President Joe Biden acknowledged the pain of the nation as the United States marked more than 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus but he also offered words of hope and healing. 'Today we mark a truly grim heart breaking milestone,' he said in a speech to the nation, before a candlelit moment of remembrance on the South portico of the White House. 'We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There's no such thing. Nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary,' he declared.

Approximately one in every 670 Americans has died of Covid-19. The coronavirus has claimed more American lives than World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined. The US death toll far outpaces that of the rest of the world. The number is so massive, it can be hard to grasp. It’s greater than the number of people buried in Arlington Cemetery and could fill a line of buses from Philadelphia to New York City.

The death toll accelerated rapidly this winter. After reaching 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 deaths in December, the next 100,000 deaths occurred in just over a month. About two months after that, the US has reached 500,000.

Last spring, Dr. Fauci had initially predicted the death toll could rise to 250,000 and was criticized as being hyperbolic.

And yet, there is good news on the horizon: By the end of March, Pfizer plans to ship more than 13 million vaccine doses per week to the United States; Moderna plans to deliver 100 million doses; and Johnson & Johnson expects to ship at least 20 million doses. This means that by the end of March, the United States is on track to receive 240 million doses. By mid-year, we should receive about 700 million doses, which is enough to vaccinate our entire population. By the end of the year there should be 2 billion doses for the whole world.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans, including 34% of Republicans, approve of Biden’s response to the coronavirus.