It Didn't Have to Happen

By year-end, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 could be greater than that of WWII.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Hillary Clinton tweeted some criticism of Trump this week and so Republicans made “Benghazi” (where 4 people died) trend on Twitter.

Trump himself tweeted (again) about the “disaster” of the 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic (12,469 U.S. deaths).

Meanwhile, as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 190,000, the widely used projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME) were raised to 410,451 by the end of the year.

That’s 102,613 Benghazis.

Or nearly 33 H1N1 pandemics.

Or more Americans than died in WWII.

World War Two: 405,399.

COVID-19: 410,451

No wonder Republicans were focused on spinning the August jobs report (1.4 million jobs created!), despite the fact it revealed the U.S. economy has still lost 11.5 million jobs since February, many of which are not coming back. And despite fact that unemployment rates for minorities remain in double digits, with Black unemployment at 13% (vs. 7.3% for whites.)

While we are now heading toward a death toll greater than U.S. losses in all of World War Two, the Republicans and Fox News are still trying to sell it as a YUGE triumph, made possible only by the brilliant decision-making of Dear Leader (who no doubt would have done an even better job if we had just allowed him to experiment with those bleach injections).

Reality: America Is First In Death.

The current U.S. death toll is higher than any other country in the world. As the Labor Day weekend begins, we are close to 200,000 dead. No other country has more than 150,000 deaths. Only one other country has more than 100,000 (Brazil is at 125,584 as of September 5). Only four countries have more than 50,000 deaths.

The fact is, America has one of the worst death rates per capita of ANY country —with 580 deaths per million population vs. the world average of 113 per million.

Being American and living in the world’s richest, most innovative country under the leadership of Donald Trump makes you more than 5X more likely to die of COVID-19 than the average person outside the USA.

Sure, living in the U.K. or Brazil is just as bad. But both of those countries are led by mini-Trump COVIDIOTS Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro, both of whom not only dismissed the risks, but also caught the virus themselves.

Because of Trump, people in America are dying of COVID-19 at a rate:

• 23% higher than France.
• 61% higher than Ireland.
• 2.4X higher than Canada.
• 5.2X higher than Germany.
• 20X higher than Australia.
• 53X higher than Japan.
• 97X higher than South Korea.
• 1,933X higher than Taiwan.

It should be noted that Taiwan is right next to China, has a population of 24 million and is the 17th most densely populated country in the world. So if anyone wants to talk about “shutting it down coming in from China” it should be Tsai Ing-wen, the first female President of Taiwan.

Imagine that. First female President. Competent coronavirus response. What might have been.

“It Was Premeditated.”

We are already reaching the point beyond which Trump can claim to have done “a very good job” managing the crisis. Republicans will be doing all they can to distract from Trump’s epic failure in the next two months. But, as I wrote six months ago, the fact that Trump lied us into this pandemic is something for which he should never be forgiven. His incompetence and mismanagement have been deadly. And recent reports indicate, some of his and Jared Kushner’s politically motivated decisions were likely criminal.

Some are already arguing for prosecutions. Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner has said repeatedly that Trump’s actions on COVID-19 satisfy “the three elements of either involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide.”

Kristin Urquiza, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, has become a spokesperson for those whose loved ones have been killed by Trump.

Epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves told Salon in May: “It was premeditated. There were people in the White House and elsewhere warning Donald Trump, ‘People are going to die. We need to do something  about this.’ And the White House made a concerted policy decision to  let people die. Their response to the coronavirus was death by public policy.”

And it was a whole lot worse than Trump refusing to get on the phone with the Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

As Greg Olear wrote here on Substack: “Jared Kushner deliberately exacerbated a global pandemic by kibboshing the national testing plan his own buddies had come up with, apparently hoping for a blue state genocide that, in his twisted calculus, would help Trump win re-election.”

The number of people whose loved ones will die from COVID-19 will only grow between now and Election Day, even as Trump sows chaos and confusion in a desperate attempt to rig the election.

By the end of the year, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 could be greater than that of World War Two. We’ve already lost the war on the coronavirus. With four more years of Trump, we’ll lose our democracy, too.

Biden’s mandate must be overwhelming. Make your plan now. And encourage others to register and vote, too.

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