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The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration. The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. It is roughly equal to how many Americans died in the Civil War and World War II combined. It’s as if Boston and Pittsburgh were wiped out. (Johnson, 5/16)

When the U.S. hit 1 million COVID-19 deaths on Monday, the news was driven by a government tally derived from death certificates. But that’s not the only tally. And you may be wondering, where do these numbers come from? A look behind the data. (Stobbe, 5/16)

One hallmark of the pandemic: a high number of deaths within some nonwhite groups, relative to population. Public-health experts say Covid-19 exacerbated long-running issues, including inequalities in the U.S. health system that contribute to poorer care for some people. Other factors, including underlying health issues, crowded living conditions and jobs that require leaving the house for work, also put some populations at higher risk. (Kamp, Stamm and Bentley, 5/16)

The U.S. has had more deaths per capita than Western Europe or Canada, and while new deaths have fallen, the total death count is still rising. It is also expected that the United States, like other countries, has undercounted the true number of deaths from the coronavirus. Illustrating how high 1 million deaths originally seemed, then-President Trump said in March 2020 that holding the country to between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths would mean “we all, together, have done a very good job.” (Sullivan, 5/16)

Just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, former President Donald Trump made a prediction. "Look, we're going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people,” Trump said in May 2020 when the death toll stood at about 67,000. “That's a horrible thing." Later that same month, when the U.S. death toll crossed 100,000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that “reaching the milestone of 100,000 persons lost in such a short timeframe is a sobering development and a heart-breaking reminder of the horrible toll of this unprecedented pandemic.” (Smith-Schoenwalder, 5/16)

According to public health experts, the virus’s outsized impact on the US can be attributed in part to underinvestment in long-term care, in primary care and in public health departments. As a result, some people were more vulnerable to Covid and had little connection to – or trust in – the healthcare providers who urged them to socially distance, to wear masks and to get vaccinated. It was a disconnect, they say, that was only exacerbated by misinformation – particularly by Republican leaders’ undermining of scientists’ recommendations. (Berger, 5/15)

It started with a casual perusal of COVID death statistics in summer of 2020. Journalist Ana Arana found that Latinos across the country were routinely misidentified ethnically and racially. The anomalies were easily missed by most media. But Arana’s instincts told her that at stake were significant public health consequences for Latinos. What ensued was a year-and-a half-long palabra investigation into widespread misclassification of Latino COVID deaths that health officials acknowledge but have done little to correct. (Arana and Senese, 5/16)

The list is long, but it’s not hard to find the Bay Area among the lowest COVID-19 death rates for the U.S.’s 140 largest counties. Try numbers 1 (San Francisco), 2 (San Mateo), 5 (Contra Costa), 9 (Alameda) and 10 (Santa Clara). That’s according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of data on COVID-19 death rates through May 7, the most recent available from the CDC, and 2020 U.S. Census population figures for counties with more than 500,000 residents. We’ve highlighted the Bay Area counties in gold on the list below; the other four counties in the Bay Area are too small to make this ranking. Other California counties on the list are green, including Sacramento (28) — San Diego (31) and LA (68). Stanislaus in the Central Valley was the Golden State’s lowest at 125. If you’re keeping score, Florida’s Orange County (39) had a lower rate than Orange County, California (43). (Blair Rowan, 5/16)