The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 200,000 last Tuesday,
20,000 flags ( one for every 10 lives lost to Covid-19 so far this year) had been planted on the National Mall in remembrance of the more than 200,000 lives lost to the virus. The number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 67 days. It is roughly equal to the population of Salt Lake City or Huntsville, Alabama.
The bleak milestone was reported by Johns Hopkins, based on figures supplied by state health authorities. But the real toll is thought to be much higher, in part because many COVID-19 deaths were probably ascribed to other causes, especially early on, before widespread testing.
The memorial in front of the Washington Monument was put together by a group of friends in the Washington, D.C., area who'd raised money online to commemorate the grim milestone, which the U.S. just reached.
Deaths are running at close to 770 a day on average, and a widely cited model from the University of Washington predicts the U.S. toll will double to 400,000 by the end of the year as schools and colleges reopen and cold weather sets in. A vaccine is unlikely to become widely available until 2021.
Shithole Trump downplayed the threat early on, advanced unfounded notions about the behavior of the virus, promoted unproven or dangerous treatments, complained that too much testing was making the U.S. look bad, and disdained masks, turning face coverings into a political issue.
On April 10, the president predicted the U.S. wouldn’t see 100,000 deaths. That milestone was reached May 27.
Shithole also told reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in Pittsburgh that the United States is now “doing well” and “the stock market is up.”
