Pandemic death toll what Trump made it
In the first presidential debate, President Donald Trump said to Democrat candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, “If we would have listened to you, the country would have been left wide open. Millions of people would have died, not 200,000. ... It's China's fault. ... We've done a great job.”
I decided to get some perspective on what it means for 200,000 Americans to die from COVID -19 or any other previously unseen illness. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in each of 2017 and 2018, roughly 2.8 million Americans died. The three leading causes of death in both those years were heart disease followed by cancer and accidents (unintentional injuries), with the top two accounting for about a third of all deaths those years. In the six months since April, the United States has recorded more than 200,000 COVID -19 deaths, more than any other country in the world, and sufficient to make COVID -19 the third leading cause of death in the United States for 2020, accounting for more deaths in six months than accidental deaths over 12 months.
A “great job?" That’s a tough case to make, but I think Trump hit the nail on the head, unintentionally, when he said, “But I'll tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job we've done.” Trump has said, “It is what it is,” regarding the pandemic's death toll. I say, no, it is what the president made it.
Gary Schwartz
West Sand Lake