
About 59% of all coronavirus deaths occur in people 75 and older, according to the CDC, which relies on less complete data than the Johns Hopkins University count.
21% occur in people between 65 and 74, and roughly 18% occur in people ages 45 to 64. Just 3% of deaths occur in 18- to 44-year-olds.
The US death rate is 2.6 times higher than the second leading country, the United Kingdom. The UK has reported 36,875 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins University’s global case count.
Both the US and the UK have heard mixed messages from leadership. President Donald Trump has repeatedly downplayed the virus and ceded decisions about closing and reopening to the states.
In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new message of “Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives” has confused leaders of the three other nations in the UK, who aren’t sure whether the guidance applies to them or just Britain.
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