TL;DR - a bunch of people died from COVID last year, which hadn't impacted the country before last year. ~345k in 2020, about 547k since pandemic began. Third l

TL;DR - a bunch of people died from COVID last year, which hadn't impacted the country before last year. ~345k in 2020, about 547k since pandemic began. Third leading cause of death in US behind heart disease and cancer. Still about 1000 people a day dying from COVID, which is a rate that's decreasing as vaccines roll out, but variants still present some risk of new spikes.