It is the first country to pass this terrible milestone, although experts warn the true toll is certainly higher. Back to a health disaster.
More than a million dead, announces the White House. An estimate probably below the reality according to researchers. In Washington, the American authorities blame the blow, especially since the country most bereaved in the world by the pandemic is experiencing a further increase in the contamination rate possibly due to the effect of Omicron sub-variants. While it had dropped to 25,000 daily cases in March, the country is now recording a seven-day average of some 78,000 cases, according to the main US health agency.
” We must remain vigilant in the face of this pandemic and do all we can to save as many lives as possible, as we have done with more tests, vaccines and treatments than ever before. “said US President Joe Biden in a statement.
With more than a million deaths nationwide, the coronavirus has killed around one in 330 Americans, one of the highest death rates among developed countries (compared to around 1 in 379 in the UK, or 1 out of 455 in France). In all, more than 203,000 children nationwide have lost a parent or other caregiver, according to a study that highlights the “ deep impact of the pandemic on American youth.
At the height of the Omicron wave, the country had recorded more than 800,000 cases a day on average, for a total that now stands at more than 82 million cases. A figure, too, probably underestimated, particularly given the lack of tests at the start of the epidemic and the success of self-testswhich are not systematically reported to the authorities.
►Also read: Covid in the United States: epidemic concerns due to the Omicron variant
New York, epicenter of the first wave
If the west coast of the United States was hit first, New York, the cultural capital of the country and world hub, located on the East Coast, then took the brunt of the impact of the virus. From “city that never sleeps”, the Big Apple has become a dead city, with its deceased piled up in refrigerated trucks, its streets deserted. Its wealthiest inhabitants then left the city, while the less privileged confined themselves.
On Times Square, a fatal counter, the Trump Death Clocktotals the number of deaths attributed to President Donald Trump ” because of his inaction “Explains its creator Eugene Jarecki, for whom 60% of deaths linked to Covid-19 could have been avoided if the American government had promulgated social distancing rules earlier.
The megalopolis, which remains traumatized, has so far totaled more than 40,000 deaths from Covid-19, most of them during the first wave in spring 2020.
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A vaccine race
Criticized for his slow reaction or the way in which he initially minimized the scale of the disaster to come, ex-president Donald Trump then contributed to the development of a vaccine by launching the initiative “ warp-speed », « lightning speed » in French.
The operation consists of injecting billions of dollars of public money into the search for a vaccine, in particular allowing pharmaceutical companies to conduct their expensive clinical trials. Result: the first vaccines, those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are urgently authorized by the US Medicines Agency in mid-December 2020, less than a year after the first cases in China were made public. .
►Also read: United States: the vaccination offensive, successes and challenges
A country divided on wearing a mask
Few social issues have recently divided the United States as much as masks or vaccines. Between progressives defending physical distancing, masks and injections, and fierce defenders of individual freedoms rejecting any intrusion by the authorities, the battle raged to the top of the state, between a Donald Trump who only wore the mask backwards and a Joe Biden vaccine champion.
From schools to planes, to businesses, the question of the mask has led to many disputes, which have sometimes been settled with gunfire. Latest twist: a Florida judge appointed by Donald Trump lifted the obligation to wear a mask on public transport in April, a decision which the federal government has appealed. The country which has lifted the obligation to wear a mask, now only recommends it indoors.
►Also read: United States: the government wants to restore the wearing of compulsory masks in transport
with agencies