This happened despite vast gains in scientific knowledge during the past century<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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TUESDAY, Sept. 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) — As the highly contagious delta variant has swept across the United States, the country has reached a tragic milestone. COVID-19 has now killed more Americans than the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic did, when roughly 675,000 people died.<\/p>\n
This happened despite vast gains in scientific knowledge during the past century, including the development of three powerful vaccines approved in the United States to fight the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n
There was one important caveat to the latest milestone: The U.S. population was one-third of the size it is today, so the 675,000 who died were a much bigger portion of the population, the Associated Press<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n By Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States had passed 676,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University<\/a>. About 1,900 Americans are now dying in the United States every day, on average — the highest level since last March. A simulation model designed by researchers at the University of Washington predicts an additional 100,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 by Jan. 1, 2022, which would bring the total death toll to 776,000, the AP<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Vaccines could have made a difference. Sixty-four percent of eligible Americans are vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. But that varies widely, depending on the state: Between 46 and 49 percent have been vaccinated in Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia, and Mississippi, while 77 percent have gotten their shots in Vermont and Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed 4.6 million people. About 43 percent of the global population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data.<\/p>\n