The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 topped 200,000 Tuesday, by far the highest in the world, and it is still climbing.
Deaths are running at close to 770 a day on average, and a widely cited model from the University of Washington predicts the U.S. toll will double to 400,000 by the end of the year as schools and colleges reopen and cold weather sets in.
The bleak milestone was reported by Johns Hopkins, based on figures supplied by state health authorities. But the real toll is thought to be much higher, in part because many COVID-19 deaths were probably ascribed to other causes, especially early on, before widespread testing.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 31 million people and is closing in fast on 1 million deaths, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
Johnson & Johnson is beginning a huge final study to try to prove if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the virus.
The study starting Wednesday will be one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccine studies so far, testing the shot in 60,000 volunteers in the U.S., South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
A handful of other vaccines in the U.S. — including shots made by Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. — and others in other countries are already in final-stage testing.
Hopes are high that answers about at least one candidate being tested in the U.S. could come by year’s end, maybe sooner.
Former St. Thomas student Ray Ghansham Persaud pleaded guilty to phoning a hoax bomb threat against St. Thomas’ St. Paul campus on Sept. 17, 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
According to Persaud’s plea, he admitted he was unprepared for class and did not do his homework on the dates that he called in the bomb threats: April 17, Aug. 20 and Sept. 17, 2019.
Persaud pleaded guilty to count three of the indictment, which charged him with the September bomb threat. The U.S. Attorney’s office will ask the court to dismiss the April and August charges, the statement said.
Maddie Peters can be reached at pete9542@stthomas.edu.