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Read more here ![\\"democrat_symbol\\"](\\"/design/images/democrat_symbol.png\\"/) Fact Check # Have More Americans Died from COVID-19 Than from All Foreign Conflicts? ## Another way to put 700,000 deaths into perspective: This is more than the population of Washington D.C. ### Dan Evon ### Published Oct. 7, 2021 ![\\"](\\" Image courtesy of Wikipedia Claim: More Americans have died from COVID-19 than from all foreign conflicts in U.S. history. Rating: True About this rating > Check out the other categories to read the rest of our COVID-19 fact checks. > What questions do you have? Help Snopes investigate rumors around the novel > coronavirus by sending us your tips. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians, journalists, and social media commentators have made several attempts to put the rising death toll into perspective. In March 2020, when the United States saw its first 100,000 deaths from this disease, The New York Times noted that this death toll exceeded the \"number of U.S. military combat fatalities in every conflict since the Korean War.\" Advertisement: As the death toll increased, new parallels were drawn. In February 2021, when the death toll crossed the half million threshold, the BBC published an article noting that this was larger than the population of Atlanta. In June 2021, when the death toll hit 600,000, The Associated Press reported that this was equal to the number of people who die from cancer every year. In September 2021, as the United States reflected on 9/11, Axios noted that COVID-19 was killing the amount of people who died during these terrorist attacks (about 3,000) every two days. When the COVID-19 death toll surpassed 700,000 American citizens, a new comparison was made. According to a viral October 2021 Reddit post, COVID-19 has caused more American deaths than every foreign conflict in United States\' history. > Advertisement: This graph is accurate. It should be noted, however, that this graph shows major foreign conflicts, but not every foreign conflict. For example, this graph does not show the Quasi-War or the Barbary Wars, but the causalities during these conflicts were minimal (less than a hundred). As of this writing on Oct. 7, 2021, there have been 704,233 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We checked the American death tolls for these wars, and found that this graph was largely accurate. In some cases, such as with the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the figures listed in this graph factored in deaths from disease in addition to battle deaths. In other cases, such as the Gulf War, the statistics we found did not quite match the figures listed in this graph. However, the difference in statistics was negligible. If you add the death toll from World War II (405,399), World War I (116,516), Vietnam War (58,220), Korean War (36,574), Revolutionary War (about 25,000), War of 1812 (about 15,000), Mexican-American War (13,283), War on Terror (about 7,000), Philippine-American War (4,200), Spanish-American War (2,447), Gulf War (383), you find that COVID-19 has resulted in more American deaths (about 700,000) than the number of deaths suffered during every major foreign conflict (685,000) in United States\' history. Comparing deaths from a pandemic to deaths from a combination of wars, however, isn\'t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Unfortunately, there\'s an even more direct historical parallel that you can draw to put the COVID-19 death toll in perspective. In September 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic became the deadliest pandemic in American history as the death toll surpassed the death toll from the 1918 flu pandemic. Advertisement: CNBC reported: > Covid-19 is officially the most deadly outbreak in recent American history, > surpassing the estimated U.S. fatalities from the 1918 influenza pandemic, > according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. > > Reported U.S. deaths due to Covid crossed 675,000 on Monday, and are rising > at an average of more than 1,900 fatalities per day, Johns Hopkins data > shows. The nation is currently experiencing yet another wave of new > infections, fueled by the fast-spreading delta variant. > > The 1918 flu – which came in three waves, occurring in the spring of 1918, > the fall of 1918; and the winter and spring of 1919 – killed an estimated > 675,000 Americans, according to the Centers for the Disease Control and > Prevention. It was considered America’s most lethal pandemic in recent > history up until now. #### Sources CDC. “COVID Data Tracker.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Mar. 2020, “Covid US Death Toll: Imagining What 500,000 Lost Lives Look Like.” BBC News, 22 Feb. 2021. “Four Months After First Case, U.S. Death Toll Passes 100,000.” The New York Times, 27 May 2020. NYTimes.com, Jr, Berkeley Lovelace. “Covid Is Officially America’s Deadliest Pandemic as U.S. Fatalities Surpass 1918 Flu Estimates.” CNBC, 20 Sept. 2021, fatalities-near-1918-flu-estimates.html. Milestones: 1899–1913 - Office of the Historian. Accessed 7 Oct. 2021. Reed, Tina. “COVID Is Exacting the Death Toll of a 9/11 Every Two Days.” Axios, september-11-8b2b230f-9dd4-4c4c-b677-6df2be18ccc9.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2021. “US COVID-19 Deaths Hit 600,000, Equal to Yearly Cancer Toll.” AP NEWS, 15 June 2021, us-1ef14a0b998e6ce99281edf6e996dfbe. “War of 1812 Facts.” American Battlefield Trust, 30 Mar. 2017, Windholz, Michael E. O’Hanlon and Lily. “Do Not Take the War on Terror’s Big Success for Granted.” Brookings, 27 Aug. 2021, war-on-terrors-big-success-for-granted/. ### By Dan Evon Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes. ## Article Tags COVID-19 Recommendations Advertisement: ![\\"Snopes.com\\"](\\"/design/images/logo-main.png\\") Company About Us FAQs Contact Us Submit a Topic Navigate Home Search Archive Newsletters Random Sections Latest Top Fact Checks News Account Join Login Game FactBot Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter © 1995 - 2024 by Snopes Media Group Inc. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com Terms of Use Privacy Policy DMCA Policy
More Americans have died from COVID19 than from all foreign conflicts in US history