Today marks another devastating milestone in the 2020 history books:
The state of play: February 29: First reported U.S. coronavirus death; May 23: U.S. death toll hits 100,000; September 22: U.S. death toll hits 200,000, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
The big picture: The world's most powerful country has abjectly failed in its response to this pandemic.
- The federal response has been abysmal, ranging from procurement disasters such as PPE to signs of rot at revered institutions like the CDC.
- Many states made errors around quarantines and face mask rules.
- The citizenry isn't immune from blame: America has been an outlier among its peers for its culture wars over face masks and social distancing.
The bottom line: Deaths keep coming — we’re averaging roughly 830 per day — even as the country increasingly sees the pandemic as background noise, reports Axios' Sam Baker.