The United State crossed a grim milestone Sunday—topping 5 million confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 160,000 Americans have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. The tallies are the worst in the world by a wide margin: Brazil, the country with the second-highest count, is home to 3 million cases, and 100,000 Brazilians have died as of this week. Rates of new infections in the U.S. have shown few signs of slowing, and the total number has more than doubled in the past two months. California leads the nation with more than 550,000 infections, followed closely by Florida, which has also breached half a million cases. Many of the measures public health experts say are necessary to suppress the raging pandemic have stalled, casualties of a culture war that has seen conservative politicians, including President Donald Trump, and their supporters battle against public health in favor of states reopening for business as usual. Meanwhile, some countries like New Zealand appear to have conquered the virus entirely and have returned to a version of life as before.
