At other moments of epic loss, like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Americans have pulled together to confront crisis and console survivors.
In recent weeks, virus deaths have fallen from more than 4,000 reported on some days in January to an average of fewer than 1,900 per day.
Still, at half a million, the toll recorded by Johns Hopkins University is already greater than the population of Miami or Kansas City, Missouri.
It is roughly equal to the number of Americans killed in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.
I so believed in him and my faith,” said Nancy Espinoza, whose husband, Antonio, was hospitalized with COVID-19 last month.