President Donald Trump has frequently understated the impact of the coronavirus, which has killed at least 1,000 people, and sometimes more than 2,000, every day for the last month. — AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
The death toll from the coronavirus in the United States could go up to 100,000 people, yet President Donald Trump is declaring victory.
The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.
The New York Times reports that as Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1.
“The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases currently,” the Times said.
“The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse.
‘There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow,’ the Centers for Disease Control warned.
“The projections confirm the primary fear of public health experts: that a reopening of the economy will put the nation right back where it was in mid-March, when cases were rising so rapidly in some parts of the country that patients were dying on gurneys in hospital hallways as the health care system grew overloaded.”
Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former commissioner of food and drugs, said Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation:” “We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we’re just not seeing that.”
On Sunday, Trump said deaths in the United States could reach 100,000, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago. But his new estimate still underestimates what his own administration is now predicting to be the total death toll by the end of May. It follows a pattern for Trump, who has frequently understated the impact of the disease.
“We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” he said in a virtual town hall on Fox News. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.”
Some states that have partially reopened are still seeing an increase in cases, including Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas, according to Times data. Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska also are seeing an increase in cases. Alaska has also reopened and is seeing a small number of increasing cases.
At least 1,000 people with the virus, and sometimes more than 2,000, have died every day for the last month. At least 25,000 new cases of the virus are being identified across the country on a nearly daily basis. Many cities including New York City, New Orleans and Detroit are reporting steady growth in cases.
Yet Trump is declaring victory and is touting his response to the pandemic.
The facts show that the president’s novel coronavirus response has been a disaster, including spreading of misinformation and insufficient testing due to a lack of coordination. The Trump administration failed to send protective medical gear for health care workers that public health experts say is needed to tackle the crisis. He cut off funding to the World Health Organization in the middle of a global pandemic.
Trump’s bungled messaging downplayed the crisis even as it’s worsened.
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