The Covid death toll is too big for Americans' brains to handle Research suggests that our inability to understand large numbers plays into how we react to mass deaths. The human brain is not wired to process large numbers. Like the 300,000 Americans we have lost to Covid-19.Anjali Nair / MSNBC; Getty Images Dec. 16, 2020, 10:31 AM UTC The past year has left us feeling like an overstimulated nerve: We've been rubbed raw, our sensors deadened, threatening to go fully numb as Covid-19 has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States. It's why, even as the pandemic is at its worst point ...