You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Shortwave, Emily Quonkear.

So it is Monday, May 16th, as I'm recording this, and the US is close to officially declaring

that COVID-19 has claimed the lives of a million people in this country, a figure substantiated

by several counts from the CDC and from Johns Hopkins University.

But this official number is academic.

Doctors say it's likely we passed the million-death mark a while ago.

I'm recording this from NPR headquarters.

Then two years ago, sitting in this booth, one million deaths was unthinkable to me.

And now, the office is empty, with the producers and editors and hosts who make Shortwave every

day working remotely.

We're marking this moment together, but apart, as cases and hospitalizations are again on

the rise.

I want to take a moment to honor and think about those who were here with us in 2020, who

are not anymore.

And if you're grieving someone, we grieve with you.

From a public health standpoint, it's hard to accept the fact that many of these COVID-19

deaths were preventable.

According to a study from the Brown School of Public Health and Microsoft AI for Health,

here exclusively with NPR, nearly 319,000 COVID-19 deaths could have been averted if all adults

in the US had been vaccinated.

So today, we're going to hand it over to correspond in Alston, Aubrey, talking to our colleagues

...