US Covid deaths hit 1m, a death toll higher than any other country

More than one million people have died in the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, according to Johns Hopkins, far and away the most deaths of any country.

The pandemic shone a light on longstanding racial and ethnic health disparities, as Black, Latino and Native American people were infected, hospitalized and died of Covid-19 at rates that were, at times, double those of white Americans.

The US has nonetheless had difficulty correcting course. Vaccines were at first slow to reach minority, low-income and rural areas. One recent study has shown how at least one advanced Covid-19 therapy, monoclonal antibodies, were the least likely to reach the highest risk patients for whom they are recommended.

Millions of children were also thrust into food insecurity, as the numbers of children receiving school meals plummeted. Missed academic time appears to have caused the educational achievement gap to widen.

Concepts fundamental to US governance also proved problematic in the pandemic. In just one example, the US Constitution makes public health the responsibility of individual states, creating a patchwork of different pandemic responses.

Culture and environment also appear played a role. Americans are more likely than citizens of other countries to engage in what public health researchers consider risky behavior, such as gun ownership, smoking, consuming more calories and exercising less. Polarized politics make it more difficult to implement guardrails on these behaviors.

Floundering responses by federal, state and local governments compounded existing issues, and eventually allowed pandemic-related public health guidance to become political and cultural footballs.