More Americans have died from coronavirus than died in World War I

Capitol building seen in ambulance reflection.

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

published 17 June 2020

America's coronavirus death toll has hit a grim new milestone.

As of Wednesday, 117,129 Americans have died of confirmed or presumed cases of COVID-19, according to numbers kept by Johns Hopkins University. That's more than the 116,708 Americans who died during World War I, albeit a good number of them did presumably die from the 1918 flu pandemic circling the globe at the time.

America's COVID-19 death toll also happened over a much shorter time period than World War I's. The first reported death from COVID-19 in the U.S. came just four months ago in February, while America's involvement in World War I lasted more than a year. And the coronavirus pandemic is still far from over — new estimates suggest the U.S. could see more than 200,000 deaths from the virus by October.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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