The covid-19 pandemic has just breezed through another ignoble milestone in the U.S. The viral disease has taken more American lives this year than almost all other leading causes—it ranks behind only heart disease and cancer.
In 2017, the last year with fully available data, the third leading cause of death was accidents, thought to have killed 169,936 Americans; the fourth was chronic lower respiratory diseases, such as emphysema and asthma, with 160,201 attributed deaths.
As of Tuesday, August 18, at least 171,000 Americans are reported to have died from covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.