[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the United States has surpassed 100,000. In just three months, more people have lost their lives to COVID-19 than the total number of U.S. military personnel who died in various battles since the Korean War in 1950.
According to COVID-19 statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. on the 27th (local time), the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. was recorded at 100,047 as of that day. It took 111 days from the first COVID-19 death in the U.S., which occurred in Santa Clara County, California, on February 6, to surpass 100,000 deaths. As of that day, the total number of deaths worldwide was 353,414, meaning one out of every three deaths occurred in the U.S. The cumulative number of confirmed cases in the U.S. was recorded at 1,695,776.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. on that day exceeded the combined number of U.S. military personnel who died in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Korean War was 36,574, and those killed in the Vietnam War were 58,220, totaling 94,794 soldiers who died in the two wars. Even when adding the 4,424 U.S. military deaths in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011, the total does not exceed 100,000.
As the death toll surpassed 100,000, fear of COVID-19 is growing, but U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would continue easing lockdown measures and reopening the economy. President Trump stated on Twitter that "Today, the number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the U.S. has exceeded 15 million, the highest in the world. We can safely reopen."
However, on the same day, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that nearly half of the COVID-19 antibody tests conducted in the U.S. contained errors, suggesting that the actual number of infected people may be much higher. The CDC warned, "Antibody tests have too many errors to be used as meaningful data" and "They should not be referenced when making policy decisions." Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), emphasized the importance of mask-wearing in an interview with CNN, saying, "I want masks to become a symbol that makes people realize it is something they must do."
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