The reality has far exceeded the pessimistic predictions of US public health officials, who last March claimed that the coronavirus, which President Trump has repeatedly trivialized, could kill up to 200,000 Americans.
According to CNN, the coronavirus has claimed more lives in the United States than strokes, auto accidents and suicides combined. It is also six times more than the number of victims of the flu, to which President Trump had compared the virus.
With a new surge in cases across the country, the toll will continue to rise. Experts say the virus could kill between 100,000 and 200,000 more in the coming months.
For Wednesday alone, the COVID Tracking Project of the magazine The Atlantic recorded 1869 deaths. The site also reports a record daily number of hospitalizations, more than 79,400.
The country, which has also accumulated 11.5 million cases since the start of the year, recorded more than 155,000 cases for the day, more than double the peak reached this summer. Less vulnerable to the disease, however, more young people are contracting the virus than in the past.
The daily number of cases had declined by the end of the spring, before rising again and peaking in July. After a further decline, cases started to rise again in mid-September.
This week, President-designate Joe Biden lamented the Trump administration’s refusal to move forward with the power transition process, highlighting the devastating effects the lack of coordination between government public health officials and own team.
More people could die if we don’t coordinate
, he warned, citing the complexity of a vaccination plan formillion Americans “,” text “:” 300million Americans “}}” lang = “en”>300 million Americans at a time when the most recent results related to two vaccines, those of Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Moderna, are encouraging.
However, the protective effects of the vaccines may not be felt until next year.
In an interview with NBC News, White House epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases, also indicated that the delays caused by the freezing of the transition on worried
.
While the virus shows no signs of slowing down, President Trump, with 63 days to go until his term ends, appears not to be concerned about the situation. A member of the White House coronavirus task force recently revealed on ABC network that he had not attended a group meeting for five months.
According to the revelations of investigative reporter Bob Woodward, the US president admitted back in winter, during interviews, that he knew the virus was deadly
and worse than the flu, and downplaying the situation.
New York closes its schools
During the day, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, announced that the public schools of the metropolis, which had reopened their doors after much hesitation at the end of September, would close them on Thursday by precautionary measure
.
On Twitter, he explained the decision by the fact that the rate of positive diagnoses has now reached the 3% threshold, emphasizing the need to fight the second wave of the pandemic
.
The measure was expected though controversial, with tests showing the positivity rate in schools to be far below the city’s average rate.
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