US COVID death toll hits 800,000, a year into vaccine drive

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 800,000. That is according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The once-unimaginable milestone was hit Tuesday. It’s seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking last spring. The death toll is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Minneapolis and Cleveland put together. It is roughly equivalent to how many Americans die each year from heart disease or stroke.