R&I – FS
The “vast majority” of the almost 550,000 coronavirus deaths in the US could have been prevented if Donald Trump’s administration had acted earlier and with greater conviction, according to one of the public health experts charged with leading the pandemic response at the time. “I look at it this way. The first time we have an excuse, there were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”
Trump was criticised for downplaying the seriousness of the virus, making numerous false claims, including that its effects were no worse than flu, predicting Covid-19 would “just disappear” and referring to it in racist terms. He pressed for cities and states to reopen through last summer as a second wave pushed the death toll higher. He also ridiculed the wearing of masks and made outlandish claims such as suggesting injecting disinfectant into the body could be a legitimate coronavirus treatment, which experts slammed at the time as dangerous. A Columbia University study last year found 84% of deaths could have been prevented with an earlier shutdown, CNN reported.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/dr-deborah-birx-cnn-documentary-covid-trump