US coronavirus deaths top 400,000 as Donald Trump leaves office
- The toll is expected to soon surpass the number of Americans killed in World War II
- Trump once insisted the virus was ‘totally under control’. Experts say his administration’s handling of the crisis led to thousands of avoidable deaths
As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the US recorded its first confirmed case of Covid-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control”.
Now, in his final hours in office, after a year of presidential denials of reality and responsibility, the pandemic’s US death toll has eclipsed 400,000. And the loss of lives is accelerating.
“This is just one step on an ominous path of fatalities,” said Dr Irwin Redlener, director of the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and one of many public health experts who contend the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis led to thousands of avoidable deaths.
“Everything about how it’s been managed has been infused with incompetence and dishonesty, and we’re paying a heavy price,” he said.
The 400,000-death toll, reported on Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of New Orleans, Cleveland or Tampa, Florida. It is nearly equal to the number of American lives lost annually to strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia combined.
With more than 4,000 deaths recorded on some recent days – the most since the pandemic began – the toll by week’s end will probably surpass the number of Americans killed in World War II.