One hundred thousand Americans dead in less than four months. It's as if every person in Edison, New Jersey, or Kenosha, Wisconsin, died. It's half the population of Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's about 20 times the number of people killed in homicides in that length of time, about twice the number who die of strokes.

The number of covid-19 deaths in the United States sped past the 10,000 mark on Monday as the disease ramped up the strain on bedrock systems of American life and death: hospitals, governments and morgues.