U.S. virus death toll tops 400,000 nearly a year after nation’s 1st case

BALTIMORE, Maryland — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has topped 400,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The milestone comes almost exactly a year after health officials diagnosed the nation’s first case of the virus, and months of efforts by President Trump to downplay the threat and his administration’s responsibility to confront it.

The running total of lives lost reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins is nearly equal to the number of Americans killed in World II.

It is equivalent to the sea of humanity that was at Woodstock in 1969.

The number of dead is greater than the population of New Orleans, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma or Tampa, Florida.

The coronavirus has now killed nearly as many Americans who are lost annually to strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia combined.