Thread by @DavidHilzenrath

As the U.S. approaches another coronavirus milestone—250,000 lives lost—the death toll is in danger of becoming a statistic. To put it in perspective … (thread – first of 18) #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

2/ A quarter of a million lost to the pandemic is more than the number of Union and Confederate soldiers killed in battle in the entire Civil War. tinyurl.com/y9wzmrxj tinyurl.com/y9gsnbtc #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

3/ It’s more than all the murders in the U.S. over the past 15 years. tinyurl.com/yytj7yjp tinyurl.com/ycw96ppm #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

4/ Strictly by number of fatalities, it’s the equivalent of NYC’s Twin Towers falling again—not just once, but day after day every day for more than three months. #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

5/ It’s more than five times the number of U.S. battle deaths in the Vietnam war, which spanned more than a decade and multiple presidencies. tinyurl.com/y9wzmrxj #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

6/ It’s bigger than the combined death toll from the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. tinyurl.com/y2efvxvr
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

7/ It is more than the number of Americans killed in action from March 2003 through August 2010 in the Iraq War, a.k.a. Operation Iraqi Freedom. Not just more: more than 70 times more. tinyurl.com/yy48avld #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

8/ It’s more than 200 times the number of people killed in mass shootings in the U.S. from 1966 through early this year, according to a Washington Post tally. tinyurl.com/yxbmr4z7
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

9/ It’s more than the population of Winston-Salem, NC. It’s more than the population of Allentown, PA, and Lansing, MI, combined. tinyurl.com/yy2ycoez #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

10/ All in just several months.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

11/ At an October rally in Lumberton, NC (pop. 20,454 ), @realDonaldTrump complained that, when he turns on the television, all he hears is, “COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID.” tinyurl.com/y5vyjvmb
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

12/ “A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID," Trump said. #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

13/ As MSNBC has pointed out, “there was no such plane crash.” But it would take 500 of them—one large passenger jet falling out of the sky every day for more than year—to equal the imminent U.S. death toll from COVID-19.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

14/ No comparison can capture the human tragedy of COVID-10. And the point is not to minimize any other chapter in history or loss of life, including selfless acts of military sacrifice.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

15/ But, as @JoeBiden tries to persuade Americans to take the pandemic more seriously—and to take preventive steps such as wearing masks—an added dose of perspective might help.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

16/ The same goes for news organizations reporting the coronavirus death toll.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

17/ To visualize what might otherwise be abstract, see the Daily Beast’s take on an earlier milestone: tinyurl.com/y2ddknxh
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll

18 of 18/ On its own, the number of lives lost does not convey the magnitude.
#covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll tinyurl.com/t9j9fdw

19 of 18/ One more: A quarter of a million covid deaths is more—much more—than the number of U.S. battle deaths in World War I, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combined.
tinyurl.com/ycslccte #covid19 #coronavirus #deathtoll