A harrowing milestone

The death toll in the United States due to coronavirus surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 people last week.

It took less than four months for this unseen enemy to kill 100,000 Americans. That's almost twice the number of Americans lost during the entire Vietnam War. No one knew how bad the coronavirus pandemic would get when the first known virus-related death occurred on February 6.

But since then, an average of nearly 900 Americans have died every day from Covid-19. That number is a gut punch -- in part because this was not inevitable. There are a lot of family members left wondering: Could my loved one's death have been prevented? Hopefully there are lessons that have been learned and new understandings that we may need to apply right away.

We must remember this is by no means over. We're still in the middle of this. And the number could be even higher. Some victims -- such as those who die in their homes and not in a hospital -- might never have been tested for Covid-19. And sometimes, officials within the same state don't agree on how to report deaths.