 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. On February 22, the US recorded 500,000 COVID-19 related deaths. This current death told not only outstrips the fatalities of other badly affected nations but also vastly outnumbers the annual death rate of the most devastating wars and epidemics of the 19th and 20th century. The disease is now just behind heart attack and cancer as the leading cause of death in the US. While the pandemic has had a devastating effect on US citizens everywhere, it has affected the most underprivileged racial minorities including African Americans, Latin Americans and Native Americans the hardest. By the end of the first wave of pandemic, counties with dominant Native American and Black demographics were among the worst infected. During the first wave, the Navajoon Nation topped in terms of infection rates while Black mortalities represented a majority of the deaths in deep South states. According to APM Research Lab as of February, the average fatality rate across the US stands close to 151 for every 100,000 people. It was as high as 210.6 and 135.2 for Native Americans and Black people. Moreover, a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the single biggest decline in average life expectancy in the past 40 years was in the year 2020. Life expectancy on average is estimated to have dropped by 1.13 years in 2020 and will continue to decline in 2021 due to continuing deaths and long-term effects of the pandemic on public health and the economy. According to the study here, two racial disparities are quite stark. The decline of life expectancy for African Americans is as high as 2.1 years and for Latin Americans it's 3.05 years compared to 0.68 years for white Americans. The University of Washington has projected deaths to go up by more than 589,000 by June 1st. How did the United States get here? The answer has partly to do with the initial response of the authorities and the people to the pandemic. The federal government and the then President Donald Trump, disregarded early warnings from China and the World Health Organization, refused lockdown protocols and even encouraged his supporters to openly flout counter-pandemic measures like wearing masks or observing physical distancing. This was one of the factors that led to uncontrolled community transmissions which caused hospitals to be overwhelmed in major cities like Detroit and New York between March and April and in the rest of the country by August. The numbers reveal the same. The U.S. reported the first 1 million infections by April 25th, 2 million by June 5th, 5 million by August 4th, 10 million by November 5th, 15 million by December 5th, 20 million by December 29th, 25 million by January 20th and is expected to reach 30 million by the end of this month. The casualties have risen in a similar fashion. It hit the first 100,000 by May 22nd, 200,000 by September 14th, 300,000 by December 9th, 400,000 by January 15th and 500,000 on February 22nd this year. The sharpest increase in mortality was witnessed in the months of December and January when 200,000 deaths were added. Despite the alarming statistics, the current ruling establishment is yet to reckon with the gravity of the situation. Despite the vaccination drive that has begun in earnest, the federal government is yet to come up with a plan to mitigate this public health catastrophe. Even there, the government is hit with the rising deficit of trust among public health workers and frontline workers with many in several states continuing to refuse vaccination. Socialists in the US pointed out that in order to even begin to mitigate the disaster, the US needs to take the immediate expansion and indefinite extension of the current stimulus package which is set to expire in mid-March. There have also been demands for a proactive intervention from the government to start real relief for working people with steps such as rent and mortgage cancellation, a guaranteed income and universal health care.