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THE DEATH TOLL from coronavirus in the US has reached 150,000 – by the far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The bleak milestone comes amid signs that the nation’s outbreak is beginning to stabilise in the Sun Belt but heating up in the Mid-west, fuelled largely by young adults who are visiting bars, restaurants and gyms again.
The surge has been accompanied by a burgeoning outbreak of misinformation and conspiracy theories about supposed cures and the effectiveness of masks.
Brazil has the second highest toll with over 88,000 deaths, followed by the UK at 46,000.
Johns Hopkins put the nation’s confirmed infections at nearly 4.4 million, also the highest in the world, though the real numbers in the US and around the globe are believed to be higher because of limits on testing and the many mild cases that have gone undetected or unreported.
The Trump administration has faced repeated criticism for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier today, Trump issued a strong defence of the disproved use of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, hours after social media companies deleted videos he shared promoting its use which they saw as potentially harmful.
Trump defended his decision to promote a viral video of a group of doctors promoting the use of the drug on Monday, even though his own administration withdrew emergency authorisation for its use against the coronavirus.
“I think they’re very respected doctors,” Trump said, adding they believed in the drug.
“There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it.”
Trump has also repeatedly clashed with Dr Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force. Fauci has become an off-and-on target of Mr Trump and some of his White House aides and outside allies, who disagreed with the doctor’s early recommendation to shut down the economy as a way to slow the virus, which is surging again in parts of the country.
Yesterday, Fauci said he would deal with the attacks by keeping his head down and doing his job.
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Rest in peace 150,000 Poor Souls.
@tony murphy: what about the 355,000 who have died of cancer in the USA so far in 2020?
RIP for them too?
@Greg Daniel: What’s your problem? This article is about coronavirus, not cancer. The problem is Nobody says cancer is a hoax but too many m0r0ns still deny the severity of COVID-19 which is causing unnecessary deaths everyday.
@Greg Daniel: absolutely, RIP
@Greg Daniel: well, we’re 7 months into the year, so 51k by cancer a month. Covid hit the US in April, so that makes them pretty much equal.
@Greg Daniel: Why do you want want to ignore 150000 extra deaths?
@Seriousnojoke: no problem. Why not count and do RIP’s for all deaths in newspapers daily.
Covid is unfortunately one more way in which people can die than what we had before the year 2020 started.
Car accidents also cause unnecessary deaths. Why do we still allow cars in society? We could eliminate these unnecessary deaths which don’t discriminate by age or health just by simply banning cars.
Why hasn’t society done that?
@Greg Daniel: except the deaths of many from the virus could have been prevented if somebody with a modicum of intelligence was running the country?!
@Greg Daniel: We have laws and regulations about road safety, right? We put seatbelt on to minimise risks, don’t we? And you don’t think seatbelts are restricting your freedom do you?
So back to Covid-19, why are some people politicising it so much and having such big problems with temporary rules about stay at home and mask wearing?
@Paul Shepherd: the 50 states are run by the governors in relation to covid restrictions. They all have different takes on it. The democrat supported BLM protests and general anarchy haven’t helped whatsoever.
@Greg Daniel: Governors that followed the advice given by the Whitehouse task force and enforced lockdowns were then duly sniped at by Trump for following that advice.
“Free Michigan “ “Free Virginia” Trump tweeted to get his base all riled up and protest at the Michigan legislature and on the streets of many states that basically followed the advice of Fauci and the task force that Trump himself had set up. He’s made a complete and uncoordinated mess of the situation
@Seriousnojoke: are you comparing wearing seatbelts in cars to travel bans, closure of certain industries and businesses, unemployment of thousands, economists. hardship, increase domestic violence and mental health?
@Greg Daniel: absolutely R.I.P. for the cancer victims, it’s an ongoing battle, Corona is something new and different and that is why it is being given our special attention.
@Greg Daniel: are you comparing road collisions to coronavirus?
@Greg Daniel: Since you are comparing the pandemic of a highly contagious disease with car accidents, sure why not.
@Cian Martin: yep, both can kill people. One kills older and medically vulnerable people and the other can kill anyone.
@Greg Daniel:
Go to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning.
@Greg Daniel: Find a better place to be cynical. Preferably, in private.
@Greg Daniel: HEY! What about car crashes? And bee stings? What do you have against people who died from AIDS and Malaria? RIP for them too? RIP for everyone!
@Greg Daniel: that type of deflection is usually used by people who don’t care about victims of any disease or accident, and is usually used to distract, confuse or downplay the original point of concern. Basically, you don’t care about the deaths of cancer patients at all. You’re using their sad bereavements to further your own opinions and goals on COVID-19, and that’s a despicable stance to take, to be honest.
@Greg Daniel:
The article relates to Covid 19 not cancer
@Paul Shepherd: The percentage of deaths to population is .00004%.
@Diaspora’d: The lockdowns were for flattening the curve and not overwhelming hospitals. Once that was accomplished Americans wanted to get back to their jobs and livelihoods. He tweeted in support of those Americans. Livelihoods should not be destroyed with a virus that has over a 98% recovery rate. 150,000 people out of 330 million is .00004%. 40% of the deaths were from nursing home residents in states where the governors ordered covid patients placed back in them AGAINST the guidelines of the task force.
@RMChance55: Actually, the guidelines given by the Whitehouse Taskforce for reopening states were that the number of new cases should be in decline for at least 2 weeks,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia had not even come close to meeting that critical criteria before Trump started his rabble rousing Tweets to his base to rise up and protest.
@Greg Daniel: reading isn’t your forte.
@RMChance55: the order for recovering patients to be placed back into nursing homes has two stipulations 1. They were already living in the nursing home and had no other accommodation 2. They could be isolated properly once there. What’s your alternative?
@RMChance55: LOL, you can’t use the entire population in that calculation, how can you recover from something you never had? LOL
@Greg Daniel: you have a brain, you should use it, why haven’t you done that ?
@Diaspora’d: The two weeks turned into a month and more until the numbers started showing the curve flattening. That’s when the Task Force rolled out it’s phased guidelines for re-opening. It was mid to late May when Texas and Florida took the first steps to re-opening with phase one.
@Dave O’Keeffe: The alternatives were the Javits Center which had been converted to take patients and the Naval medical ship the Comfort which was in New York harbor ready also to take patients. Patients from both New York and New Jersey could have used those facilities. The Army Corp of Engineers built several field hospitals wherever they were needed. There was NO excuse to put covid patients in nursing homes. Like I said 40% of the deaths were from nursing homes. 6,500 died in New York alone. Disgraceful.
@NotMyIreland: You can’t compare death rates if you don’t have a common base to compare from. Countries with larger, more dense populations are obviously going to have more deaths than smaller sparsely populated countries simply because there are more people. To measure the severity you have to compare to the percent of population.
Let Dr Fauci take charge please.
@Seriousnojoke: Dr Fauci has been wrong more than he’s been right. He is also closely associated with WHO, the Wuhan lab in China and Bill Gates.
@RMChance55: how often do you think Trump has been wrong?
Also none of those associations woukd concern me, its better then being associated with a crazy woman that believes in alien dna….. Again trump.
@RMChance55: I hear he is an alien too…
@Barry: Considering he is not an infectious disease expert and had to rely on doctors and scientists giving him figures that proved to be way off, he did fairly well. Fauci originally predicted 2 million people would die. As you can see he’s a quite bit off from the 150,000. Fauci first said we didn’t need masks. Then he said we did. Now he seems to think we need goggles. That’s not going to happen. Dr Fauci is not popular with the American people. Most are not going to listen to him much any more. At this point he should probably invest in a bodyguard. ;)
And as a nation not taking it seriously enough. The disunited states of America. A nation in utter disarray unable to function. Not sure if there ever will be a strong US again and until there is other world players are literally getting away with murder.
@Raymond Dennehy: USA isn’t a nation and not a country either. It is a giant, bullying economic unit. This C-19 won’t change the USA but it might make other nations realise what it is.
@Raymond Dennehy: and their president has been getting away with negligent homocide the last few months.
@Raymond Dennehy: Excellent, pertinent comment.
@sean o’dhubhghaill:
A 2nd world nation with. Gucci belt.
@Raymond Dennehy: Really? Where in the US do you live?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Why do the Irish allow the ‘bullying economic unit’ to do business in Ireland?
@Dave Thomas: Ridiculous
@Kevin: I wonder why there are so many illegal Irish in a 2nd world country. Doesn’t say much for Ireland then does it?
@sean o’dhubhghaill:
The US is a ‘bullying economic unit’? certainly an element of truth to it.
But what, pray tell, do you think the EU or China are. and both of them influence us to a similar extent. As for the US pandemic reaction. their death rate is in the same region as ours. despite all our self righteuosness. they are ~20% higher which is same order of magnitude and can be down to a multitude of factors. for it to be “soaring” higher than ours would need to be 3x or 10x… for statistical significance that order is needed…
“THE DEATH TOLL from coronavirus in the US has reached 150,000 – by the far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.”
Not very honest reporting here, surprise surprise!
Belgium, UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Chile, Peru and France are all ahead of the US on the deaths-per-million tally.
@Daniel Dunne: After the USA comes Brazil, Holland and Ireland.
@Daniel Dunne: There is nothing dishonest about what was reported. They have by far the biggest death toll, just not in deaths per capita, which is a different measurement (with its own flaws).
The US having the highest death toll is just a fact, obviously they have a much larger population but it is a fact nonetheless.
@ihcalaM: …and a leader that was naive enough to think it was just a new hoax hyped up by his political opponents and 15 cases would soon be close to zero. He never perceived it with any empathy as threat to the American people, he only perceived it in terms of how it might affect his chances of winning re-election.
@ihcalaM: That means the US a large country that is an international travel hub was 7th in per capita deaths while Ireland a small island was not too far behind in 10th. Just another way of showing it.
@Diaspora’d: Why do you stay in a country you hate so much?
@RMChance55: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” – Thomas Jefferson.
I’ll make sure I cast my vote against Trump, I live in a State that he just barely won by a few thousand votes in 2016, his “make America great again” thing hasn’t worked so well.
@ihcalaM:
oh my god! you got 77 likes for that. your message basically read “its ok to lie that they have the highest deaths because it supports a much needed narrative that US are really screwing up when it comes to coronavirus”. Total deaths is a ridiculous statistic to quote. ALWAYS. Deaths per 1M population is flawed yes, but at least there is some meaning to it… so dont treat everyone like idiots please, just because the Journal does. they are not.
@Diaspora’d: I wouldn’t be so sure. The riots, the dictator shutdown rules allowing people to go to bowling allies and not church, not being able to have funerals for loved ones while having weeklong funeral extravaganzas for George Floyd and now John Lewis; AOC, Omar and Sanders detailing the dismantling of the US’ core values, economy and institutions along with Dementia Joe have damaged the Democrats. I don’t want to live under a Marxist regime fronted by puppet Joe and I’ll bet most Americans, including moderate democrats and liberals, will agree at the polls.
The world is inverted. Twitter & Facebook are both pushing the vaccine agenda of IT geek Bill Gates who is definitely not a doctor or virologist, while banning or deleting the videos of actual doctors & scientists who challenge him. This is actually happening.
@Ryan1time: “Actual doctors and scientists”, is it? Let’s take the most topical video that has been deleted (which was just hyped up by Trump). It involved a Nigerian doctor who believes vaccines are being developed to make people less religious, that alien DNA has been used in medicine, and that sex with spirits is at fault for gynaecological issues.
She is more preacher than doctor and I don’t think you could possibly disagree that she’s an absolute lunatic.
Are these the actual doctors and scientists you mean? Because these are the types of people Trump is praising to his millions of followers.
@Ryan1time: Conspiracy theorists and liars spreading dangerous misinformation should have their content removed. I’m not a doctor and I support vaccines. I’m not a virologist and I support vaccines. What exactly is your problem with Bill supporting vaccines?
@Ian Breathnach: He wants to chip people through vaccines and supports population control. Do you want Bill Gates deciding when you’ve reached your expired date?
@ihcalaM:
OK . personally im not too pushed about that video. What i am pushed about is the rush to censor it. If she is so full of $hit wont that be obvious? Why the nanny state approach here. Secondly, show me a credible link to verification of asymptomatic transmission of the virus then please? I mean a scientifically credible and verifiable one, proven trials etc. I can show you a link where the WHO say it is “very very rare indeed”. But all I can find in relation to it being transferable is “we cannot prove it isnt transmittable asymptomatically”. That is not a scientifically credible proof. it is nothing!
@ihcalaM:
right. so she is about as credible as your are then. you suggested earlier that “total deaths” is a meaningful statistic. not even dividing by population. just total deaths. so US has 150,000. we have 1800. wow the US have so many more. ha ha!! some scientist you are….
@ihcalaM: She was of one of several doctors that spoke. She has treated 350 patients with covid in Houston and all have survived. That’s relevant and is certainly more than Fauci and Gates can claim.
The 150,000 deaths can be prevented if acted upon quickly and correctly
@George McCarthy: Is that also why people died of covid in Ireland?
@George McCarthy:
we have a similar death rate as them. you saw how hard it was for us to keep it at even that. why do you think it was any easier for them.??
It’s the highest recorded figure, no doubt the Chinese are lying and India I suspect does not have the capability to accurately record the number of cases and deaths, since they really only test in the cities, a lot of their regions are still third world, Russia are definitely telling porkies about their death rate, considering their case to death ratio is considerably uneven compared to the world
The UK has nearly 50k deaths and less then a fifth of their population.
@Munster1: and they’re shockingly bad too. But with tRump and boris in charge what would you expect!
Out of 331 million people, wow what a dangerous plandemic
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