Stepping Up Now - More Lost than in War - Time to Recover is here

 Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significantly higher number of deaths than recent annual war-related fatalities, and the total U.S. death toll surpassed American battle deaths in nearly all major U.S. wars individually. 

Global Comparison

The official global death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic was over 7.3 million people, but estimates of excess mortality suggest the true toll could be as high as 18 million deaths. In comparison, while specific annual global war death tolls vary, the massive scale of the pandemic makes it one of the most severe mortality shocks since World War II. 

U.S. Comparison

In the U.S., the COVID-19 death toll was staggering, quickly surpassing the number of American lives lost in many historical conflicts:

• More than U.S. deaths in World War II: The pandemic death toll exceeded the 405,399 American military deaths during WWII.
• More than combined U.S. battle deaths in multiple wars: At one point, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll was noted as being more than WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined.
• Approached Civil War numbers: The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 at one point was near the American Civil War toll, the bloodiest war in U.S. history, which saw approximately 620,000 deaths (though some estimates go higher).
• More than the Vietnam War: The number of lives lost to COVID-19 in the U.S. surpassed the 58,220 Americans who died in the Vietnam War early in the pandemic. 

Context

Comparisons between war deaths (often tied to political causes and combat) and pandemic deaths (biologically driven) are often considered difficult due to the different nature of the events and the ways data is collected. War-related deaths can be clearly defined by a conflict's duration, while a pandemic is an ongoing public health crisis with indirect mortality effects (e.g., strain on healthcare systems) that can be difficult to quantify precisely without using excess mortality estimates.

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/03/962811921/the-u-s-battles-coronavirus-but-is-it-fair-to-compare-pandemic-to-a-war