of the new york times. each of the nearly 500,000 dots represents one lost life. it stretches chronologically down from the first reported to the current death toll. and those deaths come from every state. you ll see a break down for each state at the bottom of your screen. the washington post had another way to grasp it. transporting 500,000 people will require a caravan of more than 9800 buses. the caravan would stretch almost 95 miles, roughly the distance from philadelphia to new york. all this began nearly one year ago when the u.s. recorded its first known death from covid-19. by may we had hit 100,000 fatalities. by december 300,000. we hit 400,000 nearly a month ago. but these deaths need not be in vain. there is reason for hope. new covid cases are declining. the death rate is slowing. and vaccination rates are up. right now about 5.4% of americans are fully vaccinated. dr. anthony fauci says that normalcy is in sight, though we have a ways to go. i think we re g