The U.S. 'Battles' Coronavirus, But Is It Fair To Compare Pandemic To A War?

Counting the dead is one of the first, somber steps in reckoning with an event of enormous tragic scope, be that war, natural disaster, or a pandemic.

This dark but necessary arithmetic has become all too routine during the COVID-19 outbreak.

January was the deadliest month so far in the U.S.; the virus killed more than 95,458 Americans.

The total U.S death toll has now surpassed 441,000.

Each death is unique, a devastating loss that ripples through a family, a network, a community. But in the aggregate, the national death toll can feel abstract, and its constant repetition in the news can become numbing. Journalists, commentators and public officials are left searching for new ways to convey the deadliness of this pathogen, and the significance of its mounting fatality rate.