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Wednesday 30 september 2020
Worldwide death toll from coronavirus eclipses 1 million

Continued from Front edy, millions of deaths are
a statistic. The pandemic’s
That is far more than any toll of 1 million dead in such
other country, despite a limited time rivals some of
America’s wealth and the gravest threats to pub-
medical resources. lic health, past and present.
“I can understand why ... It exceeds annual deaths
numbers are losing their from AIDS, which last year
power to shock, but I still killed about 690,000 people
think it’s really important worldwide. The virus’s toll is
that we understand how approaching the 1.5 million
big these numbers re- global deaths each year
ally are,” said Mark Hon- from tuberculosis, which
igsbaum, author of “The regularly kills more people
Pandemic Century: One than any other infectious
Hundred Years of Panic, disease. But “COVID’s grip
Hysteria and Hubris.” on humanity is incompa-
The global toll includes rably greater than the grip
people like Joginder of other causes of death,”
Chaudhary, who was his said Lawrence Gostin, a
parents’ greatest pride, professor of global health
raised with the little they law at Georgetown Uni-
earned farming a half-acre versity. He noted the un-
plot in central India to be- In this Sept. 24, 2020, file photo, cemetery workers place the coffin containing the remains of Jose employment, poverty and
come the first doctor from de Arimateia, 65, who died from COVID-19 complications, into a niche at the municipal cemetery despair caused by the
in Nova Iguacu, Brazil.
their village. Associated Press pandemic, and deaths
After the virus killed the from myriad other illnesses
27-year-old Chaudhary in his church to the dead, on Jan. 11. By the time au- Brazil has recorded the that have gone untreated.
late July, his mother wept lining up 80 coffins in the thorities locked down the second most deaths af- For all its lethality, the virus
inconsolably. With her son center aisle. After an army city nearly two weeks lat- ter the U.S., with about has claimed far fewer lives
gone, Premlata Chaud- convoy carted them to a er, millions of travelers had 142,000. India is third and than the so-called Spanish
hary said, how could she crematory, another 80 ar- come and gone. China’s Mexico fourth, with more flu, which killed an estimat-
go on living? Three weeks rived. Then 80 more. government has come in than 76,000. The virus has ed 40 million to 50 million
later, on Aug. 18, the virus Eventually the crisis re- for criticism that it did not forced trade-offs between worldwide in two years, just
took her life, too. All told, it ceded and the world’s at- do enough to alert other safety and economic well- over a century ago.
has killed more than 96,000 tention moved on. But the countries to the threat. being. The choices made That pandemic came be-
in India. pandemic’s grasp endures. Government leaders in have left millions of people fore scientists had micro-
“This pandemic has ruined In August, Carminati buried countries like Germany, vulnerable, especially the scopes powerful enough
my family,” said the young his 34-year-old nephew. South Korea and New Zea- poor, minorities and the to identify the enemy or
doctor’s father, Rajendra “This thing should make us land worked effectively to elderly. antibiotics that could treat
Chaudhary. “All our aspi- all reflect. The problem is contain it. Others, like U.S. With so many of the deaths the bacterial pneumonia
rations, our dreams, every- that we think we’re all im- President Donald Trump beyond view in hospital that killed most of the vic-
thing is finished.” mortal,” the priest said. and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, wards and clustered on tims. In the U.S., the Spanish
When the virus over- The virus first appeared in dismissed the severity of society’s margins, the mile- flu killed about 675,000. But
whelmed cemeteries in late 2019 in patients hos- the threat and the guid- stone recalls the grim pro- most of those deaths did
the Italian province of Ber- pitalized in the Chinese ance of scientists, even as nouncement often attribut- not come until a second
gamo last spring, the Rev. city of Wuhan, where the hospitals filled with gravely ed to Soviet dictator Josef wave hit over the winter of
Mario Carminati opened first death was reported ill patients. Stalin: One death is a trag- 1918-19.q

How can I volunteer for a COVID-19 vaccine study?

By The Associated Press see if a shot causes a risky virus for researchers to be
How can I volunteer for a reaction in people. Older able to tell if the vaccine
COVID-19 vaccine study? adults, anyone with a works. That's why essential
Governments and serious underlying illness, workers, such as grocery
companies are setting up and pregnant women are or transportation workers
websites where people can typically excluded from this who come into frequent
sign up.Enthusiasm is high: testing stage. contact with others, are
More than 400,000 people In final-stage studies, especially sought after for
have signed a registry of scientists need tens of the last testing phase. It's
possible volunteers that's thousands of volunteers also why researchers are
part of a vaccine network who reflect the diversity of recruiting in places where
set up by the U.S. National the population, including the virus is spreading, not
Institutes of Health. those at high risk of severe areas that have it under
But before raising your illness from the virus. So control — so even if you
hand, it's important to volunteers can include meet the eligibility criteria,
understand how the people who are over age you might not be called
Belgium's Queen Mathilde, fourth left speaks with a volunteer, research works. 65 and people with chronic back, depending on where
second right, as she receives an injection at the Center for Initial studies include health problems such as you live.Volunteers won't
the Evaluation of Vaccinations (CEV) in Antwerp, Belgium, only a few dozen young, diabetes. know if they're getting
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020.
Associated Press healthy volunteers, since Enough study participants the vaccine or a dummy
this is the first chance to have to be exposed to the shot.q