“It’s really hard to put all of it into words.”
It was December, as Covid-19 deaths were besieging California, and Helen Cordova, an intensive care unit nurse in Los Angeles, was trying to describe what it was like.
“This is a very real disease,” Ms. Cordova said. “Those images of inside of hospitals, that’s very accurate.”
Two months later, it is still hard to put in words how deeply the pandemic has scarred the state, but one single number told the story: 50,000.
That is how many people have died from coronavirus over the past year in California — the first state to pass that milestone. The record was hit on Wednesday, and by Thursday deaths were nearing 51,000.