The U.S. topped 300,000 coronavirus deaths on Monday, per Johns Hopkins data.
The big picture: The U.S. is averaging 2,427 deaths a day — 300 more fatalities per day than during the pandemic's initial peak in the spring, per the COVID Tracking Project. It took less than three months for the U.S. to record another 100,000 deaths.
- U.S. deaths have reached "the equivalent of losing the entire population of cities such as Orlando, Pittsburgh or St. Louis," the Washington Post notes.
Where it stands: The U.S. began its largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history on Monday, with the first Americans receiving Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 vaccine.
- UPS and FedEx plan to deliver 2.9 million doses to about 150 locations in all 50 states by Monday, with shipments to another 450 sites between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Operation Warp Speed's Gen. Gustave Perna.
Between the lines: Black and Hispanic Americans are 2.8 times as likely to die from the coronavirus as white people, per CDC data. Native Americans are 2.6 times as likely to die from the virus.
The bottom line: If the U.S. death rate had matched that of other wealthy countries, between about 55,000 and 215,000 Americans would still be alive, an October analysis by Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness found.
Go deeper ... In photos: First vaccines administered in U.S.