It is generally assumed that Donald Trump will go down in American history as the worst American president by a large margin. Once the partisanship of our current times is past the excess deaths caused by his actions and inactions will be the thing that will have people wondering how he was ever allowed to lead our Country. Republican/conservative philosophy of minimal federal government action is deadly in a time of a pandemic. It has led to a tidal wave of dead Americans of which Trump still wants to wish away. Never go into a battle with a narcissist.
Now a Columbia University report has attempted to quantify the number of deaths in the United States in excess of what would have been if we had acted differently. Here is just the introduction to that report:
"This report looks at the staggering and disproportionate nature of COVID-19 fatalities in the United
States, which now ranks first in the world in the total number of fatalities, to estimate how many
deaths were “avoidable.” With more than 217,000 lives lost, and a proportional mortality rate twice
that of neighboring Canada and more than fifty times that of Japan -- a country with a much older
population than the U.S. – the United States has turned a global crisis into a devastating tragedy.
Through comparative analysis and applying proportional mortality rates, we estimate that at
least 130,000 deaths and perhaps as many as 210,000 could have been avoided with
earlier policy interventions and more robust federal coordination and leadership.
Even with the dramatic recent appearance of new COVID-19 waves globally, the abject failures of the U.S.
government policies and crisis messaging persist. U.S. fatalities have remained disproportionately
high throughout the pandemic when compared to even other high-mortality countries. The inability
of the U.S. to mitigate the pandemic is especially stark when contrasted with the response of high-income nations, such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, Germany, France, and Canada, as well as
low- and middle-income countries as varied as Thailand, Pakistan, Honduras, and Malaysia. All
of these nations have had greater success in protecting their populations from the impact of the
coronavirus.
Given the United States’ unique social and political realities, we recognize that it might have been
particularly challenging to implement the same caliber of response as South Korea and Japan, both
of which maintain centralized unitary governments. Nonetheless, the range of “avoidable deaths”
outlined above stems from data illustrating how some of the best-performing nations have achieved much greater results in protecting their populations."
P.S.
I could help but think this after hearing Chris Christe say he should have worn a mask at the ceremony introducing the new Supreme Court nominee. Here is how someone expressed it. "Like most Republicans on virtually any topic, I didn't care about this issue until it affected me personally. I will now speak out, pretending to have seen the light of bipartisanship and science, but in fact, I am the same selfish man I have always been and am only alive because of resources I have actively sought to take from others."
