An American tragedy: US COVID death toll tops 700,000

Approximately 1,500 American lives are still being reported lost to the virus every day, according to federal data.

The United States reached another grim milestone on Friday, as the confirmed coronavirus death toll topped 700,000, just over a year and a half into the pandemic, and despite the wide availability of vaccines.

The milestone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, comes less than two weeks after the national death toll surpassed the estimated number of fatalities in the U.S. during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Despite national COVID-19 metrics showing encouraging signs of decline, approximately 1,500 Americans are dying from the virus every day, according to federal data.

"Reaching 700,000 deaths is a tragic and completely avoidable milestone. We had the knowledge and the tools to prevent this from happening, and unfortunately politics, lack of urgency and mistrust in science got us here," said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and ABC News contributor.