Why the US has the highest Covid-19 death toll | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
July 13, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2025
Why the US has the highest Covid-19 death toll

Coronavirus chronicle

BSS/AFP
23 February, 2021, 10:10 am
Last modified: 23 February, 2021, 10:26 am

Related News

  • Covid: One dead, eight more infected
  • New Covid-19 variant in town: Are we ready to fight the old enemy in a new guise?
  • State-of-the-art Covid lab and ICU lie idle in Bhola as infections rise
  • Triple threat: Dengue, Covid cases surge as chikungunya reemerges
  • Covid-19: 2 more deaths, 4 new cases reported in 24hrs

Why the US has the highest Covid-19 death toll

Why does the world’s leading power have the highest death toll and what lessons are American health specialists learning from the past year?

BSS/AFP
23 February, 2021, 10:10 am
Last modified: 23 February, 2021, 10:26 am
In this March 25, 2020, file photo, patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a Covid-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center, in New York. Photo: AP
In this March 25, 2020, file photo, patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a Covid-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center, in New York. Photo: AP

The United States crossed the grim milestone of 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, a year since announcing its first known death from the virus on February 29, 2020 in the Seattle area.

Why does the world's leading power have the highest death toll and what lessons are American health specialists learning from the past year?

Here, infectious disease experts Joseph Masci and Michele Halpern provide answers to some of the key questions.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Masci, 70, is one of the leaders of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, which was at the heart of New York's epidemic.

Halpern is a specialist at the Montefiore hospital group in New Rochelle, a New York suburb where the epidemic arrived in force in February 2020.

Why has the United States been hit so hard?

Prior to this pandemic, the Untied States observed coronaviruses "from a distance," explained Masci.

"There was SARS in Canada but very little or none in this country. There was no MERS here at all," he said.

"There was a lot of preparation made for Ebola coming to the United States, and it never really did.

"Suddenly this (coronavirus) was a problem where the United States was the epicenter."

Masci said it was difficult to compare the United States with other countries.

"I think smaller countries that had structured health care services had a good chance of bringing things into play quickly.

"In a country like ours, with 50 independent states, and a huge landmass, with largely a private hospital system, it is always going to be difficult to get everybody on board with one particular set of strategies," he explained.

Masci added that Donald Trump's administration had a "haphazard approach", which did not help.

"The fact that hospitals were competing with each other to get personal protective equipment didn't make sense. They had to centralize all of that very quickly and they didn't.

"It was a struggle to try to deal with those obstacles that were put up," he said.

Masci and Halpern rue that mask-wearing was politicized.

Bells toll for lives lost as US reaches 500,000 Covid deaths

"It's purely a health care issue," said Masci, adding that it is going to be difficult for the federal government to "reframe" that message.

Halpern insists that people should not see mask-wearing as "infringing" on their freedom.

"There are other things we do routinely that you could say infringe our liberties like wearing a seatbelt or running through a red light," she said.

What are the main lessons to be learned from the crisis?

For Masci, the most important lesson was to learn how to reconfigure hospitals to make them able to cope with a sudden influx of patients.

"Now… instead of 12 hot ICU beds, you have to have 150. Where do you get them? Who do you staff on with? So now we've learned this lesson." he said.

Masci said the group of public hospitals of which Elmhurst is a part found strategies to distribute the burden among NYC's 11 public hospitals by transferring patients very quickly.

"We've turned from one hospital with 500 beds, to 11 hospitals with about 5,000 beds. It's worked very nicely."

More generally, Halpern says the pandemic has made everyone realize that "hospitals need resources."

"You have to invest in research, but you also have to invest in hospitals, in nursing homes. They have to have enough staff, they have to have the equipment that they need and the personnel has to be happy," she added.

The epidemic has also sharply exposed inequalities, not just in health care but also in housing, with Black and Latino communities dying in disproportionately high numbers.

"We have to look at housing, and how it can be better suited to handling future epidemics. There are others coming," said Masci.

Will we still be wearing masks in December?

Vaccines are rolling out but health experts are cautious due to uncertainties surrounding the British and South African variants of the virus.

Masci says that if the variant strains don't turn into a huge problem and once we've reached the point where 70-80 percent of the population is vaccinated then "there's a good chance" we won't wear masks anymore.

"(But) suppose these variant strains do take hold, become more of a problem, are vaccine resistant, and we're all closing schools and putting masks and locking down again in a few months, (then) it's a lot harder to say by December, 'We'll be out of the woods.'"

Halpern says it's reassuring that the second wave was largely controlled, in New York at least.

"I have hopes that the vaccines will be effective and will tamper future waves. But it's hard to be sure whether our vaccines will be effective in the longer term, or on new variants. I don't think anyone knows that.

"So we have to be prepared that we're in this for a while," she said.

In the long term, Masci says countries must not "fall into the trap" of forgetting about the pandemic once it has passed.

"It is unnerving to think that this came without warning. It's caused so much restructuring of everything.

"We have to have a more meticulous global search for new pathogens because we're living in a time now where there is no, 'Something is happening in Asia and it's not going to happen in America.'"

Top News

Coronavirus death toll / Coronavirus Death / Covid-19 death toll / Covid-19 Deaths / coronavirus in US / Covid / Covid -19 / Covid 19 / Coronavirus Pandemic

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Dollar price plummets by Tk2.9 in a week as demand wanes
    Dollar price plummets by Tk2.9 in a week as demand wanes
  • Screengrab blurred
    Mitford murder sparks political storm as BNP on backfoot, Jamaat and NCP pounce
  • Representational image
    Some issues remain unresolved despite progress in 2nd round of US tariff talks: Press Minister Mortoza

MOST VIEWED

  • Representational image
    In addition to 35% tariff, US demands 40% local value addition for 'Made in Bangladesh' goods
  • RAB Director General AKM Shahidur Rahman speaks at the press briefing on a fake bomb threat on Biman Bangladesh flight on Saturday, 12 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    Mother faked bomb threat on Biman flight to stop married son from flying with girlfriend: RAB
  • Screengrab blurred
    Killers bash in head of man with rock, stomp body with perverse pleasure
  • Photo: UNB
    Saima Wazed Putul ‘placed on indefinite leave’ from WHO role amid corruption allegations
  • How tender rules and a lone bidder stall a $2.5b power plant
    How tender rules and a lone bidder stall a $2.5b power plant
  • Bangladesh and US hold tariff talks on 11 July 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    Dhaka, Washington yet to agree on 20% of US tariff conditions: BGMEA

Related News

  • Covid: One dead, eight more infected
  • New Covid-19 variant in town: Are we ready to fight the old enemy in a new guise?
  • State-of-the-art Covid lab and ICU lie idle in Bhola as infections rise
  • Triple threat: Dengue, Covid cases surge as chikungunya reemerges
  • Covid-19: 2 more deaths, 4 new cases reported in 24hrs

Features

The 2020 Harrier's Porsche Cayenne coupe-like rear roofline, integrated LED lighting with the Modellista special bodykit all around, and a swanky front grille scream OEM Plus for the sophisticated enthusiast looking for a bigger family car that isn’t boring. PHOTO: Ahbaar Mohammad

2020 Toyota Harrier Hybrid: The Japanese Macan

9h | Wheels
The showroom was launched through a lavish event held there, and in attendance were DHS Motors’ Managing Director Nafees Khundker, CEO Imran Zaman Khan, and GMs Arman Rashid and Farhan Samad. PHOTO: Akif Hamid

GAC inaugurate flagship showroom in Dhaka

9h | Wheels
After India's visa restriction, China's Kunming is drawing Bangladeshi patients

After India's visa restriction, China's Kunming is drawing Bangladeshi patients

1d | Panorama
Photo: Collected/BBC

What Hitler’s tariff policy misfire can teach the modern world

2d | The Big Picture

More Videos from TBS

Why is there a mystery surrounding the death of 'Jalibi' actress Humaira?

Why is there a mystery surrounding the death of 'Jalibi' actress Humaira?

1h | TBS World
Why cockpit audio deepens the mystery of Air India crash

Why cockpit audio deepens the mystery of Air India crash

2h | Others
Housing officer shot in Pallavi for not paying bribe

Housing officer shot in Pallavi for not paying bribe

3h | TBS Today
BNP does not protect criminals like Sheikh Hasina: Rizvi

BNP does not protect criminals like Sheikh Hasina: Rizvi

2h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net