Understanding the massive scale of coronavirus in the US

As the country begins to reopen, it’s clear that life will look starkly different on the other side of the crisis. In just months, more than 150,000 people have died in the US with a global toll of more than 660,000 lives, a scale both difficult to comprehend and beyond any pandemic in recent history.

These massive numbers are not just anonymous figures. They represent individual lives — and the countless loved ones left behind in the wake of the pandemic, grappling with how to mourn and pay tribute to the people they’ve lost. Read some of their stories here.

Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering; Congressional Research Service; US Department of Defense; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization; Government of Puerto Rico; Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom; National Hurricane Center; 9/11 Memorial & Museum; US Department of Labor; US Census Bureau; NYMEX; County of Santa Clara, California; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration