Breaking News: The coronavirus has killed more than one million people worldwide since it emerged, more than influenza, malaria, cholera and measles, combined.

The agonizing toll, compiled from official counts, far understates how many have really died. https://nyti.ms/2S9BZId 

More than a million people — parents, children, siblings, friends, neighbors, colleagues, teachers, classmates — all gone, suddenly and prematurely.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of it all is that much of the suffering could have been avoided.

Time and again, experts say, governments reacted too slowly, waiting until their own countries or regions were under siege, either dismissing the threat or seeing it as China’s problem, or Asia’s, or Italy’s, or Europe’s, or New York’s.

Thomas Frieden, a former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a major failing had been in governments’ communication with the public, nowhere more so than in the U.S.

Scientists are still working to learn much about the virus, including how it mutates and how fast, which makes it impossible to predict how long a possible vaccine might work.

From a public health standpoint, the biggest unknown may be whether the world will be any better prepared when — not if, but when — the next pandemic arrives. https://nyti.ms/2GfP7cb